Why Am I Doing This Anyway?

"For me, creativity is an act of slowing down. Paying attention. Taking time. 

Never doing in one day what could be spread out over seven, including a day of rest.

 It is no coincidence that this is also how I meet the divine."

--Karen Haring, 

from "Creative Slow Down"

Last week I did not have time to write a blog post. I needed to borrow the limited amount of time I usually set aside for writing to finish reading my book club book, and to begin working on writing a reflection for a church service this coming Sunday. Needless to say, life as we know it did not screech to a grinding halt without my weekly musings. Even my own life plugged along pretty much the same as usual. But the thing is, I missed writing my blog. I actually had to make myself NOT write. I think that means it has become a practice for me. I would even go so far as to call it a spiritual practice.

A couple of years back Ken, a member of the worship committee at my Unitarian Universalist church, shared a reflection during a service, a story from his life with broad truths that most people can connect with. I had always loved Ken's reflections and told him how much I enjoyed this one. He said, reflection writing was a spiritual practice for him. At that moment, one of those cartoon light bulbs flashed over my head. Of course! We all have stories. They don't have to be big and dramatic. We just have to spend time mining them for the truths they hold. Telling our stories is one way we give meaning to our lives. It is one way we touch the sacred. 

So that's what I try to do here. I tell my stories. I write about what I need to write about, things I need to pay attention to, things I'm struggling with, things that bring me joy or sorrow, frustration or acceptance. I hope that my stories hold small truths that other people can connect with. And I hope that as I turn my stories over in my hand, letting the light illuminate them at different angles, a few people just might be inspired to do the same with their own stories. I believe the sacred is in our ordinary, every day lives. But we have to slow down enough to look for it. Writing this blog helps me do that. Knowing that some people are actually reading it inspires me to continue.

I thought I would be OK with missing last week's blog since I had a reflection to start writing. But it turns out the writing of this particular reflection is giving me some grief. I'm writing about joy of all things, so you'd think it would be happy work. But for some reason I'm blocked and struggling with it, wrestling with joy. (What a funny thing to struggle with.) Anyway, It will come. It HAS to come before Sunday. But it has not been a joyful process so far. Wonder what that's all about. Maybe there's a story there...