{"id":1356,"date":"2021-07-07T15:49:16","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T19:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/?p=1356"},"modified":"2021-07-31T09:00:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-31T13:00:21","slug":"re-entry-and-re-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/re-entry-and-re-creation\/","title":{"rendered":"Re-Entry and Re-Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Everyone seems to be talking about \u201cre-entry\u201d these days. Now that many of us have been vaccinated and pandemic restrictions are lifting, life is starting to return to some semblance of \u201cnormal.\u201d<\/div>
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But what do we want our new \u201cnew normal\u201d \u2013 our chosen new normal \u2013 to look like? Which activities do we want to resume, and which are we just as happy without? How safe (or not) do we feel in larger groups of unrelated people? What grief do we have yet to process? What joy do we yearn for? How do we cope with the uncertainty that now seems to be part of our lives?<\/p>

For me, the answer to all of those questions comes from Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message paraphrase):<\/p><\/div>

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Learn the unforced rhythms of grace\u2026<\/em><\/div>
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What an evocative and spacious phrase: \u201cthe unforced rhythms of grace.\u201d What would that look like for you? What would that feel like? What would it make possible?<\/p>

For me, while I have much to learn yet about those unforced rhythms of grace, what I have learned so far is that I need to take time to take care of my body, allow myself to rest, and keep my focus on people more than projects. And what I also know is that those are generally the first things to go when I start getting \u201cbusy\u201d or feeling pressured, so I need to keep my attention on them.<\/p><\/div>

I need to let go of the small stuff. And I need to pay more attention to the big stuff: justice and opportunity for all, care for our planet, and, especially, nurturing my connection with the Holy One and All-That Is. Because that is the root of any impact I might have in this life, any kindness I can give, any blessing I can bestow.<\/div>
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The passage from Matthew continues:<\/div>
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.<\/em><\/p>

The only way I have found to live anywhere in the vicinity of \u201cfreely and lightly\u201d is to keep looking in the direction of love, connection and grace, and to keep making space in my life \u2013 from 20 minutes in the morning to the pause of a breath multiple times a day \u2013 to shift my focus from \u201cdoing\u201d back to \u201cbeing,\u201d from \u201cproblem\u201d to \u201copportunity for grace,\u201d from racing to get things done to listening for how things want to unfold, from focusing on what\u2019s missing to focusing on what I can do, share and enjoy with what I already have.<\/p>

What about you? What would it be like for you to live \u201cfreely and lightly\u201d \u2013 if only for an hour? What would it be like to move through the day in \u201cthe unforced rhythms of grace\u201d? What would it be like to consider the \u201cunforced rhythms of grace\u201d as you head toward \u201cre-entry\u201d?<\/p>

Invitation to Action:<\/u><\/strong><\/p><\/div>

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1) Journal, write a poem, or make a collage that represents what it might be like to dwell in \u201cthe unforced rhythms of grace.\u201d\u00a0<\/div>
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2) Meditate on how you might live more \u201cfreely and lightly.\u201d What needs to be added? What needs to be let go? What grace might you pray for?<\/div>
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3) Consider your own patterns. What important things are you likely to drop when life gets pressured? What shadow comforts* start to show up? What important things have you dropped, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, intentionally or inadvertently, that you want to pick up again? Which do you need to keep reminding yourself not<\/u> to pick up?<\/div><\/div>
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*\u201cShadow comfort\u201d is a phrase coined by Jennifer Louden to denote things we do in the name of self-care that in fact deplete us.\u00a0 It’s the difference between savoring a small piece of chocolate cake and mindlessly eating half the cake, barely tasting it, in an attempt to self-soothe.\u00a0 It’s the difference between mindfully connecting with a friend on Facebook and aimlessly scrolling.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>
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Everyone seems to be talking about \u201cre-entry\u201d these days. Now that many of us have been vaccinated and pandemic restrictions are lifting, life is starting to return to some semblance of \u201cnormal.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what do we want our new \u201cnew normal\u201d \u2013 our chosen new normal \u2013 to look like? Which activities do we want to resume, and which are we just as happy without? How safe (or not) do we feel in larger groups of unrelated people? What grief do we have yet to process? What joy do we yearn for? How do we cope with the uncertainty that now seems to be part of our lives?<\/p>\n

For me, the answer to all of those questions comes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wingedlifecoaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}