Contemplative Practices

Maker post! I actually haven't made much this month, in the usual sense at least. I have been catching up on a podcast (the Bible For Normal People, highly highly recommend) and I wanted something to do with my hands while I listened, so I got Jennifer Berg's (link goes to Ravelry) Fingerless Lajish pattern and three colors of yarn to play with.

My favorite pair so far is the black background - the color values worked the best together, I think. I've made it through two seasons of the podcast, and I still have a white background pair in progress and quite a bit of yarn left (the Emma's DK I'm using had generous yardage). I plan on keeping one pair, but I'm not sure about the others - gifts, or I could put them in the free food pantry this winter. We'll see.

Another project I've worked on this month has been finding spiritual practices that resonate with me. Two that I've especially connected with have been a grounding meditation in which you choose a natural object--in this case I grabbed one of my crystals of the month that I already had on my desk--and just give it all of your attention for five or ten minutes (turns out ADHD hyper focus is actually good for some things, and this is one of them!) and also a weekly examen prayer.

Examen is actually a really old spiritual practice, just a formula of sorts for looking back over the past day or week or other interval of your choice, looking for helpful and unhelpful patterns, being encouraged by the positive and seeking guidance for altering the time to come for the better. I do write it out rather than "praying" it because that way I stay focused while I'm doing it and have a record afterward--and I also pulled three cards (for high, low, and pattern to change) on the direction section, because it helps me to have a more concrete response than maybe sitting and listening for a disembodied voice. I understand God and myself and the world through written words (more on that next week) and I believe They know that, and honor it. The two weeks I've done it so far have been both encouraging and illuminating, anyway.

I've enjoyed spending this month regaining a little stability and structure around my belief systems, using both familiar and new practices.

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