Monday, August 16, 2010

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 2

Today's Daily 5:
  1. starting the morning slowly, without setting an alarm
  2. getting two books I'd ordered and was anticipating in the mail
  3. chatting about theology and the stuff of life with a dear friend
  4. laughing
  5. starting a countdown until my summer school work is done (11 days)
  6. water
  7. peanut butter and blackberry jam on honey oat bread for lunch
  8. getting through today's anatomy chapter really quickly (thankful that it was a short one!)
  9. one of those rare days when everything on my to do list gets crossed off
  10. nodding in agreement and anticipation through the introduction of a new book
  11. laughing with a friend who's been a friend for over a decade now
  12. movie theatre popcorn
  13. seeing the movie "Despicable Me" with a friend (really very cute and funny, and the 3D effect was cool too)
  14. hope
  15. string cheese (so bad for my stomach, but so much fun, and tasty, too...)

Worth Reading...

I loved this post on Brian's blog, simply for the quote from Bill Hybel's "Holy Discontent".  The quote alone makes me think (though the whole Bill Hybel's megachurch thing kind of makes me cringe) that I might need to pick up this book.

And, I loved this post, full of goodness from Thomas Merton that was on Anne Jackson's blog last week.  Again, so worth reading.

Richard Rohr on Silence

Yesterday's meditation from Richard Rohr struck me deeply, and I wanted to share it in its entirety here.

~~~


The most simple spiritual discipline is some degree of solitude and silence. But it's the hardest, because none of us want to be with someone we don't love. Besides that, we invariably feel bored with ourselves, and all our loneliness comes to the surface.

We won't have the courage to go into that terrifying place without Love to protect us and lead us, without the light and love of God overriding our own self doubt. Such silence is the most spacious and empowering technique in the world, yet it's not a technique at all. It's precisely the refusal of all technique.

~~~

Silence, I think, is hard.  and terrifying, and sometimes so necessary.  I usually avoid it until it is forced, and then I cringe as it comes, and am usually thankful for it as I emerge from it.  Odd how that works, isn't it?