UNHURRYING REFLECTIONS

Photo by Jo Heubeck & Domi Pfenninger on Unsplash

 UNHURRYING STATION

REFLECTION QUESTIONS 

2nd Half Collaborative

Background: Every month, we are at a different "Station" in our journey:

SEP ST 2: UNHURRYING

OCT ST 3: NOTICING

NOV ST 4: IMMUNITY TO CHANGE 

JAN ST 5: AUTHENTIC SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY

FEB ST 6: SEASONS OF LIFE/GRIEVING LOSSES

MAR ST 7: CONTEMPLATION, COMMUNITY, MISSION INTEGRATION

APR ST 8: COLLABORATION

MAY ST 9: DISCERNING LIFE CONTRIBUTIONS

JUN ST 10: DEVELOPING A RULE OF LIFE

Each month has a four week cycle:

1 - Learn

2 - Practice

3 - Reflect

4 - Share 

• What did you notice about yourself as you engaged an unhurrying/slowing practice last week?

LOVED IT. I laugh because I think I have really slowed down, but I did errands with George, looking for things for a welcome basket for a new refugee family that has arrived, and George laughed. I am thinking I am just going along and patient - we went to seven stores looking for a wall clock! Once we found one (at the store CLOSEST to our house - LOL), we were walking out of the store, and George started laughing. Internally, I was patient and slow, but he said, "It is always more lively when you come along. You are so QUICK to make a decision about things. He loves to take his time with everything.  From my perspective I was slow, but his clock is very different from mine, and I am thankful. 

• What insights emerged?

I love to slow down. I love to unhurry. Usually, in the 2HC, we do this unit in August. That is the slowest of all my months. So, it is easy then. Most of my directees are on vacation. September is never "SLOW"! So it was good to be slow in the midst of all that I had going on. 

I had a very full month, but I felt really good about slowing down. I think we hurry because we are fearful. I wasn't fearful or anxious about anything. I gave a two-hour talk to spiritual directors and trainers of directors, and they told me 9 a.m., but the person who took over put the time at an hour earlier! I just happened to look at the "Madrid" time and asked Siri what time it was, and I was 7 minutes late for a talk I was giving! I was still in my pajamas, but I didn't panic. I wasn't fearful. I did the whole Zoom presentation in my pajamas. I don't even think I brushed my hair beforehand. I just did it, and I wasn't afraid or hurried. I really enjoyed it. 

Preparing for that thing took over 100 hours, and I really didn't start it until after the 2HC retreat because I wanted to be fully prepared. I had a grumpy attitude about doing it at first. After I confessed, I went about it with slow joy. 

I also made sure I PAUSED in the midst of all my activities for Centering Prayer. When I committed to that, the time at work was so much easier. I took lots of walks and the kayaking with the SLOW FISHERMAN was delightful. I saw multicolored rocks in the water and BALD EAGLES on the shore! I had to stop a lot to wait for them. The stretch of river we took usually takes me 2 hours in a kayak, and it took 4!

I think I don't hurry as much because most of what I do is in line with my destiny and my cardboard sign: which I had hanging up on my wall. Along with the blessings given to me at the last 2HC retreat. One I really honed in on was from David, and he saw me as a CATALYTIC BUILDER of communities. So, everything I do is in line with that deepest desire and destiny God has given me. 

"Simplify your life over what really matters" John Mark Comer

If I am walking in my destiny, there is confidence, and lack of hurry, and indifference to people's approval. 

I am so much more indifferent to things than I ever have been. 

"Comparison just eats away at our joy." 

My family were high-achievers, but my dad never hurried. I never saw him stressed. He did everything with such joy. He had rhythms of rest. 

• What encounters with God and others did a slower pace facilitate?

I could be fully present to others. 

Group - We have had two times where we started in Silent/Centering Prayer. WOW! God has opened that door miraculously. 

Tea with Dee was so fun!!

• How was the quality of those encounters impacted?

Sitting in the Hellesto's backyard was so lovely. A joyful memory of the last month. Soul to soul time. 

Good encounters at the wedding of one of our workers. Stopping to celebrate well. 

• What practice of “unhurrying” might the Spirit be inviting you to try out this week? (It is not a 2HC “assignment” to engage another practice, just something to consider between you and the Lord.)

Continuing in Centering Prayer. Committed to it even when I cannot make it to the group. 

• In what ways has hurry influenced your life to date? How has it impacted you, your experience of life, and your connection with God and others?

I used to hurry all the time. Meditating on Romans 8 this morning reminded me of this. I read something I wrote several years ago about that time just this morning too. Scroll down to REFLECTION in the post. 

• What invitation to slowing/unhurrying do you detect? What would need to change in your life rhythms to say yes to that invitation? What threatens to prevent you from saying yes?

Saying NO to the GOOD things in order to say YES to the BEST things. 

• Recall Dallas Willard’s response to the question, “What do I need to do to become the me I want to be?” 

He said, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. There is nothing else. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day.” 

What area of your life might not give in to unhurrying without the application of some holy ruthlessness?

Exercises for Everyone - The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

I have finally done it! Ever since I went through my training in leading others through the Spiritual Exercises and writing a manual to go with it, I have wanted to have daily guided meditations/contemplations each day, and I have always thought I needed fancy production. I started three new people this last week. (I like to do it with 2-4 people every time. I am not into mass production here.)  The last two times I led people through them, I did not go through them myself, but I decided to do it this year, and I am recording it as I do it, :) Not fancy, just fun. But, if you know me, that is how I like things. 

