Words are Alive…
“While thoughts exist, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living.” ― Cyril Connolly
Last week in Quiet Pause, Leslie Wagner shared a poem, The Most Important Thing by Julia Fehrenbacher, that we pondered during our 20 minutes of silence.
Afterwards, two participants said they “weren’t done with this poem.” They were going to spend more time with its wisdom.
Like contemplating beloved sacred texts through the practice of Lectio divina, these two women were articulating how alive words can be when we truly attend to them. Not with a cursory reading, but with reverence.
Of course not everything we read is worthy of this kind of attention, but when something captures your imagination or resonates deeply within you, it’s time to pause and pay attention.
“Lectio is traditionally applied to Scripture but can also be engaged to pray with other sacred texts, such as our life experience. Lectio divina offers us a widened capacity for awareness that God dwells in each moment.” –Christine Valters Paintner, Give Me a Word
What sacred text, poem, or quote has captured your attention this summer? What wisdom are you called to sit with awhile? In addition to taking time to play and rest, you’re invited to let sacred words come alive to work their divine magic upon you as well.
May you be blessed to spend time with words that inspire, comfort, and transform you.
“We have to learn to hear on every level at once if we are really to become whole. The problem is that most of us are deaf in at least one ear. We have to learn to listen to Scripture. And we have to learn to listen to life around us.” ―Joan Chittister
The Most Important Thing
I am making a home inside myself. A shelter
of kindness where everything
is forgiven, everything allowed—a quiet patch
of sunlight to stretch out without hurry,
where all that has been banished
and buried is welcomed, spoken, listened to—released.
A fiercely friendly place I can claim as my very own.
I am throwing arms open
to the whole of myself—especially the fearful,
fault-finding, falling apart, unfinished parts, knowing
every seed and weed, every drop
of rain, has made the soil richer.
I will light a candle, pour a hot cup of tea, gather
around the warmth of my own blazing fire. I will howl
if I want to, knowing this flame can burn through
any perceived problem, any prescribed perfectionism,
any lying limitation, every heavy thing.
I am making a home inside myself
where grace blooms in grand and glorious
abundance, a shelter of kindness that grows
all the truest things.
I whisper hallelujah to the friendly
sky. Watch now as I burst into blossom.
