I've been pottering today. It's what I do when I'm really tired and can't concentrate on important tasks. I've had a really hectic spell on the road and arrived back on Sunday afternoon feeling shattered. I don't often reach such a point of emptiness, but I did on Sunday, so I'm grateful for a gentler week ahead of me, and the time to potter.
Someone, for whom English is not their mother tongue, asked me what it means to potter. The dictionary says to potter is to work in a lesiurely manner, to dawdle, to take one's time. I find it really helpful sometimes to spend my time doing 'little things', and to do them slowly. Like tidying my desk, putting my books away, re-organising my rucksack.
Doing things that aren't high priority requires less of an effort, and when we do them at a leisurely pace we find that are souls have time to catch up with our bodies and we can come back to a place of wholeness and integration.
A wise friend once spoke to me about 'holy pottering', and I guess that's what I've been doing today. It feels really good. Why not try it?
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Thursday 12 March 2009
Being Present
One of the effects of modern technology is that people are no longer 'present' where they are.
Take the young person at the bus stop, earpieces in place listening to music and oblivious to what's going on around her. Or the couple out for a stroll in a beauty spot. He is on his mobile phone, talking business to an unseen person miles away, maybe even in another country, whilst his partner is forgotten and ignored, and the beauty around him neither seen nor appreciated. And what about the person having coffee in downtown Singapore, but connected up to the internet and living their life somewhere else, out there in cyberspace. His friend, ignored, reverts to texting to pass the time.
We are in danger of losing one of the great attributes of the spiritual life - the ability to be present to the people, place and circumstances where we are at any one moment, giving them our full attention, and receiving theirs in return. It is the basis of communication, and communion, between people and with God. The sacrament of the present moment. Wherever you are, may you be truly present to those around you.
Take the young person at the bus stop, earpieces in place listening to music and oblivious to what's going on around her. Or the couple out for a stroll in a beauty spot. He is on his mobile phone, talking business to an unseen person miles away, maybe even in another country, whilst his partner is forgotten and ignored, and the beauty around him neither seen nor appreciated. And what about the person having coffee in downtown Singapore, but connected up to the internet and living their life somewhere else, out there in cyberspace. His friend, ignored, reverts to texting to pass the time.
We are in danger of losing one of the great attributes of the spiritual life - the ability to be present to the people, place and circumstances where we are at any one moment, giving them our full attention, and receiving theirs in return. It is the basis of communication, and communion, between people and with God. The sacrament of the present moment. Wherever you are, may you be truly present to those around you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