So here is the whole playlist in progress: 

Exercises for Everyone

I am going to see if I can embed it here:

Enjoy!

Put a comment here, and I can send you the manual if you want it. 

Saturday Freewrite - Home and Cross-Cultural Spiritual Direction

Home

It was a cool ocean breeze

Wafting through a sunny day. 

Mayberry by the Sea. 

That was what El Segundo was to me. 

Bikinis in the sand

Coppertone and cocoa butter

Melting on my skin

And the sound of the waves 

Crashing over and over 

Onto slightly slanted 

Hard sand.

The sound of the

Top 100 

Playing on a transistor

Strategically placed on a 

Big beach towel

Body surfing

Bottoms coming off with the crash

Boys circling

Girls grouped together

Giggling on a lazy summer day

The sun begins to go down

And we gather all our things

And make the hike up

To the bus stop on PCH

Looking at our brown skin

Baked to 70s standard perfection

Well, that was fun. Home. 

I am giving a talk on "Cross-Cultural Spiritual Direction" on Tuesday, and this is my opening picture. To talk about our first culture. I had such a great childhood culture. Mom had her difficulties, but, for the most part, I had a good life. Living there was so lovely. This was magnified by El Segundo winning the Little League World Series and communicating with so many of my childhood friends and alumni from my high school. We had a rich heritage that continues to today. Blessed.  

So, back to the Cross-Cultural Spiritual Direction talk. On the same day, I had two separate Examens with two directees starting the Exercises this week. When it came to my desolations, on both occasions, it was preparing for this talk, and I had to confess my bad attitude toward it. 

Well, Mike H. used to always tell me that with every desolation, consolation is right around the corner, and confessing that really broke things for me, and Thursday and Friday were both a joy. I woke up Thursday with the visual of the picture above and talking about my first cross-cultural experience was becoming a believer and stepping into a church! It was a foreign place to me. 

Somehow, that propelled me forward in so many ways. It also helped to be intentional about Centering Prayer on Thursday. Once was easy because I was leading a group, the other time was when I started my day out on the deck. I do believe the "Twice for Transformation" quote about Centering Prayer is so true. Actually, now that I think of it, I was able to do it three times, because we got together as a group, and I asked if we could start out with Centering Prayer. So we had a little seven-minute sit. Two people fell asleep during it, but that is OK! :) It helps that one of the participants in that group is part of my talk. :) It was so encouraging to see her growth and freedom. 

So, I finished at 3:15 yesterday. I felt so free. This talk has been percolating in my head ever since we set the date at least four months ago. I just had so much in between then and now. I really couldn't get to it until after I returned from Chicago, and with that, I had quite a few directees to meet with.

So, now I have a free Saturday. I might run through the talk a couple of times, but I also might do other things. I think I am pretty ready for it. 

God, you are good and you are home. 

All that to say, I finished and am free. I just have to give it on Tuesday morning. 

Friday Freewrite - The Road Less Traveled

So Glad the Road Led Me to St. Mary's of the Lake and 2HC Retreat

I am in a good place. The summer was so wonderful. Other than a little hiccup with a friend (that friend had no idea what their actions were doing to me internally, and I didn't see the need to bring it up because it was something I needed to work through, and I managed to work it through in an Immanuel Journaling Session with the Lord - so that desolation turned into a consolation of big proportion), I have such lovely memories of my summer: the LifeWorks Class and small group, time with our community group, my friend coming to "surrender to the lover of her soul," fulfilling time with Deepen III spiritual directors, lovely times with directees, deep deck talks with others, family time, especially in the North Cascades, fun finish of the Corvallis to Sea trail and all my photos. And the Chicago Cherry on top with the 2nd Half Collaborative and the lovely face-to-face cohort and team I worked with. I came back to rich times with all my directees. I have such a good group of soul friends to explore deeper rhythms of grace with. Oh and the OMS times of prayer this week. The new group of leaders that I adore. Fishing with John and Josh (my God-Children) and Katherine and also kayaking on the Willamette with George and his coworker. 

I love everything that I am doing. I love the gift of grace I have been extended every day. Life is a gift. I am so grateful. 

So, I had this interaction with someone yesterday that was counter to the flow of relationships that I have had. There was a weirdness that was unsettling. SO counter to the conversation I had with someone just an hour before - encouraging and edifying.

It leads me to pray for that person and not to be so sad about feeling a cold shoulder. In my Immanuel Journaling, I sensed that it was not about me, and I was able to let it go, but I am glad I chose another road.

There are always pockets of even Christian culture that are still difficult for me to enter into. This is one I could have walked into three years ago, but a retreat I went on with them was so weird. So unsettling. I had that same feeling again yesterday.

I decided to take another road, the "road less traveled" - it was entry into the OMS a month later and the lovely people I have been involved with because of that. (And Deepen and Renovare Book Club and 2HC and Authentic Spiritual "Seed Community" and the whole LifeModel Works way).  This person still is in that other culture, and I think my sense was right. I trust my discernment on that one. I pray for an activation of JOY in that person's heart. 

I am 34 seconds to go, and it was good to get that out. 

The Road Not Taken 

BY ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.