Letting Go

For years my life revolved around my family, friends, church and job. In fact, much of the first half of my life involved growing things; growing our family and our church, my competency as a community nurse, and my relationships with extended family and friends.  I also grew in my knowledge and affection for God, demonstrating my love for God by doing service for God. Serving the vision of the church. Serving people.  It was a fruitful season filled with joy and satisfaction. Mostly.

Every now and then I would experience dissatisfaction, a longing for something I couldn’t identify. I would dream of being more.  More what?  I couldn’t answer that. It was easier to identify what I didn’t want than put my finger on the itchy dissatisfaction bumping along below the surface of my consciousness.  

 

 I observed acquaintances and relatives shucking their normal lives and taking the plunge into following their dreams.  I looked in with amazement at their courage and wondered how they managed to get from the dreams in their hearts to living it out.  It looked easy, if a little risky, but the life in their eyes spoke to the adventure they were enjoying. I wondered if I would ever find the courage to step out of my comfort zone and follow my dream.

Six years ago I responded to a nudge from God and left my nursing job, trading it for increased time reading, praying and investing in relationships. I started writing.  About the same time, my husband, the Preacher, started taking his wooden bowls and vases to art shows.  Two years ago I began a training program and became a certified spiritual director and the Preacher’s daughter-in-love opened an Etsy shop for the wood creations. In all this slow journey of creating art with our lives, hands and words, the Preacher and I began to dream of a larger space to grow our art. We found some land and are wading more deeply into realizing our longings.

Following a heart longing is a slow journey involving lots of invitations to let go.  It means hanging onto the desire and letting the tears of impatience and fear flow. To create what is in my heart to do and let the results up to God; to let go of my timing and trust God’s time; to do it for an audience of a few and let go of my desire for esteem. To leave the security of what was my normal life for an adventure with unknown ending. 

We are far enough along in this adventure so that turning back isn’t an option. I have occasional meltdowns in my prayers when the doubts flood my soul. Even if I could get back to what was normal I realize I would be trading the sleepless nights of “What in the world are we doing?” for “”When will I have the courage to embrace the invitation stirring in my soul?” Both questions are disquieting.

Letting go of what is sure and safe is not easy. When I quiet myself and breathe, I connect with the spark of our dreams and experience Trinity’s assurance that all will be well.  I sense a whisper to trust the Hand that is holding us and keep walking, keep dreaming, keep creating. 

Dreaming Big, Starting Small

 

Our daughter has a saying about curtailing overeating that goes something like this, "There will always be a last bite, so I decide my last bite will be within healthy eating boundaries."  Stopping something enjoyable or habitual is one kind of hard.

There is another kind of hard that has to do with starting.  Beginning.  Made harder perhaps by my love of quick and instant.  My desires seem unattainable or take too long to realize.

The days, months, or years between making changes and getting the results I want seem dull and long and hard.  And perhaps the result of my work will not be as I imagined. 

So I stay where I am. Where it is safe. And a month from now, a year from now, I will be exactly where I've been.  Longing. Dreaming. Wondering. 

When I was training for a marathon five years ago, I remember how my sweat sisters and I celebrated shaving seconds... yes, seconds... off our time.  We celebrated tiny indicators of growth in speed and endurance.  We did the daily, mundane work of training and our bodies strengthened.  Twenty weeks later we finished a marathon! 

I have begun another adventure following a nudge from God.  The invitation wasn't written in big, bold letters. It feels risky to me.  I am releasing comfortable rhythms of work and life.  I am changing up familiar routines of  prayer in my relationship with God, exploring new-to-me spiritual practices in relating to God.  These practices involve listening and being with Him.  I'm back in a formal learning environment, taking classes in spiritual direction.  I'm a fifty-something wrestling with technology to do it.  I feel awkward.  Clumsy.  Vulnerable.  I wonder what in the world I am doing?

