What is this strange season good for? I think I know …
July was another tense, challenging month personally and, I think, collectively too.
Each time we go out into public — it’s strange & awkward.
Each time we return home — it’s a welcome relief, but still mildly noisy in my head even in the silence.
I’m still trying to think of the Covid-19 Pandemic as a time for practice, not perfection. It’s been on a digital post-it note on the back of my computer screen since this began in the spring.
I can’t take credit for that concept, it was from an email from Courtney Carver the founder of Be More With Less. Her insight has been a guide for me during these strange times of heath crisis and social crisis.
I’m practicing leaning into some routines that should be basic by now, but aren’t.
I’m practicing creating again online, but sometimes moving quickly and then retreating and reassessing.
I’m practicing better skincare and better soul care.
I’m practicing the fine art of being at home without being bored.
I’m practicing vulnerability as I meet with a counselor and a Spiritual Director to navigate the immense vocational upheaval and confusion of the last year and a half, but honestly it spreads further — almost the last decade and a half.
I’m practicing new recipes and avoiding the pull of perfection by wrapping up some long-ignored projects that linger from room to room.
I’m practicing using the rooms for what they were designed for — tables for eating and talking. Couches for resting and napping. Desks for creating and collaborating.
Your Turn…
As you reflect on July 2020, certainly your experiences cannot match mine identically. Yet, perhaps, you find a bit of a shared experience within my reflection. If I could offer you a question for reflection on the sacred space of July 2020 it would be this — in what ways are you practicing without attempting perfection?
Where, in August, can we lean closer toward practice and push further away from perfection?