Yesterday morning at church Bob brought a message about how in everyone’s life are places that we sometimes put aside without realizing how important it is to us. What is more, this place we’ve cast aside is a way we talk to God. Without this piece of our hearts, we miss some of the relationship with God that we so value. He urged us to go and reclaim those places, to remember who we are.
There are several places in my own life I’ve left aside. I don’t write much poetry, the language of my soul, I don’t often see my seminary friends with whom I share a language and a deep experience, and I haven’t spent much mystic time with God. No wonder I haven’t felt close to him in recent months. I had actually been thinking about this very thing when Bob spoke up and then last night at small group, the same idea was brought up by one of the other women that we share intense experiences with people, experiences others can’t fully understand or appreciate and that we need to acknowledge these places within ourselves and share them with those who do understand. Everyone has these places and it is perfectly natural for us to have them. The important thing is to keep nurturing them.
This is something I have been working on in my own life and it feels good. The piece I wrote for the book project was a very mystical one, it was like hearing the heartbeat of my relationship with God once again, like opening a door to a much beloved room. We need to grow and change but we cannot forget who we are and where we’ve been. Who we’ve been is a part of us and those places need to be treasured as we live our lives and decide where to go.
365-09 #235