… watching for the brushstrokes of God
Whether we learn a skill, begin a task or embark on a journey, the temptation is to rush ahead toward the goal or product. Yet the key usually lies in taking care of the tedious preparation which makes everything else flow.
When and where do you rush through the preparation?
A change of pace, a new experience or foreign culture reorients us and can help refocus when we have been caught up in our own little world.
What interrupts or disrupts your life enough that the weight of the world is lifted off your shoulders and God meets you in new or unexpected ways?
“It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.” ~ C.S.Lewis
How do you come in out of the wind?
“Try to put well into practice what you already know; and in so doing, you will, in good time, discover the hidden things which you now inquire about. Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know.” ~ Rembrandt Van Rijn
What are you practicing to discover what you don’t know?
It takes practices to notice the strength of light and shadow that gives things their form and shape, to pay attention so you can touch the mystery that is being revealed in everyday life.
How do you pay attention to the quality of light and shadow?
“When we celebrate the Sabbath we adore precisely something we do not see. … To name it queen, to call it bride is merely to allude to the fact that it’s spirit is a reality we meet rather than an empty span of time which we choose to set aside for comfort or recuperation.” ~ Abraham Heschel
How do we shift from setting aside to meeting?
With the Eyes of the Heart 