Weekend Favorites {worship God, love people, & enjoy beauty}
Dear friends,
The past week has been full of reacclimating from sabbatical rhythms to our regular rhythms of work and rest, family and friends, and general housekeeping of life. If you’d like a peek into our sabbatical, you can read more in last week’s post: 13 Things I Learned On Sabbatical.
I’ve also been writing—a lot more than my typical rhythms but (I presume) not nearly enough as I should be at this point in a book project. I’ve never written a book before, so I’m not really sure. You might remember that I’m attempting to write a book about how the ancient spiritual exercise of a Rule of Life might help us practice the restful way of Jesus in a fragmented world. Naturally, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’d consider my own Rule of Life and if it’s something I can honestly recommend to future readers. Honestly, it’s pretty wordy and not something I’d share in a free worksheet. I wonder how I could simplify the words into something that’s easier to communicate.
Which leads me to consider Jesus. Technically every word he spoke and every choice he made give us the ultimate Rule of Life. But, when asked to sum up the entire message of the Law and the prophets, he gave us two commandments:
Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
I’ve also been reading the rules of the Church’s saints — Benedict and Francis seem to get the most press, but I keep coming back to Dorothy Day’s Rule of Life.
Have you heard it?
See the face of Christ in the poor.
And: journal every day.
I’m struck by the dailiness of her rule: moment by moment, see the face of Christ in the poor and keep a daily journal. Obviously, her life was full of complexity, creating and recreating communities to care for the poor. But at the end of the day, she summed up her rule in this simple way.
I’ve decided that the simple words that best capture the Rule of Life I believe I’m called to live are words I’ve shared countless times—three simple directives I hope orient my life.
Worship God
Love People
Enjoy Beauty
In the past, I’ve used these three statements as categories for sharing the work others are doing to encourage me. I’ll be resurrecting a weekly blog post to help me (and hopefully you, too) reflect on how I’ve been aware of this three-fold framework in not only the work others are doing but also in the daily encounters of my own life. You are more than welcome to borrow this framework for yourself. In fact, please let me know if you do! I’d love to hear about it!
Without further ado, here are three highlights from my week to help me worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty.
1. Reading All Creatures Great and Small with our church family
You know how much I love reading with my church family, right? (Go here to see all the books we’ve read together since Advent 2016.)
On Sunday, we gathered to discuss James Herriot’s beloved All Creatures Great and Small, which involved conversations about what animals we’d choose to be and why, a conversation about why people who love God would want to read books about animals, a reading from our friend Phyllis, pet superlatives (my daughter’s dog won sweetest pit bull!), and a blessing over the animals and their owners in honor of St. Francis of Assisi’s Feast Day. Our ages ranged from 10 months to however old my friend Phyllis is (I’ve never asked) and included adorable dogs, plus Rainey the bunny. I love that God loves all creatures—both the great and small and the young and old.
2. Daily tea time
Of all the habits I want to keep from our sabbatical, drinking a late afternoon cuppa is near the top of the list. We’ve been enjoying a mug of Earl Grey with a little bit of milk, and something sweet on the side after Brian gets home from work each day. It’s become a daily ritual to remind ourselves of the rest we shared on sabbatical. On Thursday, we popped into the neighborhood cafe and sat among the junior high students stopping in on their way home from school. It was raining and cool outside, the tea was hot, and the chatter was infectious.
3. Our neighborhood transitioning from summer to autumn
Speaking of our neighborhood, this is one of my favorite times of year to walk St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea. While the wooded parts of Connecticut rightfully take the spotlight in the autumn, I love spotting the subtler changes around the Long Island Sound. I’m especially drawn to the flowers that stick around into November. This week there seemed to be clumps of cheerful daisies sprouting up everywhere, and I honestly couldn’t remember if I’d ever noticed daisies in October before this year. Have you?
Peace to you, body and soul,
Tamara
p.s. Each Saturday on Instagram, I share three favorite creators/cultivators helping me worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty in the previous week. If you’d like to share your own list, screenshot or save this image to your photos and fill in the blanks with your own selections. Then share it on IG Stories!
Weekend Favorites
A weekly celebration of creators & cultivators helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty!
1. Pray-As-You-Go’s metaphor for prayer
An excellent image for settling our minds in prayer!
2. Empty Arms Vermont for Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month
Our friend Jen is one of the leaders for Empty Arms Vermont, and I’ve been stirred by the care they are offering to bereaved parents in their community this month. You can read a little bit of her story of infant loss in the 2017 Holy Week Lament series on my blog: Jen Thompson’s Mourning Story
3. Amy Barker Willers illustration challenge through October
Amy’s illustrations always brighten my day so October is especially bright as she completes a daily illustration challenge. I’m also cheering for the children’s book she submitted to a publisher this week!
Book Updates!
The Spacious Path: Practicing the Restful Way of Jesus in a Fragmented World is now available for pre-order! While it won’t be released until June 2023, pre-ordering helps my publisher and online booksellers know that people are excited to read this book so please feel free to let them know by ordering your own copy.
You can pre-order the book from the following online booksellers:
Thank you!
Daybook Meditations for Ordinary Time
Did you know that I publish a weekly devotional guide? Each Sunday members receive a specially-curated post including art, music, and spiritual practices to accompany the prayers and Scripture readings found in the Book of Common Prayer.
I’m all about helping us to receive *and* respond to Scripture as whole people - bodies, minds, and emotions. This way of engaging Scripture has increased my capacity to worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty and I’d love for you to join us! For $5 a month, you’ll receive weekly —daily in Advent and Lent—devotional guides plus access to my entire archive of devotional guides and contemplative retreats.
Subscribe here:
Speaking
How to Embed Spiritual-Direction Practices In Your Church Masterclass with Vibrant Faith
I’m grateful for the work Vibrant Faith does to encourage the big-C Church through training, coaching, and leadership development and delighted to be one of the instructors in their MasterClass series this fall.
Class description: “So much of our ministry life is formed in a “doing” model—gathering for worship and fellowship, giving service and resources, counseling, equipping, and teaching fill our calendars and our time together. In these normal activities of church life, we most often follow a pre-determined curriculum for continued life and growth in Jesus. Spiritual direction is a practice that flips the perspective from doing to being, from spoken communication to active listening, and from creating agendas to creating space for silence and honest questions. At its core, spiritual direction is growing in our capacity to be with God and to bear witness to God’s movement in our lives. The gifts that come from spiritual direction might be the simplest and most needed for parishioners of every age and season of life, particularly as we emerge from the collective suffering of global pandemic and upheaval. In this class, I’ll offer practical and pastoral guidance needed to not only embed spiritual direction in our church ministries but to also experience, firsthand, simple but meaningful practices of silence and listening to Jesus, each other, and our own hearts.”
Thursdays, November 10 & 17, 2022
12:00 - 1:30 PM EST
Purchase here (While you’re there, you can browse through all of the MasterClass options or purchase a season pass.)
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Blog Archive
We celebrated our daughter’s wedding date this week (which is not the same thing as her wedding anniversary— as I explain below and here: 9 Things I Learned Hosting A Wedding in 2020 (which turns out to be the things I might have learned any other year only extra)