“How do we see the world as sacred again? By radical noticing. Looking for awe in all of life.”
At a recent clergy group meeting, members shared something about their daily or weekly spiritual practices. One person leads a liturgical service of morning prayer four days a week. One person says the Shema prayer at least three times a day, before every meal. One person goes outside every night, looks at the sky and gives thanks for Creation. One person does some form of embodied prayer- yoga or otherwise- with their spouse at the beginning of the day to clear their minds. One person lights a candle and sits in prayer and teaches a Franciscan “Lectio of Creation” or “reading nature as scripture” which engages the senses, thought, feeling and action. One person shared their tradition’s prayer of confession and forgiveness that they tailor weekly for their congregation. I spoke about the meaning of our chalice and our practice of setting aside times for wonder, awe and gratitude.
For many people, daily practices- no matter how simple- are grounding and soul-saving in these challenging, chaotic times. Such practices interest me. What about you? Are you curious about what others in the congregation do to help keep themselves sane and grounded? Do you have any regular or
semi-regular practices? Did you make them up on your own or adapt them from someone or somewhere else?
When one of you sent me the quotation at the top of this piece, I responded that this is one of my spiritual practices: “radical noticing, looking for awe in all of life.” I wrote that people need to know that Unitarian Universalist religious communities support and reinforce this kind of spiritual practice, not only for themselves but for other people.
Whether or not you have what you’d label “spiritual practices”, I’d love to hear about it. If you’d like to share, send me a line and/or answer the survey for my Doctoral project (which is linked in the Enews.) I think there is just so much we can teach and learn from each other.
Yours, seeking blossoms and grounding in a beautiful but turbulent and hurting world,
Rev. Lee
P.P.S. On Sunday, I referred to the words “I do not do the good I want to do” (from Romans 7). For anyone like me who made an Earth Day resolution to move a bit further along on a journey towards vegetarianism or veganism, I recommend the Netflix documentary about a study of identical twins called “You Are What You Eat.” It is often sobering to learn about food production in our nation and its impact on our health and the climate!