1. Choose a spiritual text (Biblical verse or a section from SEYM Faith & Practice), read for 10 minutes, sit with for 10 minutes, then write, draw or express through another art form for a few minutes. Revisit at end of day: How has this writing informed my day?
2. Read Lloyd Lee Wilson’s Memoir or Thomas Kelly’s Testament of Devotion. Spend time contemplating the reading, perhaps contact others for a Zoom discussion, and come up with similar books.
3. God/Christ/Spirit Consciousness: Choose 1 activity each day and bring a spiritual mindset into it, such as washing dishes, weeding, or making the bed. How did it change the experience?
4. Keep a spiritual journal. It can be a kind of life summing up, a daily reflection, or a kind of self-examen, in which we search our hearts for what’s going on with us spiritually, a spiritual “check up.”
5. Think of other ways we might express and create something from our spiritual experience, such as paint, clay, dance, or sewing. Create beauty out of what you’re feeling or sensing within.
6. Sense the Spirit of the Living God speaking to us. Some people receive such message and share them in Meeting for Worship, but this direct experience of Spirit is available to all of us all the time. Sit in silence, express willingness: I am open to Spirit, open to be led.
7. Lectio Divino: Read aloud, sit with it. Read again. Sit. Write impressions. Perhaps arrange to do with 1 or more other people. Could be done on Zoom, in person, or telephone.
8. Create our own at-home retreat. (1) Consider the circumstances. How can we manage a few hours of total quiet with our household situation? Silence phones or other devices if possible. Cups of tea are good. Savor the quiet. (2) In a small notebook, write one intention for the day, such as “To become closer to God” or whatever comes. (2) Design methods that fit our situation: sitting 15 minutes AM & PM. Choose a specific text to focus on for the day. Read a bit and let it marinate, perhaps walk outside or do yoga. Then write a response, answer, or query. Many Youtube medication videos are available.
9. What untried art form or activity could we bring into our lives that might deepen our spiritual journey? Perhaps walking or swimming with spiritual mindfulness. Perhaps collage, making greeting cards for others, decorating rocks and leaving them in public places, crochet/knitting, or bookbinding. Listen to spiritual music while participating and see how that lifts the experience (especially Paulette Meier’s chants).
10. Place inspirational sayings on Post-It notes around the house, such as “Do it this day, Do it with joy, Do it completely, Do it for God” a gift from a North Carolina (Conservative) Friend, which I have stuck into the edge of a cabinet above the kitchen sink.
Ellie Caldwell, 2/22