If you've been following Thirteen Ways over the past few years, you'll notice that I write about once every two weeks, typically. Every so often, my frequency increases, but believe it or not, it takes me about 1 - 2 hours to write a blog post, so that is a rather cumbersome time commitment when you have work and family life and activities and then you throw in writing on the side.
You also may have noticed that I haven't posted for almost a month now. What a guilt producer for me! I love writing and I love to share my thoughts and connect with other people through writing.
Yet, different times of our life call for different actions. The action that I have decided to take is to put Thirteen Ways on 'recess' - I thought about calling it a hiatus, but when I did a thesaurus search, I saw that recess could work and who doesn't like recess?
Please stay tuned - who knows when I'll be back. Thanks for your support, comments, and connections.
I am in a time of focusing on the tasks at hand, rather than transmitting words of wisdom about lessons learned. Maybe you also are in a time period where you need to just do tasks. We can do tasks (diapering babies, doing dishes, make our long commute to work) in a way that can bring us meaning. That's where I am right now. Words of wisdom? Maybe later! Below I am including a reading I liked from the Spirituality and Practice website I like http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/excerpts.php?id=14018
An Excerpt from The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation by Thomas Merton
In his last published work, Thomas Merton sings the praises of the contemplative life. Here is an excerpt on attention.
"The life of contemplation in action and purity of heart is, then, a
life of great simplicity and inner liberty. One is not seeking anything
special or demanding any particular satisfaction. One is content with
what is. One does what is to be done, and the more concrete it is, the
better. One is not worried about the results of what is done. One is
content to have good motives and not too anxious about making mistakes.
In this way one can swim with the living stream of life and remain at
every moment in contact with God, in the hiddenness and ordinariness of
the present moment with its obvious task.
"At such times, walking down a street, sweeping a floor, washing
dishes, hoeing beans, reading a book, taking a stroll in the woods — all
can be enriched with contemplation and with the obscure sense of the
presence of God. This contemplation is all the more pure in that one
does not 'look' to see if it is there. Such 'walking with God' is one of
the simplest and most secure ways of living a life of prayer, and one
of the safest. It never attracts anybody's attention, least of all the
attention of him who lives it. And he soon learns not to want to see anything special in himself. This is the price of his liberty.
"It has been said above that such people enjoy 'graces akin to
contemplation' because they are never fully conscious of their
'contemplative state.' But it must not be thought that they cannot be
real mystics. Indeed, a genuine mystical life may be lived in these
conditions. The mystical graces given to such souls may be of an active
character, but there is a strong undercurrent of contemplative
intuition. This will remain pure and vital as long as one is careful not
to lose himself in activity, not to become preoccupied with results,
and not to lose his purity of intention. Whether in active or passive
contemplation, purity of heart is always the guardian of contemplative
truth.”
