Helpful Problems and Establishing Practices<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I spent the last three days working on a long, philosophical, metaphysical blog post, trying to build a framework to better understand and explain some of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Helpful Problems and Establishing Practices\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I spent the last three days working on a long, philosophical, metaphysical blog post, trying to build a framework to better understand and explain some of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-16T19:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Rne4s2RzIWo\/Tz2yw2JrkTI\/AAAAAAAAA2w\/bnlIGxZ58yM\/s320\/red+candle+stub.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html\",\"name\":\"Helpful Problems and Establishing Practices\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-16T19:57:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-02-16T19:57:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"I spent the last three days working on a long, philosophical, metaphysical blog post, trying to build a framework to better understand and explain some of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Helpful Problems and Establishing Practices\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Helpful Problems and Establishing Practices","description":"I spent the last three days working on a long, philosophical, metaphysical blog post, trying to build a framework to better understand and explain some of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Helpful Problems and Establishing Practices","og_description":"I spent the last three days working on a long, philosophical, metaphysical blog post, trying to build a framework to better understand and explain some of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2012-02-16T19:57:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Rne4s2RzIWo\/Tz2yw2JrkTI\/AAAAAAAAA2w\/bnlIGxZ58yM\/s320\/red+candle+stub.jpg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html","name":"Helpful Problems and Establishing Practices","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-02-16T19:57:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-16T19:57:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"I spent the last three days working on a long, philosophical, metaphysical blog post, trying to build a framework to better understand and explain some of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/02\/helpful-problems-and-establishing-practices.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Helpful Problems and Establishing Practices"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

I stopped for a sandwich before going to the meeting and as I usually do when I\u2019m eating alone, I started browsing on my phone. As I did, I came across an article that any other day would have been interesting but unremarkable.<\/p>\n

This article pointed out something I left out of my long, philosophical, metaphysical blog post. And it wasn\u2019t something I could tack onto the end. No, this was something that simply wouldn\u2019t fit into the framework I had constructed. Either the framework is wrong or incomplete or a certain spiritual practice is meaningless \u2013 and I know from multiple first-hand experiences it is far from meaningless. I don\u2019t know if I made an error in my foundational assumptions, if I made an error in logic, or if \u2013 as I suspect \u2013 I was trying to intellectualize something that can\u2019t (or at least, shouldn\u2019t) be intellectualized. I\u2019m just glad I didn\u2019t post it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give it some more meditation and thought and see if I can work through this issue. It may yet make it to the blog, but for now, the lesson of all this is that computer problems aren\u2019t always a bad thing.<\/p>\n

At the same time I realized I never posted a follow-up to January\u2019s call for a contemplative season<\/a>. I said I was going to do this and I asked you all to join me, so I think I should share how it went.<\/p>\n

The answer is that it went very well\u2026 for the first two weeks. I spent less time on the computer, more time reading and more time meditating. I performed several devotions that were very good. I reduced my distractions, didn\u2019t miss them much and I filled that time with spiritual activities that were far more fulfilling. <\/p>\n

And then I went out of town for the weekend. My new routine was upset: I spent two days doing nothing but driving and meeting. It was a good, productive, enjoyable weekend, but it left me no time for reading and little time for the other practices I was trying to start.<\/p>\n

When I got home I tried to pick up where I left off. And I did, but the momentum had stalled \u2013 it took a lot more effort to do the things I wanted to do on a regular basis. I think I might have done better if I had taken a couple days off and then done a complete re-start. <\/p>\n

So what did I learn from this contemplative season? First of all, breaking my mundane (in all senses of the word) routine is neither complicated nor painful. It just takes a little determination and a little effort to get started. Second, establishing new practices and new habits takes longer than two weeks. I\u2019ve had some people tell me it takes 20 days, others have said it takes 30. 14 isn\u2019t enough. <\/p>\n

Most importantly, I got a lot out of the devotions. Some of them were as simple standing before my altar<\/a> and reading from Hoofprints in the Wildwood<\/i><\/a>. Some involved going outside and pouring libations. Others were more receptive, sitting quietly and listening with more than physical ears.<\/p>\n

I frequently talk about the main purpose of religion being forming and strengthening connections. For me, devotions do a better job of strengthening connections than just about anything I can do by myself. <\/p>\n

Devotions are the one thing I\u2019ve continued from the season of contemplation, though I haven\u2019t set up a regular schedule for them. I probably should \u2013 I schedule everything else, and if things aren\u2019t on my calendar, they tend to get overlooked.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t given up on that metaphysical framework, but for now I think I need to concentrate on devotions.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"