What's it like to be you??

 

This week, we are paying attention to our lives, what we receive and perceive around us ~ how that impacts what is within us.  We have reconnected with our five senses, tried to slow down to taste our food, smell what hangs in the air, notice the movements of this world, let the sensations of our skin awaken us to the sacred.  How our senses connect us to our memories.  How ice cream tastes like a Friday night for me.  Petting my dog is a prayer practice of touch, sight, and even the smell of her breath!  There is more to this world than we can ever comprehend or contain or control – as we heard yesterday.  This is the practice of embodiment/wearing skin/being human sized is a condition we all share.

On Monday, I asked you to do a five-senses portrait of someone.  Hopefully, you did that for one or even more people.  On Tuesday, I asked you to write down three times during the day what you were seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, and hearing. 

Today, I invite you to engage our sixth sense of your gut/intuition/soul.  When does your soul come most fully alive?  Or when do you know that you are most fully loved?  Write down the who, what, where, when, and why of your life.  As St. Irenaeus said, “the glory of God gives life; those who see God receive life.”  Your life right now.  Not when you get that new iphone or go on that dream vacation.  We don’t need to delay or defer joy and enjoyment.  Our joy doesn’t need to depend on the external.  Herein lies the tension, because the world does often threaten to extinguish our joy.  I know the headlines swirl and stir causing heartbreak and soul ache that makes it difficult for joy and fear to hold hands without fear getting the upper hand (yes, that is a throw back to Easter because we are still in the season of Easter for another few weeks).

So today’s writing prompt is to think about what it is like to be you ~ the good and not so great ~ the fears and joys ~ the faith and doubts.  What is like to be you?  There has never been another you before and won’t ever be the exact combination of atoms that stared back at you in the mirror this morning.  You, crafted and created in God’s image right now, what is that like?  Again, share this with someone else and listen to his/her/their response to that same question.  May God, who continues to show up in our lives, surprise you with the sacred in ways that remind you that this is holy ground. Amen.