Be Where You Are
the porch: a sporadic email from @aslowjourney for your whole journey
thoughts: on being where you
All of the photos above are from a January in the past five years. For many many years my garden grew in the winter. Now, my garden grows in summer.
I’ve been a student of the cycle of seasons since childhood. Growing up in the northeast of the US has what a lot of people might consider a “normal” seasonality - spring is for planting and greening, summer is for productivity and growth, fall is for harvest and gathering in, and everything slows in winter. Whether or not we’re aware of these rhythms is unique to each person. Culturally and technologically there’s not a necessity to acknowledging the cyclical nature of these rhythms. We’re not farmers and don’t depend on the earth in our back yard for sustenance.
For me, a significant awareness change happened when I moved to the southwest twenty years ago. I didn’t see it at first. But as I settled in and came into my “gardening era” I quickly figured out that the seasons still existed but the quality within them was different. For me (and this is just my own personal experience) growing time moved to the winter and spring as showcased by this cauliflower that I planted in October. The grapefruit tree would be heavy with fruit needing to be picked so it could rest for a moment and blossom again in April. What I came to understand is that neither of these are “native” and that the fruits that are follow a more traditional seasonal cycle.
Maybe it’s just my algorithms, but I’ve been seeing a lot of things about slowing and resting in winter - and it’s just seemed dissonant for me. And if you know me at all you know that I’m a huge fan of living a slow life and resting when you need to and even when you don’t “need” to because sometimes we’re not aware we needed a rest until we’re in it and sometimes that pause can create a surge of new creativity and energy. There’s a LOT of research about living with the seasons and how it affects our bodies and understanding that we can’t ALWAYS be producing. As a continuing learner (disciple) of the Big Book of creation and earth and the lessons it teaches me. So, if this is a season of resting and slowing for you, my hope is that you will embrace it fully to be well rested when your spring arrives.
But maybe it feels like it doesn’t fit. Maybe you’re the heavy well-ripened fruit of the grapefruit tree or a growing cauliflower in January in Phoenix. Or perhaps you’re ready for winter sowing - a method of planting seeds in containers outside so they are exposed to the elements to create a robust plant during growing season. Or maybe you find the ground of your soul hard and ready for plowing. Maybe you find yourself outside of the cycle of the seasons around you. Wherever you are, may you BE there. Notice. Be aware. May you fully embrace wherever you are on the journey.
My question - my invitation to you - is look around your physical location. What’s the season of your external location?
Look inward, what is the season of your soul? Maybe you even find it in transition.
Without judging where you find yourself, be open and accepting to where you are right now. Even if you’ve been there for years. Give gratitude for where you are.
“For our soul sits in God in true rest, and our soul stands in God in sure strength, and our soul is naturally rooted in God in endless love. And therefore if we want to have knowledge of our soul, and communion and discourse with it, we must seek in our Lord God in whom it is enclosed…” Julian of Norwich
spiritual/wholeness practice: lectio divina
If all of that above sounds great, but it’s maybe hard to even notice, I invite you into the practice of lectio divina or sacred reading. What makes it sacred is that you are involved and the Divine is with(in) you. This practice can help us focus and begin to notice what the Spirit within is drawing our attention toward.
The pattern is this:
Read with new eyes and Hear with new ears (if it’s a familiar passage this can be more difficult to let all the things you’ve learned about it go and just be present, but knowing that can be helpful in itself.)
Resonate - read or listen again. notice what words or phrase or imagery stand out to you. Be attentive - make sure it’s not the word you THINK you SHOULD be drawn to. But rather the one that is actually drawing your attention even though it might feel strange or inconsequential. Spend some time wondering about why that particular thing is resonating with your Spirit. Maybe there’s something else that has been going on in your life that connects with it.
Respond - read or listen again. As you read or listen again perhaps it’s the same word or a different phrase or image that resonates or you find you are drawn to. Again spend time wondering and see if there is a question for you that arises. Perhaps there is an invitation into a deeper conversation or prayer. Take as much time as you need.
Rest - as you engage with the reading the last time just rest with the Divine. Give yourself as much time as you need in quiet and prayer before re-engaging with the world around you. Give gratitude for whatever it is that resonated with your soul without judgment.
Here are some possibilities of readings to engage with:
Psalm 46
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
6 The nations are in an uproar; the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice; the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord;
see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations;
I am exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
OR
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” Rainer Maria Rilke(Letters to a Young Poet)
“Bloom where you are planted.” -St Francis De Sales
embodied living: awareness of place
This exercise was originally intended to help ground a person during a stressful time, but I’ve found it’s a great exercise to help just pause and be attentive to wherever I am at the moment.
This way of “being” involves engaging your five senses (sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste) helping you to become more present, reduce anxiety, and improve focus by identifying 5 things you see, 4 things you feel (clothes, the chair you’re sitting in, a breeze etc…), 3 things you hear, 2 things you smell, and 1 thing you taste.