Discipline
“Discipline
means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up.
Discipline means that somewhere you're not occupied, and certainly
not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create
that space in which something can happen that you hadn't planned or
counted on.”
Henri
Nouwen
People
sometimes ask how I am able to post this blog everyday. My response
is always, “It's my spiritual discipline.” Some people get up in
the morning and meditate, or pray, or do yoga to get themselves
centered and ready for whatever the day brings. I write whatever is
on my heart and mind. Some days, this blog is my commentary on our
collective existence here on Planet Earth, and other times, it is
simply about my own experience and the inner struggles I face in
striving for consciousness. Whatever it is, I figure someone else is
wrestling with it too.
Discipline
is essential to a spiritual life. It is the clearing of space, both
mentally and physically, to address one's relationship to a Higher
Self, or a Higher Power. It focuses one's attention on what touches
the heart, what nurtures the spirit; it creates the connection
between body/mind and soul. Unexpected things happen when we're
paying attention. Insights and realizations occur, not because a
supernatural entity blasts into our thoughts with information, but
because we made time and space for allowing.
I
had no intention this morning of writing about spiritual discipline—I
meant to tell about a sacred moment for me yesterday when our new
pastor sang the institution for Holy Communion. I had never witnessed
that, always the words were spoken. Listening to his lone voice
singing the familiar story of the last supper was like hearing it for
the first time. When we allow in the teachings of spirit, unscripted,
unplanned, we open ourselves to the holiness of each moment. That's
the nature of the spiritual life—bidden or not, Spirit is always
present.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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