Hello world!

Welcome to simple lent, an online conversation about experiences of living simply and well. Contributors to the blog are all part of the wider community of The WorkShop, a ministry whose mission is to help ordinary Christians live their faith at home, at work, and in their local communities. The blog will be active from the Monday before Ash Wednesday, March 7, through Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011. The blog is being moderated by Linda Addington and Jane Patterson.

Happy Easter

Prayer from a Saint

Today’s entry is a prayer written by the Rev. Dr. Bill Green, for the season of Lent, and published in 1999 after his retirement from the faculty of the Seminary of the Southwest. Bill worked for many years on the reconciliation of the Anglican and Orthodox churches, but beyond all of his thinking and all of his teaching, he mirrored the wisdom of Christ among us as one who could discern the human heart. This prayer speaks simply and truly about all of  us, and about the hope we have in Christ:

O Eternal Lord, the first and the last: We whose lives are so full of poor beginnings and bad endings turn to thee that our souls may be restored and our strength renewed. Keep us from demanding that perfection which life never promises, or from claiming exemption from that suffering which is the lot of all. Show us, whatever befalls, that thy grace is sufficient and that nothing can separate us from thy love revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen

It was Simple

Jermane Taylor

Jane:  Our friend Jermane Taylor is a rap artist and what another friend of ours used to call a “deep walker.” He is studying Culinary Arts, and working in a local restaurant. His blog for today takes us all the way from the mind of God in Eden to the state of our own mind this very day and moment.

 

It was Simple

I was during my rounds in the universe and my spirit gave me a nudge to stop and venture a formless world. I thought this is a place where I can spread myself around to expand heaven a little further throughout the universe so I decided to create a living quarter for my angels who I gave my spirit too. In my spirit this was simple to do even through it token six day to do, it was simple and I was please. On the seventh day I rest but my spirit was still at work pondering on my work and thinking how I can make this simple for my angels who will be occupying this land. What I decided to do was a garden call Eden and let them have whatever they wish to have accept for the tree of knowledge but somehow the tree of life wasn’t enough. The tree of knowledge was there for a reason, not to put them to test, but to issue its’ yield in due timing to give them the knowledge of simplicity. Since that thought fail I had to create thought that could make them see that I’m trying to make it simple for them. To see my creation going to shambles it was difficult to bear so I decided to destroy what was part of me which wasn’t simple to do but I kept some of what was part of everything to see can I start over my simple idea.  I choose a group of people this time to show how simple I was and how I can make people lives simple if they just follow my ways; but they rebel against me. After all I have done to make their lives simple. I got them out of captivity, I made the Red Sea dry for them to cross over, I fed them manna from heaven and took them into the Promise Land but they let their thoughts be their god. It was difficult to show my rage against my people because I didn’t want it to be difficult for them. I just wanted them to live simple and worship me, in my spirit I thought, I couldn’t make living any simpler than this. As the chaos continued throughout my creation, wanting to do away with this whole idea of simple I knew I had to make some sacrifices in order save this idea of simplicity. First sacrifice; destroy this evil angel that I created who is causing my plan to backfire. Second; send my only begotten son to suffer and die for this cause, which was difficult to do  As my son prayed for the cup to pass away from him but he said not his but my will to be done and the will was to make it simple for my creation. The cause has been saved and my will has been done.  To all who wants to live simple, live by love. Love is what it took for me to save the idea of simple and when I mean to save the idea simple, I really mean you.

Simplicity In Nature

Today is a perfect Saturday afternoon to sit outside. The sky is a rich, deep blue. The sun shines brightly, the humidity is low, and it’s still on the cool side for a south Texas Spring.

 A blue jay with markings as vivid as today’s sky just came back for his fourth dip in the bird bath. Each time he submerges himself a little bit further than the last. As he comes up out of the water this time, he flutters his wings and shakes his head, and every feather on his body stands straight out. If birds can smile, this must be it.    

A finch and a black-crested titmouse share seed at the bird feeder. A squirrel slowly circles the pond, stepping gingerly onto the different rocks that form its border, searching for the very best place to get down to the water’s edge to take a drink. A bright red cardinal and his mate sit beside the waterfall, enjoying the spray from water tumbling over the rocks. Some cedar waxwings take turns drinking from the pond, having taken up residence with us temporarily on their long journey north to Canada for the summer.

