Rev. Lori on Slowing Down & Being Present
This reflection was originally published on this date in the Friday Flyer.
Happy Friday Good People,
I came across this quote while preparing for the Worship Ministry retreat. It honestly reminded me of the theme of church time and summer time as nature’s church time. We reflected together on it during our retreat and it was really amazing to hear what others heard from the text. It exanded my experience of it and it also deepened my thinking about pause time, or slowing time, or being in the present.
I want to invite you to reflect on it as well using the style of lectio divina. I invite you to read this in your mind. Then pause and breathe silently for a few deep breaths. Next, read it out loud. Notice what word/words stand out for you. What does that word or words say to you in this given moment in time? Take a few moments with that word or words. Say it out loud or in your mind while you breath. Take it with you today and into this next week and continue to ask it what it has to teach you.
When I am among the trees
by Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say, “and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”
And may it be so!
Rev Lori Whittemore
(she, her, hers)
Unitarian Universalist Church of Saco Biddeford