Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 358

Today's Daily 5:

1. Catching sight of the lilies growing outside the front window, waving in the breeze
2. Taking out the compost and spotting the rabbit that has dug itself a cool and protected hollow in our garden, just hanging out and taking a nap sheltered from the sun in it's garden nest
3. the stillness of a day spent with mostly quiet
4. the reality that I am able to easily and quickly satisfy hunger when it arises
5. fresh mango
6. the inspiration that pinterest always brings
7. trying out a pinterest idea and baking cookies in a waffle iron
8. the smell of the lilies in a bouquet of flowers my aunt gave me
9. a day spent in yoga pants
10. an afternoon nap

You Ask, I Answer, Take 17

Today's You Ask, I Answer question comes from Johanna, in Germany.  She asked:

What does prayer mean to you? How do you cultivate your prayer life?

At this stage in my life, prayer is so central to who I am that it's funny to me to look back and realize that for many, many years, I hated prayer and thought of it as a sort of necessary obligation, and a boring and rather useless one at that!  In fact, it was so well known that I was not a fan of prayer, and particularly not a fan of praying aloud, that the friend who was my young life leader in high school would pointedly force the issue!  She made me pray in public at every opportunity she could.  It was nearly always my "turn" to bless the food when we ate together.  She'd let me know at the beginning of our small group prayer times that while the others had an option of whether or not to speak up and I pray, I'd better be opening my mouth and talking with God!  It drove me crazy, and became almost a game - how could I avoid it, and how could she force the issue!

Somewhere early in university, I began attending a new church, and encountered people who seemed to really believe that prayer was actually important and effective, and that it didn't have to be boring!  Some of that coincided with the time period where I encountered the 24-7 Prayer movement in a number of forms and places, and learned new things about prayer, and discovered creative expressions of prayer.  Some of it coincided with the time where I ultimately had a profound encounter with God, and experienced healing from some severe depression and oppression that had haunted my steps for years.

So, what does prayer mean to me?  I don't have a definition for form, and I'm probably far more lacksidaisical about prayer than some.  Prayer for me is anything that allows me to engage in conversation and relationship with Christ.  Sometimes it looks like actually sitting down in the very traditional way, and talking to God, but sometimes it looks like worship music playing, or writing, or doing something creative, or spotting something that reminds me of something or someone on my heart and challenges me to lift them before Jesus.

As for cultivating my prayer life, the biggest part of my prayer life is that for years now I've worked to cultivate my internal dialogue into a conversation with Jesus, rather than simply a monologue.  So, as I'm out walking, when I'm reading, when I'm going about my day and thinking, as things come up, I've mentally cultivated the habit of turning them into conversation with Jesus - thanking him for them, sharing my concerns with him, asking him questions about them.

I also have made a habit at various times of using prayer books, or guided prayers to carve out a specific chunk of time for prayer in my day.  Right now I'm using a little book by J. Philip Newell called "Sounds of the Eternal", which is a book of Celtic prayers, designed to fill a week, with a set of prayers for each morning and evening.  I generally just use the evening prayers, taking time to read through them and let them guide and quiet my heart as I prepare for sleep at night.  The prayers are quite lovely, and I really enjoy the repetition and flow of joining my heart with semi-ancient prayers each evening.

The house church I'm a part of also makes a regular habit of sharing our lives and concerns with each other, and lifting each other up in prayer, so that is also an integral part of my prayer life.  I'm still not a very big fan of praying aloud, but on a pretty much weekly basis I make the choice to do so.  To audibly talk to Jesus about the friends with whom I share life and church community.  And I'm blessed as they do the same for me.  I also have a few close friends with whom I take time to pray nearly every time we gather, and I'm thankful for them as well.

So there you have it!  Some of my thoughts on prayer.  It's a hugely important topic to me, one I could talk about forever, and one that I've done fairly extensive reading about, but these are some basic thoughts - the first ones that come to mind anyway - on my own prayer life, and it's importance and how I cultivate its growth.

