Do you remember elementary school? I do. I especially loved recess, that unstructured time on the playground with peers, screaming and yelling and running and laughing. When the bell signaling the end of recess rang, we kids had to “freeze” and hold position until the ringing of the second bell, after which we could “unfreeze” and line up outside the classroom doors to await the teacher’s invitation back into the classroom.
Fifty years later, I realize that something important was happening back then during “freeze” time. It was as though the bell was calling me to pay attention. I was on a High Alert of sorts – awaiting the second bell’s call to freedom.
Nowadays, I long for that bell to ring.
PAYING ATTENTION
Irish poet, author, priest, and Hegelian philosopher John O'Donohue believed that there is beauty in the hunger for spiritual awakening. “But sometimes, the intensity with which we seek it means we'll never find it.” He believed the soul was never intended to be understood completely. “The soul never offers itself completely to the mind,” he wrote, “It's more at home in a light that has a hospitality to shadow.”
Sometimes one needs to “freeze” and be on high alert.
Is it possible that my modern world, neon-light approach to spirituality can keep me at a distance from the world of my soul (which is depth and density)? If I were to tattle on myself, sometimes I look at my spirituality with a spotlight, with lights that are neon, fluorescent, and LED. That’s a very bright searching! But maybe spiritual awakening is less looking with lasers and more looking with candlelight. “Slow down enough to experience the soul’s gentle speaking to you. Instead of trying to find the soul, slow down and let the soul find you,” say’s O’Donohue.
That’s a bell calling me to slow down and pay attention.
LIFE IS HAPPENING HERE AND NOW. PAY ATTENTION.
I don’t always remember that life is happening NOW. Sometimes I get so excited about planning and plotting and trying to get somewhere that I forget I am somewhere. I am where Life is.
Sometimes I need the bells of recess to ring and let me know it’s time to “freeze”.
I’m currently living in a farmland community alongside the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of Northern California. Across the gravel road from my home are vast agricultural fields. The fields are forever changing – they’re plowed, planted, watered, grown, harvested, baled, cleared, and planted, again. Lately, these fields have presented themselves as a sermon for my soul. See, whenever I get too deep into my internal conversations, something in me – an internal bell of sorts – calls me to “freeze” and look across the gravel road to see real evidence that Life is happening NOW. When I slow down, I can see it.
Is there anything in your current environment that is presenting Itself to you?
“OKAY, I’M COMMITTED! WHAT’S GONN HELP ME TO REMEMBER?”
I have a collection of talismans and trinkets that remind me of my inner promises. I have beads and altars and candles and symbols – and even a yoga mat and cycling shoes.
Because it's so easy to forget one’s inner commitment, May I encourage you to come up with a way to remember to stay alert and attentive? Maybe create a reminder for yourself, or perhaps make or craft a physical object, or maybe designate holy something you already own? Maybe take this object, whatever it might be, and place it somewhere prominent in your life so that you see it and be reminded of this commitment, like a bell calling you to “freeze” and pay attention to what the Soul is revealing to you? Maybe it’ll be a Post-It reminder to slow down. Maybe it'll be a picture representation of the value of friendships you've neglected. Maybe it’ll be a calling to mend the crack in your relationships at home. Maybe it’ll be a reminder to spend time with your grandkids. Maybe it’ll be your yoga mat calling you to use it? What’s your Soul trying to tell you?
Ring-a-ding-ding.
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