I celebrate small successes.  Things like successfully uploading assignments to Box, an internet site used by our facilitators to gather our homework;  the joy of reading words that show me this journey I'm on is one taken by many before me.  I notice my growth.  I listen better to my people.  I am more aware of my impact on others.  It's slow going, this trail I am on.  And if I hadn't started I'd still be where I was. 

 

I remember the brush tangled creek bank on our property twenty years ago.  I had a paper bag full of daffodil bulbs from my grandfather.  On a hot August Saturday, my husband and I cleared the bank and using a digging iron, made holes for the bulbs, dropped them in the rich soil and waited.  Summer.  Autumn. Winter.  Spring.   Science can explain the biology of daffodils.  We simply placed the bulbs in an environment for growing and trusted the process of growing things. And in the Spring, we had a glorious bank of sunny blooms!  Bountiful beauty!  They reproduce themselves and multiply!  It's called naturalizing.....it happens naturally.

And so I step out in hope of realizing a longing of my own.  I plant myself in an environment for growth.  I trust the Gardener, my beautiful, dangerous, tender God.  And we will see what He does with my seed of faith.  It is risky business, stepping into realizing dreams.  It is also exhilarating, opening an expanse of grace that is refreshingly freeing.

What nudge are you experiencing?  What small beginning are you being invited to?

For those of you interested in what I am up to, in September I began a two year certification process to become a spiritual director.  I quit my nursing job in December of 2011 after months of processing a prompting I sensed from God.  Not sure where I was going next I focused on taking care of our pastor (my husband), homemaking, being intentional about relationships, and growing in intimacy with God.  I started this blog and have been writing in fits and sputters.  In February of 2015 I learned of this training being offered at Kavannah House by Sustainable Faith.  After praying about it with my husband, my spiritual director and a dear friend, I applied and was accepted to the program.  The journey has been rich and scary.  Some weeks I feel as though I am drinking from a fire-hose, the learning coming at me crazy fast.  Other times I am overwhelmed with my own inadequacies.  Mostly I have a sense of being in a wilderness, somewhere between where I was and not sure where I'm headed, in an exhilaratingly liberating way.  It is as mysterious as that last sentence! 

 

I've been invited to contribute to the Kavannah House blog and I am grateful for the opportunity and the vote of confidence in my writing skills.  It will provide some accountability for this procrastinator.  God is working on redeeming my perfectionistic, controlling tendencies.  I am hopeful that as I worry less about getting it "right", whatever "it" happens to be, procrastination will be less a problem for me. 

Thank you for taking time to stop by and check in with me.  I hope I am an encouragement to you to step into all the color God has for your life!

Learning Contentment

Something has begun to change in me as I have started thinking about my days in terms of what I could record in story form in this blog. There has been a shift in my viewfinder as I've lingered in thoughts and savored my "world", trying to articulate what matters to me.  I am experiencing a deeper contentment with my life.  But definitely not complacency as I have been stirred to imagine growing in many ways.  It didn't take long for me to notice this change as I've only published a handful of posts.  But my experience validated what a continuing education course I took in 2013 taught.  The Word of God also confirms what I've experienced.

For the past two years Kevin and I have dreamed about moving to another home with potential to realize some of our longings.  Kevin longs for a larger workshop for his woodturning, furniture making hobby.

  A property with room to stack his wood collection but not too big that he would have more yard care or maintenance.  That would take away from his hobby time.  He would enjoy an old farmhouse that he could build kitchen cabinets, add artistic wood trim, and reveal the natural beauty of wood to his hearts content throughout the place.  A house like that would be his artist's "canvas".  As for me, I think a fireplace would be the cat's meow for creating a cozy home with a huge gathering room for people plus a space for potential in-law quarters as needed. And trees.  A woodland would create the right environment for this girl. All of these dreams have had us looking at real estate advertisements, going for Sunday afternoon drives, imagining how we could finance our visions for the future.  Arranging and rearranging the possibilities.  We tried not to be discontent with our home but "The Dream" had us restless.   On our sabbatical last summer one take-away for me was to begin writing.  A dream of mine not dependent on fireplaces or woodlands.

