Vocation

Last weekend, I got to go to Leadership Development Days for United Methodist Women in St. Louis. LDD are special events, they speak to the core of who we are as an organization. I haven’t attended one since I was a sophomore in high school and being in that space, I felt like I was home. The people, worship, workshops and conversations felt so familiar, so natural.

It has been a busy few weeks for me, I’ve spent a lot of time in airports and on airplanes. I haven’t  gotten a lot of sleep. Throughout these weeks, I’ve regularly thought “ I just need space”. Meaning space to think, process, breather. Space to slow down and be still. I used to be very intentional about creating space and I’ve missed it. That longing followed me to LDD and it was there that I began to rediscover it.

It’s really easy for life to get overcrowded and making space often takes the backseat when things get hectic. However our conversations at LDD, reminded me again of the importance of making space especially when things pile up. It is grounding and freeing and so important. So as we enter the final stages of the semester, I’m making a commitment to carve out space to be still, to feel, to reflect. Because I think that making that space will ultimately leave me better able to juggle the things life keeps throwing at me.

Pico Iyer said “I always cut into my own clarity and concentration when I’m at home. And it reminds me why sometimes people like me have to take conscious measures to step into the stillness and silence and be reminded of how it washes us clean, really…The point of gathering stillness is not to enrich the sanctuary or the mountaintop, but to bring that calm into the motion, the commotion, of the world.”

I think that is true.