Summer Slowdown

Summer Slowdown June 1, 2015

Photo by Teresa Blythe
Photo by Teresa Blythe

Warm weather invites us to slow down but how many of us really accept that invitation? Our jobs certainly don’t slow down just because the summer is here.  We just slog through at the same high-speed pace even as our bodies cry out for a break.

It is hard spiritual work to listen to our bodies and the rhythm of the seasons while also maintaining jobs, clean homes, connections with friends and staying “in the loop.” Something has to give.

Discernment is the spiritual practice of listening to creation, connecting with our higher power and determining what is going to stay in our lives and what is going to go. It is how we determine what stays and what goes in our life.

For me what has to go is worry. Too much of my time can be filled with thoughts of the past or future. Fears and an innate drive to be perfect (whatever that even means) clutter my mind. If I take the time I used to spend worrying and instead step outside; take a walk; curl up and take a nap; read a novel—any of those wonderful ways to slow down—I would most likely find the gift in the summer heat.

I hope you can discover what needs to be released in order to slow down and accept your summer gift.

For more about spiritual direction as I practice it, please check out my website.

 


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