The Gifts

Start your day slowly, quietly and with intent. Throughout the day, listen to your own voice, seek wisdom outside when thoughts constrict rather than expand your view. Poetry, music and art are balms to the soul, a lift to the spirit.

For the past six months, the most fruitful ritual that has become a nonnegotiable is the Insight Timer app. It is the best tool to guide me into quiet, contemplation and exploration. It has changed the quality of my days, especially as we move through one year of “pandemic living.”

Amy Bost Henegar has 4-6 minute prayers that are uplifting and grounding at the same time. In the one I chose today, she referenced a poem by Ann Weems that is worth sharing as we move closer to the other side of pandemic living into whatever may come next.

We are in transformational times, struggling in the dark cocoon and preparing for the promise of the butterfly, which never fails. Resilience, optimism and hope are the fuel to move through all difficulties in life. The pandemic wasn’t the first nor will it be the last chronic and comprehensive struggle we will experience. Misery, consternation and fear do not make transformational times pass more quickly, rather they only serve to steal our joy that’s available despite circumstances, other people and even a pandemic. Dare to find awe and open the gifts in both ordinary and extraordinary days.

The Gifts of the Magi, Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem

“O Lord, I’d like to go to the stable this night!
I’d run – even through the dark
To lay my gifts at your feet!
Lord, why couldn’t I have been there?
I needn’t have been a king – perhaps just a shepherd child
Or someone sent from the inn – To check on the progress of the birth…
Or are you waiting this night in other stables
For me – to bring my gift?
Are you waiting for me to run
Even through the dark and cold of the night?