This is a time of divine completion. I loose and let go this day.
God establishes only good from it. All else fades away.
-Catherine Ponder
Mid-afternoon may seem like a strange time of day to contemplate impermanence, surrender and death, but those are the main themes of this hour. Macrina Wiederkehr calls this "the wisdom hour." The invitation is to prepare for the shift from chronos time (the clock time that orders our calendars and work days) to kairos time (those precious and sacred moments of "God time" or "time out of time").
What needs to happen in order to make this transition? The answer to that question will vary from day to day. At times, it can be hard to walk away from work and, even if you can, your evening may be as tightly scheduled as your day. There may be no kairos time on your immediate horizon, but you can still reap the benefits of pausing briefly at this hour to ask, "What do I need to let go of?"
Maybe it's become clear that you won't be able to accomplish everything you wanted to today, and you need to let go of some too-high expectations of yourself. Maybe, over the course of the day, some anger or resentment has surfaced in response to a situation or interaction, something you'd rather not carry into your evening.
In the same way you may be organizing, cleaning, and wrapping things up at work, taking some time to do the same with your mind and heart will help set the tone for the evening hours.
Consider these questions from Mary Oliver:
Who knows what is beyond the known? And if you think that any day the secret of light might come, would you not keep the house of your mind ready? Would you not cleanse your study of all that is cheap, or trivial?
This week, work with these questions and the prayer statement above for a few minutes each mid-afternoon.
We would love to know what happens!
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Reminder: November 1 is Mindful Writing Day and Faith Squared wants to celebrate with a collection of “small stones” written by YOU. A small stone is captured by simply “paying proper attention to one thing and writing it down.” Read more at the Writing Our Way Home website and, if you’d like to play along, please send your story (and a photo, if that helps tell your story) to f2@faithsquared.net by Monday, October 29 so we can include it in our post on Thursday, November 1. Any questions, please let us know!