calm: practising gratitude during the pandemic

April 29, 2020 / Joy Lenton / 4 Comments

What if we refused to join in with the grumbles, moans and complaints on the internet and other place during the pandemic, even in our own homes, perhaps? We could choose to keep calm, encourage others, and speak of hope, faith and love in adverse circumstances.

How can we best support our souls during these stressful and strange Covid-19 days? Maybe by enjoying the little things: feed our faith, practise gratitude, aim to savour extra time with our loved ones, rest for our health’s sake, maintain our creativity, and withdraw from information overload and overwhelm.

We can pray for family and friends, health care workers and governments, as well as the world situation in general. Another thing that might help keep us sane, especially if we can’t exercise, is stepping outside now and then for a slow, 30 seconds or more, fresh air inhale/exhale.

Because nature has healing powers. Yes, even if our garden or balcony growing space is a tiny or weed-ridden plot! 🙂 Size doesn’t matter. What counts is seeing living greenery.

Creation’s calming beauty helps soothe our frazzled souls, and opens our hearts to the simple gratitude of being alive. I always appreciate rare days when I can get outside for a while because enjoying the little things counts.

Life in the time of the coronavirus

I hear the flaxen-haired toddler
from two doors away
chattering nineteen to the dozen

as I peg light laundry to line, with sun
warming my arms for the very first time
this year, this spring, in a sudden
burst of seasonal heat.

She is running, running, running
the length of her small garden
and back again, as if her tiny feet

don’t know how to stop
their forward momentum, their racing
along to an inner beat.

We’re meant to be avoiding others
as our country struggles
with the coronavirus and its effects,
and I think we are far enough apart

even though I can just make out
the top of her hurrying head
across our low garden walls.

Her parents smile up at me and speak
in their broken English, nuanced
as it is with a Polish dialect,

while I reply and smile at them
and watch their delightful
little daughter running again.

Such sacred holy ordinary moments
still exist but we have to make
a deliberate effort

to notice them and let our anxieties
slip, as we converse at a distance
with the international language
of hope and joy and love and peace.
© joylenton

Gratitude helps us appreciate all our days, whatever they might bring to us. Because the altitude of our hearts determines the attitude we will have.

If we’re able to live more in the moment, then we can welcome it, whether outwardly good or bad, as we seek to live with our eyes open to the potential it might bring.

You might benefit from these 10 soul care suggestions for maintaining calm. Brother David Stendl-Rast also offers a glimpse of how we can be gratefully mindful for each new day.

What’s helping you feel more like a human being and less like a potential repository for a horribly invasive virus? What’s aiding you to stay calm and keeps you on an even keel in these shaky, uncertain times? Do share below so we can help one another. ❤

window: finding an opening for joy to flourish

April 23, 2020April 21, 2020 / Joy Lenton / 14 Comments

Joy is a bit thin on the ground at the moment, isn’t it? So many of us are feeling overwhelmed by individual and collective sadness and grief, with longings for change going unmet and unaddressed.

It’s like the whole world is in a state of mourning and we don’t know how to get through it or where to find joy anymore. Or maybe we do. Perhaps joy is much closer to home than we anticipate.

Indoors with our loved ones, or just outside our window, perhaps, even if we can’t see a great deal because it resembles a concrete jungle. You may be wondering: What kind of joy can those things bring to me?

More than you might think, my friend. Due to decades of being housebound by chronic illness, and suffering episodes of depression, I try to discover any window, any opening to joy I can find.

I seek to focus on my heart’s longing for joy and what encourages it to flourish, which means looking at the simple, small, and often overlooked. And it includes developing a deeper gratitude for my loved ones.

Longings

Window watcher that I am,
let my gaze linger with sacred awe
longer than before,

to truly see each tree
and flower and leaf as portents
of hope and promise.

I want to drain
the last ounce of joy I find
in every day,

drink the cup dry of it,
keep memories as dregs.

I long to hold
the wonder found right here
and right now,

like a fragile butterfly,
let it loose to climb the sky.

I seek to find
the holy ordinary
in people, trees

and leaves, clouds, fiery sunsets,
in everything light reflects.

I desire to dream
with intentionality,

let purpose unfold
like a story I have known,
full of hope beyond this world.

I yearn to touch
earthly things stamped with grace,

trace God’s footprints,
sense them moving in my soul,
where I will never grow old.
© joylenton

The view outside my window is far from scenic, but I do take pleasure in watching sky changing colour, seeing variable shape and type of clouds, noting emergence of greening tips and flowers on plants or observing a solitary tree as its leaves alter with the seasons.

Even a concrete wall can be interesting because it attract insects, has different patterns of stone within it or changes shade, depending on where the light falls and catches it.

Having chronic illness has taught me not to despise the tiny, mundane things of life. Whether in lockdown or not, it helps to appreciate the blessings before us rather than dwell on what we’ve lost.

Your longings are a window into your soul too. What are you longing for, my friend? Where are you experiencing your longings being met in these challenging times? May the joy of the Lord be our strength today, and always.

