Embrace the Now

THINK

"Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression, since after all you don't know what work these conditions are doing inside you? Why do you want to persecute yourself with the question of where all this is coming from and where it is going? Since you know, after all, that you are in the midst of transitions and you wished for nothing so much as to change. If there is anything unhealthy in your reactions, just bear in mind that sickness is the means by which an organism frees itself from what is alien; so one must simply help it to be sick, to have its whole sickness and to break out with it, since that is the way it gets better."

—    — Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet)

OH! I’ve wished for nothing so much as to change. And here I am; change upon me and I’m asking God why it’s all moving so fast and why I can’t just settle into the known and the familiar again. It’s time to stop fighting the change and to see it instead as the way to wholeness.

PRAY

Jesus, grant me the grace to see You at work in the midst of trials. Help me to have the perspective necessary to embrace the now, to uncover its joys, and to allow it to have its way with my soul, for Your glory. 

ACT

Take a walk, preferably with someone you love. Notice the beauty in the change of seasons. 

~*~*~

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my morning run.

Strengthen Me, O Lord

THINK

"If only we could be what we hope to be, by the great kindness of our generous God! He asks so little and gives so much, in this life and in the next, to those who love him sincerely. In a spirit of hope and out of love for him, let us then bear and endure all things and give thanks for everything that befalls us, since even reason can often recognise these things as weapons to win salvation. And meanwhile let us commend to God our own souls and the souls of those who, being more ready for it, have reached the place of rest before us although they walked the same road as we do."  Gregory the Nazianzen in today's Office of Readings

PRAY

God, I promise to bear and to endure. Would you please help me to bear and to endure cheerfully? I need strength training, Lord. I want to carry the heavy crosses with a lightness and an ease that comes with knowing that You carry it with me. Strengthen me. Let me run with glad endurance.

ACT

Tackle a tough task today, something you’ve put it off. Do it cheerfully.

~*~*~

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my morning run.

Leave the Rest Up to God

Think

"I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. A faith that just accepts is a child's faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do.

What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe. If you feel you can't believe, you must at least do this: keep an open mind. Keep it open toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it, and leave the rest to God. " ~Flannery O'Connor from The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

Pray

Lord, I believe:
Help my unbelief.  Let my faith grow in its fullness and push away all the doubts in my mind. Let knowing You permeate my every thought. God, please grant me a joyful faith, one that sings with gladness and grants abundant peace to my soul. And when things get tough, make Yourself obvious to me. Hold me closer so that I don't falter. Give me a spirit of humility, always knowing how much I need you and always certain that You will provide according to my genuine necessity. 

Act

Flannery O'Connor's reference to electric blankets got me thinking. It's time to bless our families with blankets on the beds and warm clothing. For most of us, this is the time tackle the seasonal clothing switch. How can you offer warmth to the people you love today? 

~*~*~*~

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my morning run.

Gathering my Thoughts and sighing it all out...

::outside my window

Who knows? I left my little girls with a giant bag of bulbs to plant, so hopefully, there's some fall gardening happening. But outside the window here...

::listening to 

Joel Clarkson.

::clothing myself in 

Jeans, t-shirt, gray hoodie--autumn uniform. I seriously need to work on this whole wardrobe thing. 

::talking with my children about these books

I've fallen into the Rick Riordan rabbit hole. 

:: in my own reading:

I listened to To Be a Runner twice. I really, really love this book. It's not just a running book, not at all. It's life book and one that I think holds a message for all of us. The book is thoughtful, spiritual without being sanctimonious, and inspiring in its own way. The author is Bill O'Reilly's co-author on the Killing... series; clearly, he's a gifted and skillful writer and that really matters to me lately. Good, good read.

::thinking and thinking

My thoughts are all over the place. I'm thinking about Advent. And about sewing. I'm thinking about running. I'm thinking about what's for dinner. I'm thinking about marriage. I'm thinking about having a long talk with a very old friend. Thinking. Always thinking.

::pondering 

I'm still thinking about this book, and about this quote. I know that I write way too often about the perils of fast-moving technology, especially social media. Increasingly, I find that mine is a lonely position. The reality, however, is that, for some of us, it's all too fast. It's all too disconnected. We sit here wonderingly, while the people we love are swept along in the fast-moving tide of constant interaction and constant change. And we know that we will  be left behind. We might be able to maintain our own calm and our own capable, but we will be in that peaceful state mostly by ourselves. 

