My happy place
- the shores of Lake Huron, Southampton, Ontario
Many years ago, when my own children were younger, I offered a study for young parents called “Parenting from a Spiritual Perspective”. The study was based on a wonderful book called “In the midst of chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice.”
It could hear the collective groans when I announced the study … “you mean we have to now add spiritual practice to the busy-ness of our lives?”
But the brilliance of the book was that it articulated that in fact, most parents were already engaged in spiritual practices in their family lives – spiritual practices of storytelling, food preparation and hospitality, gratitude, play, music, and many more.
I learned that the key to spiritual practice is intentionality, and being present to the moment. I can chop carrots for the stew in a hurry and think of all the other things I have to do instead of chopping carrots, or I can chop carrots imagining the people who are going to gather around the bowls of stew, enjoying each other’s company and conversation. The latter is a spiritual practice. The first is just a chore.
When we recognize that much of what we already do can be viewed as spiritual practice, it’s just a matter of state of mind, I think that spiritual practice becomes a bit more manageable.
Author and theologian Lauren Winner grew up as an Orthodox Jew, and then converted to Christianity as an adult. Although still committed to Christianity, she says in her book “mudhouse sabbath, An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline”:
“I miss Jewish ways. I miss the rhythms and routines that drew the sacred down into the everyday. I miss Sabbaths on which I actually rested. I have even found that I miss the drudgery of keeping kosher. I miss the work these practices effected between me and God.”
In her book Winner describes some of the practices that she misses after she converted to Christianity. She says:
“This is a book about those things I miss. It is about Sabbaths and weddings and burials and prayers, rituals Jews and Christians both observe, but also rituals we observe quite differently … It is, to be blunt, about spiritual practices that Jews do better. It is, to be blunter, about Christian practices that would be enriched, that would be thicker and more vibrant, if we took a few lessons from Judaism. It is ultimately about places where Christians have some things to learn.
Jews do these things with more attention and wisdom not because they are more righteous not because God likes them better, but rather because doing, because action, sits at the center of Judaism. Practice is to Judaism what belief is to Christianity. That is not to say that Judaism doesn’t have dogma or doctrine. It is rather to say that for Jews, the essence of the thing is a doing, an action. Your faith might come and go, but your practice ought not waver.”[1]
Winner describes a number of spiritual practices that she thinks might enrich the spiritual journeys of Christians – practices like candle lighting, hospitality, fasting, aging, weddings … there are many more.
A spiritual director once asked me to make a list 20 things that bring me joy. It was at a very busy time in my life and I had a hard time getting to half a dozen. Her point was to make the list and then to be intentional about making time for those moments. In the months since I officially retired I have tried to intentionally think about that question – “what brings me joy”? And of course, it will change over time.
Here are a few for me:
Having tea, coffee or lunch with a friend
Sitting quietly and colouring a mandala
Music
Knitting while watching TV (usually … unless it is a complicated pattern that I have to pay attention to … sometimes there’s not a lot of joy in that!)
Reading … these past months it has been mystery series … Ellie Galloway, Martin Walker, Louise Penny, Rhys Dylan, Ausma Zehanat Khan
Watching episodes of Father Brown or Endeavour – no matter how many times I have seen them before. (I could probably add to this list …)
Listening to a Krista Tippet’s On Being podcast (Home | The On Being Project)
Sitting by water (BIG water like the ocean, or the Great Lakes) and beaches (see picture above)
What brings you joy, and how do you make sure you incorporate those activities into your day or week?
[1] Winner, Lauren; mudhouse sabbath, Paraclette Press; 2007; p.viii-ix