Saturday, June 29, 2024

A Rest Retreat

 I'm declaring this week a rest retreat. I'm not sure what that's going to look like, but I'm at the next step in my lymphadema treatment and it's tiring and I need extra rest.  I figure my options are to be upset about it or accept it and make it holy. (Is not rest always holy?)

I'm not entirely sure what that will look like but I have some ideas:

  • acknowledge and drop thoughts rooted in the heresies of the the prosperity gospel, hustle culture, the Protestant work ethic, capitalism, and using productivity as a measure of value or worthiness.
  • lower my expectations for doing anything.
  • get plenty of rest.
  • stop or skip unnecessary things that are feeling like too much.
  • read more of Rest Is Resistance as long as it feels enjoyable and not like a chore.
  • fun reading.
  • knitting (always!)
  • naps
  • possibly get food or grocery delivery (this is complicated by the fact that most of the places I like don't deliver here.)
  • breathing exercises
  • written commentary and reflection if it feels right.
Note that this does not include obligations, check offs, or requirements. There is no failure, only progress toward rest.

Also, I'd like to include some lectio devina type reading (not necessarily of scripture) but I find it stressful to manage the time keeping parts and keep track of what I am supposed to be doing when I do it on my own. I might look for some apps or ways to use Alexa routines to manage this.

Sunday, February 18, 2024

What are you giving up for Easter? A Lenten Reflection

Years ago I was very much struck by the idea that anything we give up for Lent should be something we will take back up with joy when our period of sorrow ends at Easter. I find a lot of value in that, particularly since the idea of "giving something up for Lent" has expanded into mainstream culture and often gotten mixed up with mainstream ideas that don't embrace loving ourselves as part of God's good creation. For instance, I regularly hear "giving up" suggestions that seem more rooted in diet culture than faith. And then intertwined with ideas about our not being acceptable human beings at our current weight or "good" and "bad" foods. I don't want to debate whether weight loss is helpful or possible, that's a question for doctors and researchers, but I absolutely stand on the fact that God loves us flaws and all and that God made the sugar cane just as much as the spinach leaf. That said, if we want to give up something for Lent, it needs to fall in the category of 'nice to have' not necessity and if we choose a food, for many of us that is treats like candy, soda, and alcohol. And, if it's a struggle for us to give those things up, there's usually at least minimal social support for the struggle to stick to what you gave up for Lent. Or at least less social pressure to take it up again - "I gave it up for Lent" is often a conversation ender for why you aren't having a drink or dessert in a way "I don't feel like it" should be but often isn't.

But I don't think Lent is actually the ideal time, liturgically, if we want to give up something bad for us or take up something good for us (individually or communally) permanently for our faith. Of course, if you feel ready now or feel called now, whenever now is, now is the right time. But, I think there is a value in providing communal support for long-term changes (or trying on changes to see if they improve our lives and help us better care for God's creation) and encouraging us to consider long term changes. We have two celebrations of new life annually in the liturgical calendar, Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Jesus and Easter when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the continuation of the world-changing movement he started despite his death at the hands of the authorities. Easter seems like a good fit for encouraging long-term changes both on the secular and liturgical calendar. It allows those who find it helpful to use Lent for that purpose to get continued support, extra support for those who find that their life improved when they gave up some extra for Lent and want to do it permanently, and a reminder and encouragement for all of us to look at how we can better live our faith (and ACT on it) whether by making a change for our collective good or to treat ourselves with the care we deserve as a child of God.

So what are you giving up for Easter?

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Staying in My Lane

One thing I strongly believe but have struggled to fully express is my belief that while other faiths likely have just as important and valuable lessons about God and the nature of the holy as Christianity, we should stay in one lane amd not mix and match. We can learn from other people of faith but piecemeal attempting to determine where those holy lessons are is likely to result in losing more than we gain. Today, I was reading a blog post from Bob Rossi where he expressed this very well. From his post Some cautious notes about my universalism:

On the other hand, a test for my universalism is in believing that other religions---most notably Islam in this case---have something good to say about the attributes or qualities of God. ... The main difficulties that we have here are that grafting religions or divergent expressions of faith on to one another rarely works well, many cultural and religious appropriations can and should be offensive