Our Focus on Patience
As we enter the two-month mark of social distancing measures, our patience may be faltering: certainly being stretched. Our usual routines have been uprooted. We are looking for creative ways to find our inner peace. For me, I’m enjoying the outdoors. Sitting on my patio watching the finches and cardinals grace my bird feeders helps me realize that God is in control. When I’m under great stress, immersing myself in nature releases my discomfort into the green of God’s creation. In return, I receive a sense of hope and patience to face “the unknowing.” I’ve even been known to sit on the rock in the middle of APC’s Labyrinth. I imagine the Spirit is the wind flowing around me. I am grounded again.
Centering Prayer group is following the book, "The Cloud of Unknowing.” Isn’t that where we all find ourselves, in a cloud of unknowing? With our small group, we spend twenty minutes together in quiet meditation. We silence our minds, or try to, with the purpose of calming our spirits. As I breathe in, I think of breathing in the Holy Spirit, and I breathe out (patience or healing). I remember Pentecost when the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to guide them. We are not alone. God with us.
I am one who finds it very difficult to just sit and stay home. So, my pandemic vacation is teaching me many lessons on patience including putting aside my “to do” lists, focusing on family, helping others, and listening to what the silence wants to teach me. What blessings have you found?
