Learn a summer liturgy of leisure
It's summer. Life slows down a little.
Relax into a hammock, spend a day watching the clouds instead of working the Cloud.
Put peonies in your hair, Pimms in your hand, plimsolls on your feet.
Give yourself room to bloom.
Except that for many of us our daily lives are still typically filled with things to do.
People to see. Jobs to attend to.
A long list of things to accomplish, finish, maybe even begin, before we can leave for a summer holiday. And while we are there we spend our moments revisiting that list which will still await us on our return.
We need to learn a liturgy of leisure. To embrace a slower, more biblical rhythm of life. To remember that, in Genesis, "there was evening and there was morning." A reminder that rest comes before work , that we need to learn to work out of our rest rather than collapse from overwork into exhaustion.
Then life becomes a rhythm of grace to dance to - living each day well, with thankfulness and contentment. Life becomes a gift rather than a chore; meals with family and friends can be lingered over and be a means of grace.
Slow down and taste the grace. Slow down long enough for God to be known and you to know. Sip summer in a glass and savour the reminder to "Taste and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34:8)
Take time to watch the birds and the butterflies dance. Maybe there's a liturgical dance to be copied and we too can dance with the exuberance of the gift of life.
Walk on the grass in bare toes and feel. Just feel. Or on the sand. And in the sea. Feel. When did you last take time to feel anything?
It's time to learn a summer liturgy of leisure. It's time to learn to take time.
Make time to read? Maybe these:
The Day is Yours: Ian Stackhouse
A Meal with Jesus: Tim Chester
One Thousand Gifts: Ann Voskamp
Word into Heart: Anne Alcock