Journal Entry March 23, 2007
I went for a long run this morning, instead of basketball practice. I’m enjoying basketball practice (every morning from 7 to 8am), but I also need to include a long, meditative run, for me.
While running I had this thought, which seems so simple, and yet so profound at the same time. “If you want to be a runner, than you have to spend time running.”
And then more thoughts and examples came flooding in.
“If you want to know your neighbors, then you have to spend time with them.”
“If you want to build community, then you have to spend time in the community.”
“If you want to know God, then you have to spend time in prayer, with God.”
“If you want to speak Spanish, then you have to spend time speaking Spanish.”
“If you want to be a peacemaker, then you have to spend time making peace.”
“If you want to be a basketball player, then you have to spend time playing basketball.”
And all this connects to a sermon by one of our Pastor Megan’s friends that I listened to on our computer yesterday while I was folding laundry. She talked about living in the moment – living deeply with ourselves and who we really are…. with each other and with our community. Not only thinking about what we want to do, but actually doing it AND being fully present whiled doing and being with God as the center of it all. Amen.
posted by familia dyrst @ 2:50 PM
2 Comments:
Liz, I think I mentioned in a recent email that I am going to send you a copy of a book by Bonnie Miller-Mclemore called "In the Midst of Chaos." She reflects on the connections between raising children and deepening faith. One of her themes is that faith is expressed (and we encounter God) as we live out the choices that we make - even the mundane choices like cotton diapers or where we buy our food or what we do as a family. In a recent interview, I was asked to talk about my commitment to social justice. I was embarassed to find that I had trouble answering the question on that particular day, because I could not think of a rally in which I had participated recently (and I was tired!). In reflecting back on the conversation, I realized that my deepest expressions of a commitment to social justice are in those "smaller", everyday acts and choices. The rallies are important, too. But what I try to do is make the connections between the issues raised at those rallies and our lives - to express that we are not isolated from the people and places raised up in public actions. Rather, we are part of God's web of creation, affecting and being affected by others - for worse and for better. So I look for ways to practice being a part of that web - listening, learning, participating, responding, making daily choices, interpretting for our family...practice: like you practice a sport or practice prayer. Yes. So thanks for sharing your morning reflection! Peace.
Liz, very brilliant observation. Spending time engaged with our values is so huge, and so easily forgotten. I always find myself looking for other paths, when really what I need to do is just focus on taking another step on the path I'm on (could this be procrastination?).
Maybe you remember the meditation course I went to a few years ago--they said that the brilliance of Buddah was his ability to reduce the difficult issues in life to a basic attentiveness--and that the method of cultivating this discipline, which could then be broadly applied, was to SPEND TIME paying attention to the most basic of sensations, and becoming aware of their passing nature. Spending time observing the impermanent nature of all things gives us a platform to approach people an issues in non-reactionary ways, but with compassion, and a readiness to listen.
You are such an inspiration sis!
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