Category: Meditations

“Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.”
—John Updike

What kind of weather feels to you like grace?

My cup runneth over with joy, says the 23rd psalm. Sometimes our cups are overflowing with joy, but sometimes it is work, or sorrow, or anxiety or excitement that feels like it will burst the bonds of our hearts. Perhaps that overflowing is why our hearts never do actually break.

What feels like it is spilling over in the cup of your life?

Contrary to what we often assume, the earth is not solid under our feet. Sand dunes shift with the wind, soil moves with water, and the great tectonic plates of our planet drift slowly under us. So it is inevitable that cracks will develop—all at once in the great shift of an earthquake, or so slowly that the drift is imperceptible until we turn and notice a gap in our understanding of the world.

Where do you see shift happening in your life?

“…I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief… For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
—Wendell Berry

Where do you go to “come into the peace of wild things”?

There are so many ways that we are called to be active, to make change, to attend to the needs of the world. But sometimes the most important thing you can do is just sit still and observe.

What have you learned from just watching?