Actually, prayer is
not just in the middle. It is also on both ends, and pretty much everywhere in
between. But for the purpose of this piece, it is the middle-praying that gets
my attention.
I’m a writing
thinker. That’s something I’ve learned over the years. If I write things down,
so that I can return to them as frequently as I need, they stand a much better
chance of impacting my life.
Recording thoughts
and ideas is just the beginning of my understanding of them; sometimes the
pre-beginning. They're not pinnacles of my life's wisdom (an idea that made me
feel fraudulent for years, until I realized its absurdity), but simply
momentary glimpses of the road ahead, revealed in sacred lightning flashes
along the journey of life's darkest and stormiest nights.
Then comes the
middle-praying; the time I spend listening for what these written words mean
for my living. There are usually a lot of questions. What will you do now? How
will you live differently; love differently? What difference will these words
make? What difference will you make?
Finally,
comes the living; or the trying to live. There! I've said it again, and it
feels like I get it a little more, each time the letters and spaces spell it
out; not completely, but more than before. That's all I hope for: more today,
in whatever form that comes; and the patience and attentiveness to recognize a
little bit of what is boldly stenciled in the creation of each day’s unfolding;
in the blooming of every day called today.
Carry on;
not with egotistical condescending, but with the humility of shadowed
revelations.
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| Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney |
© 2015
Todd Jenkins
Thanks for the insightful blog post. As an author myself I was particularly taken by the third paragraph. Those momentary glimpses and lightning flashes are truly sacred. Half the fun of writing for me is trying to figure out what I just wrote.
ReplyDeleteExactly! It's a never-ending adventure.
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