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 357

Today's Daily 5:

1. 4000 blog posts.  This daily 5 list is officially the 4000th time I've shown up here in the last sixish years.  How cool is that?
2. a library trip
3. marking a number of tasks off a to do list
4. the first time back at yoga in a couple months, and feeling so good after the class ended
5. smiling at the moon, sort of waning half, in the relatively clear, dusky sky as I walked home from the bus after yoga

Monday Musings

I started my day with a shower, and my first attempt at styling my new haircut on my own.  It probably won't be straight again until I return to the stylist, but I'm still quite happy with how it looks.

Then, as I ate a muffin and sat curled up in an armchair, I made a list - these are the things I need to do today and this week - the sort of list full of things like "run to the library to return the book that's due" and "finish cleaning up the house after yesterday's party". 

Somewhere around noon I glanced at my list and realized that I'd crossed more than half of my list of must be dones for the week off, and it was only noon.  On Monday. 

I'm not sure what that says about my life this week.

I called the temp agency I'm working for this morning, to check in.  They thanked me for calling and told me to hang tight, they'd be in touch. 

I'm quite enjoying the realities of house-sitting.  Of being upstairs, in a part of a house kissed by sun, instead of in a basement.

But I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with all my time this week if a call from work doesn't come.

This afternoon I finished the novel I'm reading, and I'm pondering the merits of schlepping myself to an 8:00 yoga class tonight - the first class I'll have taken in a month or so.

I'm considering the possibilities of food, and cooking, and throwing everything I have into lots of creative inspiration.  The trouble is that more than I love to cook, I love to feed people.  And just at this moment I don't really have anyone except myself to feed.  And there is only so much food that I can consume before I will begin to resemble a blimp.  (Did I mention that I haven't made it to a yoga class in a month or so?  Although, I did walk almost 9km at a steady pace on Saturday...)

So, I might do a bit of cooking, and, as I'm writing this, I'm thinking that I probably will go to that yoga class.

I'll probably tackle some writing for this space for this week (this is probably going to be the last week of You Ask, I Answer, unless more questions come in), and some reading that I've kind of been putting off in favor of more entertaining reads.  I might watch a little bit of television, or throw a movie in the dvd player while I work.  Or maybe I'll put on music and have my own little dance party in the kitchen.  Or not.  I'm working on being more and more unfettered, but I don't think I'm quite at kitchen dance party yet, even when I'm home alone!

I might even see if I can come up with some other ways to feed the part of my soul that craves creativity and inspiration.  As long as they're free.  Or very cheap.  Because did I mention that the temp agency hasn't hooked me up with another job yet?

It's Monday, and I'm rambling.  Nothing new there!  I'm off to tackle some more of the items on my list, and figure out what sorts of tasty treats I might create from the ingredients I still have on hand!

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 356

Today's Daily 5:

1. 28th birthday.  I'm one of a very few people who actually seems to like getting older.  I don't always love birthdays, but I like getting older.  28 seems special, particularly in this year where my one word is "heal" and in this year where so much has changed dramatically.  I'm excited to begin another year of life and see what it holds!
2. spending the whole day mostly puttering and cooking.  In the last 24 hours, pinterest recipes have been my inspiration, and I've made 4 recipes that I'd never made before (muffins, a brownie cake, mango sangria, and a salad)
3. two different bouquets of flowers from a family member and a friend (fun because I actually went out to buy flowers during a different errand this morning, and couldn't find any I like, so left it!)
4. an evening spent with nine wonderful friends, laughing, talking, and sharing food.
5. cuddling the baby daughter of a friend
6. lovely and creative gifts from several friends, thinks that reflect me, and/or our relationships
7. the beauty of a dishwasher for clean-up after a big party (have I mentioned that I like house-sitting?)
8. an evening where we could sit outside on the back patio at mom and dad's to enjoy our dinner
9. hugs from a whole bunch of people I love
10. an overwhelming number of loving facebook greetings and emails from friends far and near
11. calls and texts from the family members I usually spend the day with
12. mango sangria - tiny little bit of heaven!
13. brownie cake - also a bit of heaven
14. a break from cooking midafternoon to soak in a bath and read for a bit
15. listening to some new music sent by a friend while I cooked this morning.