Caution: It’s Five Minute Friday, and you’ve entered a no-edit zone.
**********************
The air breathes cool through the open window, wafts past the clean cotton Yankee votive that releases just a hint of fragrance. The shrub sways in time with the bell rope, and a hummingbird buzzes at the feeder, hovers in place, sips and savors. A wasp with legs dangling wants in the garage and seeks entrance at the cracks of the closed door. Wee crabapples snuggle deep in branches, and I wonder if the waxwings will return. And will I see them if they do.
I’ve struggled to be present on the page this past week. So many distractions seek to dip into my space, and I sense a need to step back and just be present to the moment. Because the present is a present–a gift. And sometimes it’s too easy to let it slip away. And how can I write about it if I don’t wonder in it.
Paul tells us to present our bodies as living sacrifices. To slip into that sacred space of surrender, dead to self, alive to the breath of the Spirit. To listen in the silence as He whispers sweet everythings. To sniff the smoke of His presence and the sacrifice of self.
I’m feeling a bit stretched, a need to air out my space, to seek some stretched out stillness, to sacrifice more stuff, to unstuff internally and externally, to present myself and listen long. To dabble in a little in a little whimsy, to play with paints, to sit with a couple writing projects, to clear out more head and home clutter. To dissolve a little more self and step into some deep scary places that could spill in page presence and word surrender.
I confessed to some of the BibleDude team that I think I might need a brief blog break–but fear holds me back. Fear of being forgotten, fear of forgetting to come back to the page.
And yet there’s this Presence that beckons, the whisper of a fragrance…
Still listening,
Sandy
In community with Lisa Jo and the Five Minute Friday community
on the word present.
Lovely. It seems everyone finds their own routine with blogging. One day at a time works for me, but maybe a slower pace overall now . . . Blessings, Ellen
Oh, of course we won’t forget you, but we will miss you. Go ahead and take that break if you feel led, you won’t regret it. And you will come back refreshed. Beautiful post! Lori
God’s presence is persistent like that wasp, seeking out the cracks and crevises, always entering in, even when we struggle to allow. May the invitation lead you gently one moment at a time.
How could we possibly forget you?!
Like Susan said, I’ll never forget you! Instead of taking a break, just alienate readers with nine weeks of “Lonesome Dove” analysis! Oops, that’s mine. But in the same vein, I’m doing what I feel led to do. For me, to stop writing is to go into a dark hole, so I just fine other ways to do it when I need a break. But do what God is leading you to do.
There is not a chance I would ever forget you my sweet friend. I’m feeling the same sort of pull Sandy. I often feel I just want to walk away from this whole blogging business. Instead I’ve been trying to take it a bit slower, to spend more time away from the computer. But, I confess, I don’t do very well.
I know that whatever the Father prompts you to do will be for your ultimate good. He has only wonderful things in store for you. He has given you this beautiful gift, and I know He will use it in ways you cannot think or imagine.
Follow that sweet, sweet fragrance.
Your words touched my spirit with their earnest and heart-felt desire to be a woman who obeys God’s Word. It is wonderful to read of your yearning to rest and to find restoration to your body, soul and spirit in order to be refreshed and renewed in your life. God’s ways are always to bring us into a place of sacrifice of our personal pleasures in order to be completed and surrendered to His will. Praying that you will find peace and assurance of the path you feel God is guiding you to follow.