Hi friend,
It has been such a long time and so much has changed since we last spoke. Including me! I just celebrated yet another turn around the sun this past week and couldn’t be more grateful.
Do you ever look back and realize - Wow, life hasn’t just been happening at random but it turns out, that was a season, one designed just as thoughtfully and deliberately for me as God designed winter, summer, spring and fall? And every second of every day of every week of every month of every year has been a part of my becoming?
We have an acute awareness of those seasons in nature because we plan our lives by them. Back to school, summer vacation, holiday activities, wardrobe refreshes. We look forward to the changing weather and understand that the leaves turn colors before they fall from the trees. That the pounding heat of summer gives way to the cool breeze of autumn to ease us gently into the bitter cold of winter (Climate change has disrupted all of those things, of course, but that’s our fault, not by design…). These things we come to expect and celebrate.
But when it comes to our lives, we greet each moment as entirely disconnected from the one before it, disoriented and confused by changing circumstances, even as they begin to follow clear patterns: seedtime and harvest, bare and fruitful, stillness and movement.
How much easier would our lives be if we learned to discern those patterns in real time and recognize each one meant to grow us and set us up well for the next?
What would happen if we saw times of calm as preparation and refreshing not punishment? What would happen if we weren’t always running away from small things to chase the big? Or quiet times to chase the loud?
Today, I am emerging from one of the most beautiful hidden (to most) seasons of my life with much to share. And no, I don’t just mean my perfect baby boy. In the weeks to come, I’ll be talking more about seasons, work, life and some exciting new projects (including a retreat!) but today, I’ll start by simply encouraging you to embrace whatever season you are in. In fact, embrace your life. Exactly as it IS, without constantly longing for and chasing another.
We spend so much time on desire and self-improvement and reaching for the different and the next that we miss the preciousness of the current season. Every breath, every tear, every imperfection, every smile, every moment is a gift. And the gifts can teach.
During my transition into motherhood (a story that I’m definitely going to tell you more about soon), I found a tiny old book in a used bookstore with a title that jumped out at me: Domestic Monastery. As someone who has long romanticized the life of a monk but never really prioritized domesticity, I wanted to better understand how this role and time in my life could compare to the fast paced, constantly traveling, publicly productive life that I had always lived. Beyond the joy of basking in a prayer answered (which Baby Omari is), what was I meant to learn in the beauty and mundanity of my family-building season?
In that book, written by Ronald Rolheiser, I found these words:
"Stay in your cell. Your cell will teach you everything you need to know. Stay inside your commitments, be faithful, your place of work is a seminary, your work is a sacrament, your family is a monastery, your home is a sanctuary. Stay inside them, don’t betray them, learn what they are teaching you without constantly looking for life elsewhere and without constantly believing that God is elsewhere.”
In this context, a cell is the small room in the monastery where monks sleep and pray. And the words spoke to me so clearly:
Your life and work, your vocation, your assignment, is sacred. Whether or not everyone sees it. Whether or not it gets posted on social media. Whether or not it gets recognized or celebrated by others in every season, it is holy. It is grand. And, for the time being, it is enough.
Sure, sometimes that work is an epic accomplishment or creative endeavor. But sometimes that work is simply recovering from whatever heartbreak or trauma you have endured. Or being a parent and focusing on your home life. Or not giving up. Or showing up every day at a 9-5 that you don’t love but have been called to (or feel stuck in). Take a clear-eyed look at what is right now in this very moment of your life, with all of its complexity. And listen.
The relationships, resources and reality that is your current life is your teacher.
Wherever you are. Whatever your commitments may be at the moment, whether they be big or small, public or private, exciting or mundane…there is something there for you.
Squeeze every last drop of feeling and wisdom out of it. Not just for the sake of having a beautiful story to tell on the other side. But because God—the God that you think will be found in your success or your wealth or your business or your “better”—is actually right there! And odds are, so are the lessons that will unlock the next chapter of your destiny.
Love,
