Anyone else feeling a bit chaotic these days?
There is a quick hour each day that centers me and defines for me often how the rest of the day is going to go. It is the hour that I sit in the quiet darkness of my living room and write. The hour usually starts with my husband leaving for work and my boys quietly sleeping in their beds… but, more often than not, it quickly evolves into chaos with all three boys running crazy through the house announcing to the world their happiness that it is finally wake up time.
I guess it’s fitting that the hour that centers me each day also includes them. Right now, entering our fifth month of this crazy, quarantine life – everything includes them. My work includes them, my rest includes them. And there are moments when I really love that and moments when it feels… like absolute chaos.
It’s such a different reality than I planned. And sometimes, ok often, it’s just more challenging than I anticipated. Even in the simplicity of the GroundhogDay-like days, it feels… complicated.
So today my prayer is a Blessing in the Chaos from Jan Richardson. May it bring us calm and peace today. I’m sure I’m not the only one who needs it.
To all that is chaotic
in you,
let there come silence.
Let there be
a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you,
that go with you
even to the
holy places
but will not
let you rest,
will not let you
hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace
that fashioned you.
Let what distracts you
cease.
Let what divides you
cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes
and demeans,
and let depart
all that keeps you
in its cage.
Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.
~ Jan Richardson, from paintedprayerbook.com