 And here I sit, pushing hard to catch up on my work by grading exams that should have been returned last week. A revelation suddenly overtakes me. These other backyard residents are not nearly as anxious as I am. For them, at least for today, life is so much simpler. I think I’ll join them, at least for now.

Simplicity of Activity

Linda:  Here are two paragraphs pulled from this piece by Renee Miller.  She says it so well, I see no reason to comment further.  Enjoy:

 If we examine the activity of our lives closely and objectively, we often find that much of our energy is being given away to activities imposed on us by people who believe that what is really important in life is “getting things done.” We all want to be valued and valuable, so we work to “get things done” even when it leaves us feeling dead in the midst of life. We find it difficult to extract ourselves from this repetitive, routinized way of ‘being’ in the world, because we have misunderstood the role of activity in our lives.

Ideally, activity is not task-driven but inner-directed. We are invited to “show up” at life and exert our energy in being astonished at the wonder of God, in becoming fully human and fully alive, and in being a part of the imaginative creative development of this enterprise called life. In other words, we were not created simply to complete tasks that could be checked off from a daily to-do list. We were created to ‘become’ and to “participate.” 

http://www.explorefaith.org/livingspiritually/spirituality_every_day/simply_satisfied/simplicity_of_activity.php

 

Time to slow it down

The Painted Prayerbook

Thanks for opening the pages of The Painted Prayerbook. With original artwork by Jan Richardson, this blog explores the intersections of writing, art, and faith, plus a few other things besides. Its pages include a weekly reflection on a text from the lectionary (the three-year cycle of readings that take us through much of the Bible). These lectionary reflections emerge from a process of lectio divina (“sacred reading”), the ancient art of praying with sacred texts, including the text of our own life.

The art pieces that appear with the weekly lectionary reflections are painted paper collages that Jan creates as part of the process of doing lectio with the texts.

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http://paintedprayerbook.com/2011/04/13/the-hours-of-mary-magdalene/

Simplicity of Time

Linda: I love this piece by Renee Miller about Simplicity of Time. 

 

This paragraph really speaks to me:

 

Time is one of the most challenging aspects of simplicity because we are so helpless to change time itself. Once we fully realize this, we are inclined to move in one of two directions. Either we move faster in order to make more of the time that we have, or we seek to limit our activities in order to slow down time. In both cases, we are living within a distortion of truth. Neither moving more quickly to have more time, nor doing less so that time slows will make the minutes of our life meaningful. When we move faster in order to do more in the allotted time, we cease to live fully with attention and intention. When we try to pare down our activities so we’ll have more unstructured, personal time, we become so focused on time that we miss out on life.

 

http://www.explorefaith.org/livingspiritually/spirituality_every_day/simply_satisfied/simplicity_of_time.php

Being Present

Today is the Battle of Flowers parade in San Antonio.  It feels out of balance to have Fiesta before Easter.  It’s a challenge to be quiet and reflective – Lenten! – in the midst of a party.

 

Here is a link to the Spirituality and Practice web site with some specific ideas for being present.  I intend to explore a few myself.  I hope they are useful for you as well.

 

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/practices.php?id=3&g=5

The Breadmaker

Linda: I definitely never wanted a bread machine.

 The idea of a bread machine was so – mechanized.  Lifeless.  What’s the point of making bread if I’m not up to my elbows in yeasty floury goo?  Why miss the sensation under my hands as the soft blob becomes responsive as the gluten develops?

 And then there is the bowl.  I always used my grandmother’s huge wooden bread bowl.

 The old wooden oval has a life of its own.  Scooping flour and yeast into this piece of my personal history feels like liturgy. 

  There was a practical issue with being such a purist about making bread:  I rarely did it.   

 While trapped in the Denver airport by a winter storm a few years ago, I became acquainted with a book called Rustic European Breads From Your Bread Machine.  It captured my imagination, and has become a trusty companion.

 The practical result is that it now takes me (depending on the complexity of the recipe) somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes to get the ingredients in the bread machine.  I set the timer so that fresh hot bread is ready exactly when it is needed.

 This bread has no additives, no dough conditioners, no ingredients with more than two syllables.  It is nutritious and thrifty.  And it is delicious!

 The entire operation is incredibly simple.  Go figure.

 

 

The Summer Day

Today’s poem holds that the act of attention is a form of prayer.
The Summer Day
Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
from New and Selected Poems, 1992
Beacon Press, Boston, MA
Copyright 1992 by Mary Oliver.
All rights reserved.

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/133.html