My first title for this blog was ‘Hiding Out’ because I feel, with some shame attached, that this is what I have been doing. The pain of the world has gotten me down. I can’t even force myself to listen to, or watch the news anymore. It is too depressing. There is too much strife. The violence and the dissension is too much. So I have been avoiding it. But I have not been cowering in my bed or hiding under the table. I have been doing what I need to do to restore balance. I have been digging in the dirt. I have been touching flower petals. I have been breathing in the wafting fragrance of blooming shrubs.
My mother often quoted a verse from the poem by Dorothy Frances Gurney, “The kiss of the sun for pardon, the song of the birds for mirth, one is nearer God’s heart in a garden, then anywhere else on earth.”And that is certainly how it feels to me. Being outdoors connecting with nature is often what I need to lay down the burden of the world and crawl into the heart of God.
There is, to my sensibilities, an air of irritation everywhere. People are tired of staying home, of not seeing loved ones, of having activities curtailed. Parents say that their usually polite and cooperative kids are grumpy and difficult; they miss their friends and running about in playgrounds, parks and on beaches. Some folks are quick to criticize and others are quick to retort. And those who have had hours reduced or jobs cut are just plain worried. We are all tired of being patient.
So how do you restore balance? Puzzles have been a past-time for some, during these days. Even puzzles can get tiresome after a while. Writing letters and notes were a curative for some at first, but that interest may have dropped off. Baking bread? Sewing? Walking? Reading? Watching Netflix? These are all good things to do to help us gather ourselves into a place of wholeness and balance. For me, it’s crawling into the heart of God, pulling weeds and God always provides lots of those!