...between digital technology and rising complexity, there's more information and more requests coming at us faster, and more relentlessly than ever. Unlike computers, however, human beings aren't meant to operate continuously, at high speeds, for long periods of time. Rather, we're designed to move rhythmically between spending and renewing our energy. Our brains wave between high and low electrical frequencies ,  our hearts beat at varying intervals our lungs expand and contract depending on demand. It's not sufficient to be good at inhaling. Indeed, the the more deeply you exhale, the calmer and more capable you become. --from Manage Your Day to Day.

::carefully cultivating rhythm

It's November, y'all! How in the world did that happen? It's time for me to really put some plans on paper and commit to some strategies for moving peacefully through the next couple months. So much going on! Nutcracker and important soccer games, holiday plans, and some running goals to meet. The planner--all on paper--is my friend.

::creating by hand

We've launched a Christmas Pajama Sewalong. Fabric is purchased and ready to cut and Kristin is all set to sew with me. Likely, we'll recruit my friend Nicole, too. And Nicole and I have stacks of Nutcracker costumes to alter. So, sewing is going to happen and happen and happen  in the next three weeks. Pretty pictures bound to be created. Stay tuned for a big edition of needle & thREAD on Friday.

::learning lessons in

How timeless the wisdom of the saints can be. My friend Lisa shared this with me a couple days ago:

““If a tiny spark of God’s love already burns within you, do not expose it to the wind, for it may get blown out… Stay quiet with God. Do not spend your time in useless chatter… Do not give yourself to others so completely that you have nothing left for yourself.” ”

— (St. Charles Borromeo)

::encouraging learning in.

Deadlines. My children prepared trifold poster boards for our parish's All Saints celebration. They each had a saint to research and they prepared images and text for the boards. It was a hard, fast deadline. There was no negotiating due to illness or soccer or time invested campaigning the week before an election. I recognized how rarely we have deadlines that aren't wiggly at all. And I recognized how important it is that they know how to meet those deadlines...

::begging prayers

::keeping house

We've been doing some deep cleaning before the winter chill has us close up the house and huddle close. However, I've been gone for three days, so who knows what my house looks like right now.

::crafting in the kitchen 

I did some bulk cooking before I left and I brought meals with me here. It's really nice to have a weekends to get ahead on weekday cooking. I'm really sorry, however, that my weekend unexpectedly opened up when Stephen unexpectedly lost in overtime in the State Cup semi-final. The "threepeat" was not to be.

::to be fit and happy

I've reached a pretty major goal. I wanted to be able to run a 5K regularly, at least three days a week. I got there a couple weeks ago. Now, I'm trying to extend one of those runs a little longer every week. I'm also making friends with the bike in my closet again. It's looking like a very cold and snowy winter .

::giving thanks 

for Kristin. She's the creative force behind the photo graphics for our new #morningrun feature. Honestly, I could not have imagined this kind of relationship--not just the blogging together, but the doing life together. It's so much richer, so much more than I ever hoped (and I had very high hopes). She's a best friend. She's a big sister, especially to my girl who has never had a big sister. And by golly, she's really great mom. "Daughter-in-love" doesn't even capture it. So grateful. 

::loving the moments

spent inhaling autumn. Good, good runs these days, even with the hills. Especially with the hills.

living the liturgy

I picked up this book again today. It's 33 days before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I'm very fond of that feast and this seems the perfect time for a little bit of a retreat.

::planning for the week ahead

I'm in Charlottesville right now. Paddy has a game tonight. Tomorrow will be all about re-entry. I see a lot of sewing in the next few days and a weekend spent at the studio making last year's costumes fit this year's girls. Truth be told, I have an incredible fondness for tulle so I'm looking forward to it. And, I'm trying super hard to pull together an Advent workshop. The ladies from last spring's Restore Workshop have asked about something late this fall and into the early winter. Trying to see what I can do ...

Light and Life: Gifts

Think

How great is God’s love for men! Some good men have been found pleasing to God because of years of work. What they achieved by working for many hours at a task pleasing to God is freely given to you by Jesus in one short hour. For if you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved and taken up to paradise by him, just as he brought the thief there. Do not doubt that this is possible. After all, he saved the thief on the holy hill of Golgotha because of one hour’s faith; will he not save you too since you have believed? From today ‘s Office of Readings

Pray

Act

We counted 25 burned out lightbulbs in our house. Almost all the recessed lights in the basement were out. A few more were out in the kitchen. And every single light in the ceiling fixtures in the upstairs hallway was burned out. I'm guessing this is rather extreme. Most people probably replace their lightbulbs promptly. Not us. We wait until so many are burned out the the cost of replacing them is over $100 at Costco. But oh, when the lights go on! It's lovely, really. Replace your lightbulbs today. Give thanks for the great gift. And if you are so put together that you have no lightbulbs in need of replacement, light a candle and say a prayer for the rest of us;-).

~*~*~*~

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my #morningrun