A+ha.

Slowing Down.

(you never know what you're going to find when you slow down enough to be present...)

Walking the dog through the cemetery in the morning is more than exercise. It's a spiritual practice. On these early morning strolls I become more fully aware that: 1). we all come from the dirt and are headed there again, 2). stopping to eat grass is good for the soul (the dog eats the grass. I watch.) It's in the slowing down to eat the grass that I find myself more and more grateful for these days above the ground and those that I share this life with.

Spring cleaning.

Raking. Raking. Raking. Raking. I am amazed at how many leaves there are in my little yard. Just when I think I'm done raking...there are more leaves to rake and bag and haul to the curb.

Same thing with my house. After purging and pitching a dumpster's worth of items out of the basement last fall, I thought I was done. Ha. There are still closets and drawers and cubby holes that are begging to be de-cluttered, cleaned out, sorted through. Even the basement needs some more attention already.

Today I was in the middle of emptying out a desk when it struck me that all of this cleaning out is symbolic of a healthy spiritual life. You don't just "get faith" once and you're done. There's always more to discover, more to uncover, more clearing out to do, more stuff to haul to the curb. That's pretty much the only way I know of to make space for God to enter in and do God's thing: sit, listen, pray, clean, let go. Over and over and over again. It feels good...

Through the looking glass.

 

I love Gillian Welch's voice. And David Rawlings is insanely talented on the guitar.

And their cover of Jefferson Airplane's "Go Ask Alice" rocks on. So I thought I'd share. Happy Thursday.