PS: This post was inspired by Chronic Joy Ministry’s Poetry Prompt: Windows and Trees. Do check out their great resources! 🙂 ❤

shift: adjusting to a new normality

April 13, 2020 / Joy Lenton / 8 Comments

We might be tempted to think that there wasn’t too big a shift in the atmosphere and that life went on pretty much as normal for the ordinary citizens who lived at the time of the resurrection of Christ. But what if it didn’t? What if nothing ever felt quite the same afterwards?

Such a cataclysmic event was earth and world shattering in its effects. The news about it spread over the whole known world. The story of the resurrection got shared year after year, retold with wonder, speculation and awe to future generations. And it still is.

Because God’s evident, sacrificial love for us and the hope it brings to human hearts has spread faster than any virus can, multiplying exponentially nation to nation.

It affects everyday people from every stratum in society, turning humdrum lives upside down in the process. The message the resurrection imparts brings us deep rest when all else is unsettled and shaken, including our emotions.

So let’s consider how one ordinary person, just like you and me, might have reacted to the resurrection, to this shift in their expectations and experience, followed by an adjustment to a new normality.

“At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.” ― Matthew 27:51-53 NLT

A shift

There’s a shift
where identity used to sit
like an old cardigan,

well-worn, moth-eaten
but familiar
because it became part
of me, what I always wore.

Now I don’t know what fits
me anymore
or suits the woman

I have become
since the earth shook, since Sunday
and a man took
on death to set us free.

Tombs broke open
and people were raised
to life again
like they had never died,

restored to their
loved ones, their families
as if they’d
never left them bereft.

And it is whispered
that this world
is just a stepping stone
to somewhere
better, a place of beauty

God Himself changes not. He is totally dependable and faithful to His Word. His promises can be relied upon. God doesn’t shift like the wind, alter with circumstance or sway from continually pouring out His love, mercy and grace for us.

“‘Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” ― Isaiah 54:10 NIV

Whatever fears or uncertainties might be shaking your world right now, my friend, remember the unshakeable power of God to rescue and save us. He is the still, calm centre of every storm we encounter, and our souls’ peace, always. In the valley of the shadows, God is with us and fighting for us as the core strength of our hurting hearts.

lift: for those times when you need to be carried

April 2, 2020 / Joy Lenton / 13 Comments

Give me the Love that leads the way, Faith that nothing can dismay, Hope no disappointments tire, Passion that’ll burn like fire, Let me not sink to be a clod, Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God. ― Amy Carmichael

News alerts and alarms are the hallmarks of our hours. We’re struggling not to drown in discouragement, anxiety, sadness and grief. We’re in the grip of a deadly virus and a state of soul overwhelm. Our flesh is weak. Our hearts quake.

Our minds spiral into worse case scenarios. It’s hard to relax and get a grip when the world feels so out of control, isn’t it? How can we stay stable in this storm? Who can lift us up and keep us safe? Our God can and He will. Nothing is too difficult for Him.

God carries us when we sink low and cannot carry ourselves. He lifts us up when we stumble and fall. He infuses strength into failing bodies and hearts. Let us look to the Lord to lift us up and hold us close, like the loving Father He is, full of compassion and love.

“The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” ― Isaiah 58: 11 NIV

Being lifted up

Are you feeling crushed,
dear hurting soul?
Do you feel discouraged and sit
with your head bowed low?

Take heart, dear one, for hope
is here and help will come.
Your tears are not unseen
but are caught lovingly.

They are held in the heart
of a compassionate God
who cries, gives grace,
and feels and aches with us.

You, too, are being upheld
by his power and by his love
as he carries you
when you’ve had enough.

When you can’t go on
and feel far from strong,
fear not, my friend, because
this is not the end.

God will comfort you
as only he can, and cradle you
close until you can walk
with confidence again.

All who fall are not despised
but are souls to save, to hold,
heal and make strong once more
in our merciful Father’s eyes.

You will learn to breathe and rise
above your current woes and pain,
while you lean on the One who suffers
alongside us with our wounded feelings.

He opens his hands,
seeking to satisfy your needs,
every good desire of the human
heart is fully met by him.

So do not despair, my friend,
as you mourn a significant loss
or the pathway you knew before is gone
because God stands ready to lift you up.
© joylenton

“The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.” — Psalm 145:14-15 NIV

Friends, in these demanding days, let us acknowledge our weakness and frailty and ask God to carry us when we’re unable to go on without His help. He stands ever willing to lift us up, give us Hope, and fill us with His compassionate love.

	Joy Lenton on glimpse: hope rises when light…
	Joy Lenton on seeing: viewing nature soothes…
	Mindful Mystic (MM) on glimpse: hope rises when light…
	Mindful Mystic (MM) on seeing: viewing nature soothes…
	adaughtersgiftoflove on seeing: viewing nature soothes…

Poetry Joy

sensing the sacred in the everyday

Month: April 2020