Low Battery Warning Again?

If you have a cell phone, you have probably experienced that moment when you needed to make a call, but as you reach for your phone you see that it is totally dead. I am always forgetting to charge my phone, or realize it needs to be charged when I am far from a charging source. Maybe I’ll plug it in for a few minutes before I rush out the door, and all day it gives me that “low power” message.

It occurs to me that this is a great metaphor for how our spirits get low when we forget to give them enough time to recharge. This season

I was feeling like my I was in “low power mode” and realized that our emotional and spiritual selves are kind of like a cell phone battery; we often forget to change them until they are giving us low battery warnings. And sometimes when we do stop to recharge, we don’t leave ourselves enough time, so we never get really filled-up- we never have quite enough power for what we want to do.

I was complaining one day that my phone was out of juice again, and my friend asked “why don’t you plug it in every night before bed?” I agree- that’s probably a good idea both for our phones and for our spirits. We could, as my friend suggests, have a time every day when we reconnect to our source, and feed our spirits. And like with our phones, it takes as long as it takes. We can fight against this- because we are busy and have so many cares and concerns, with our spirits as with our phones, but when our spirits are low they must be renewed.

As with our phones, even a daily habit may not be enough if we are using them hard. “Half an hour's meditation is essential except when you are very busy. Then a full hour is needed” writes Saint Francis de Sales. If you are going through a crisis, or a challenging transition, even a daily practice may not be enough- you may need a day or even a whole week devoted exclusively to recharging- to connecting with something larger than ourselves

Only you know what restores your soul; perhaps it is prayer or meditation, or perhaps it is a hike in the woods. It may be a morning spent weeding your garden, or time with your watercolors or a block of clay. It might be time spent in worship, or time with your children or grandchildren. Only you will know how much time you need and what it is that restores you to yourself.

The more you pay attention, the more you practice, the easier it will be to tell when you are in “low power mode” and when your spirit is fully recharged. A day faced with a fully charged phone and a fully charged spirit is one where all our gifts and talents are available to enjoy life and to be of service.

How did I get here?

Have you ever sat down at the computer or pulled out your phone for a quick little chore, say confirming a meeting time, and before you know it 15 windows are open and an hour has passed? You shake yourself and wonder- what am I doing? As you close the windows one by one you see the crooked path that brought you to this moment: watching cats try to fit into boxes, updating your car insurance, buying shoes, learning the 10 reasons people have trouble sleeping. Finally you arrive where you intended to be…my meeting is at 3:00. I can close all these other windows and get back to my life. This is the power of intention-- to help us navigate the river of distractions and arrive on the other side with what we really want and need. Having a clear intention defends us against the metaphorical click-bate and pop-up-adds of life.

As you read this, I encourage you to ask yourself “what is my intention for today?” Maybe you already know that after you finish reading the paper you plan to weed the garden. But if an intention doesn’t come to mind quickly, take a moment to consider- what one thing would I most like to get out of this day? The intention you create does not have to be something from your to-do list; I often set intentions like “spend time with my son” or “enjoy the spring weather.” Sometimes I regret not having finished a piece of work on time, but the true heartbreak comes when I realize it is my son’s bedtime and I missed my chance to spend time with him. Some intentions are not actions at all – “remember to be grateful for the gifts of life” or “practice patience” are intentions that can follow you throughout your day. When I can’t think of something I really want or need I’ll often set “listen for the spirit” as my intention.

Later today, if that sudden panic hits “isn’t there something I was supposed to be doing?” your intention reminds you whether it’s time to turn off the cat videos and finish balancing your checkbook, or perhaps it’s time to stop balancing your checkbook and go blow bubbles with your grandchildren… as you intended all along. It’s a simple way of making sure the life you live is devoted to things you truly care about.

I just need a minute

A few months back I went to a big conference--one of those events with meetings and workshops scheduled from morning until well after bedtime. Thousands of attendees were together for almost a week. Some were dear old friends, some were folks I’d seen at conferences before, but with that many people gathered together most were strangers.

I’ve been going to this annual event for many years. The first few years I got swept up in the energy of the gathering, and I really did try to go to every event and see every friend and be part of every conversation. By the end of the week I was not my best self; I was exhausted, overwhelmed and frankly I was a little lonely.

When I began my training to become a spiritual director, one of the requirements of the program was 20 minutes of spiritual practice every day. I couldn’t even imagine how I would fit that into my already too-busy life. When I finally took up the practice, I would sit down after a hectic day, or in the middle of a hectic day, to cram in this 20 minutes of quiet and it seemed like an extravagant use of my scarce time. But after a few moments sitting quietly, allowing the detritus of the day to settle down, allowing my body to settle, allowing the quiet voice of my spirit to be heard, it occurred to me that 20 minutes isn’t nearly enough.

At the next conference I was determined not to forsake my practice during my stay. Fortunately, this conference provided a meditation space, which I found the first day. I marked time in my conference schedule and stuck to the promise I had made to myself to meditate.

What surprised me was that instead of feeling like I had “one more thing to do,” that brief time away from the crowds and activities made me feel less overwhelmed and busy. I noticed the change in myself immediately. I felt more centered and a bit restored after each practice. Even though this was a solitary time, I was surprised to find that I felt less lonely as well.

When I first began a daily practice of prayer and meditation I resented fiercely having one more demand on my already full schedule. Now I find this time restores my soul in a way nothing else can. Even when the drama in my mind swirls on all through my practice, I find that something has shifted when I rise to go back to my day. The practice gives back more than it requires.

I wish I had more time to give to my spiritual life....

“I wish I had more time to give to my spiritual life” is a common refrain of our age. As a minister of two churches, mother of a teenager, and wife, those words have come out of my mouth on more than one occasion.

But we have what time we have. Our spiritual life is not something we schedule for a hypothetical time in the future when we finally have time, it is happening right now in every moment whether we are paying attention to it or not.

Spiritual Director Janet Corso encourages us to think not just of our “Prayer Life” but our “Life in Prayer.” While I highly recommend setting aside time each day for some manner of spiritual practice, we shouldn’t mistake those times we set aside for the whole of our spiritual life--our spirit is available to us any time. God is available to us at any time. Whenever you have the urge to connect to your spirit, to connect to the divine, I encourage you not to add it to your always-growing to-do list, but to stop in that moment and simply reach out in whatever way your spirit is encouraging you to reach.

All of us have a spirit. All of us have a relationship with the divine, whether you devoutly observe the practices of your religious tradition, or you haven’t thought about it since you were a kid.. I urge you to follow that instinct, to grab hold of that moment when you think “I wish I had time for my spiritual life” and right in that moment --in the grocery store line, at your desk at work, while mowing the lawn -- just reach out. If you are part of a religious tradition, perhaps a particular prayer or practice will come to mind in that moment. If you are not sure what to do, it’s okay to ask for guidance from your spirit, from the divine. Even if you are an atheist or an agnostic, that desire to reconnect to your truest deepest self is a basic human urge, and like eating or sleeping or raising children, something deep inside you knows what to do. So don’t be afraid to ask, to look truthfully into your heart, and to listen to what you find there.

You do have time for your spiritual life--in every moment of every day.