I began spending time keeping company with Jesus, being still and meditating on Him and a section of the scriptures.  While the weather was warm and sunny I often sat outside.  I embraced slowing down, not hurrying thorough my days.  I tried to be mindful of moments, really seeing my surroundings, enjoying my health, family, friends and home.  I started to savor the view out my car window as I motored about going here and there. When I ran, I looked about with an eye as to what picture would capture my feeling that day.  My life began to unfold in my eyes like a story.  Our spiritual directors at Potters Inn would tell us that our life stories are sacred.  As they sat with us and asked us about our stories, actively listening, we sensed in a fresh way our belovedness to God.  Experiencing those moments of being heard confirmed in our hearts the importance of being with people and listening to their stories with empathetic hearts.  Sometimes that is enough for someone to take courage and go at life again.  Their pain (or confusion or joy or sadness or disappointment or hopes or dreams) was validated in the eyes of the engaged listener and it tells them they matter, they have been seen.

In my own fresh practice of savoring my life with appreciation and the lens of my little canon camera or smartphone something began to shift.  My satisfaction with my home grew.  Instead of being frustrated with my home's limitations I could appreciate what it offered us, warmth and sanctuary.

 Instead of longing for a rustic house in a big woods I notice how precious my view out the back of our house is to me, the creek that meanders through the fields and trees and sparkles in the sunlight.  This creek has provided hours of fun for our children; fishing, swimming, rearranging rocks, hunting crayfish.

 

  The Muddy Creek has been my friend for the past twenty years.  The sounds of water rippling over the rocks comes through our open bedroom windows during the summer, sending me off to dreamland.   I noticed how often I now thanked God for our third of an acre of paradise, grateful that He planted us here and ashamed that I had valued the gift so little. Writing and illustrating (in a limited way) what is happening in my life these days has released in my soul an deeper love for my Jesus, my family and friends, my church, my home....my life.  It is an extravagant gift. This abundant life I live has less to do with my possessions and more to do with my perspective.  Let me assure you that this continues to be a journey for me because I do appreciate possessions and comfort.

I remember what I learned at a conference in 2013 on Developing Positive Emotional Habits, sponsored by the Institute for Brain Potential and presented by Brian E. King, Ph.D. One of the emotional habits of happy people, he says, is reflecting on joy filled states of being, such as in making photo albums or scrapbooks or reminiscing with friends and family.  Dr. King stated that "When you tell a story about your life, it encourages you to live a better story."  As I understand this,  it is not that you are creating a fake person in how you present to the world, masks and all, but instead it is way of being in which you "strive to create positive hopes and expectations."  His words not mine in those quotation marks.  One of the interventions taught at this seminar is developing the habit of savoring.  It is the practice of looking about and noting the things you take for granted, being mindful of the good feelings these produce and thoroughly enjoying them.  Dr. King writes, " Happiness does not lie in the things themselves but in the relish we have of them." My experience in writing this blog gives witness to the change in my heart as I have become more focused on my present circumstances instead of living in longing for some future ideal.

I've been soaking in the gospel of Luke the past month and these words of Jesus have been reverberating in my soul.  I read from my beloved NIV then often reread the same words from The Message.

These are a smattering of phrases from Luke 12:22-32 that call us to savor what matters, to be fully present in our lives, in the paraphrased words of  The Message,

"Look at the ravens, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, carefree in the care of God.  And you count far more......Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers.  They don't fuss with their appearance-but have you ever seen color and design quite like it?......What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving....Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your human concerns met.  Don't be afraid of missing out.  You're my dearest friends!"

I am enjoying contentment deep in my soul....most days.  It is a journey I am on, this being present and responsive to God's daily gifts to me.  It is a satisfying place to live.

"Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need."

                        Sarah Ban Breathnack