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Advent in our Lives

by Kyndra

I am settling in at my apartment in Euless, TX. Shaun is settling back into our home in Reno, NV. I am looking forward to many things now that I am back in DFW, and one of those things is re-joining the community at Church in the Cliff (CITC).

In all the buzz of moving and taking our first step on this unknown journey we have chosen for ourselves, I was reminded by CITC that this weekend begins the season of Advent. Courtney (CITC pastor) writes ...

"... But this is Christmas-time. As we prepare for Christ's birth why not focus on hope and celebrate all things sweetness and light? ... All I can say is that our tradition is smarter than that. The ancients knew that you could not fully celebrate light and life without first waiting in the darkness. And that darkness is not always tight and gloomy, but can instead be a place of God's deepest work. It is into this darkness that we step on Sunday, the first day of the Christian Liturgical Year. We step into the deep, deep blue of the night sky just before dawn. We step into the mystery-yearning to be taught again this year that it is somehow in the waiting that we encounter the mystery of God's presence. "

I am appreciating the side by side beginning of the Christian liturgical year and the beginning of Shaun's and my journey in separate physical locations. I don't expect our journey to be easy or happy all the time, but I don't expect it to be fully dark either. I expect both. And, for now, it brings me comfort to acknowledge that the dark before the dawn, the waiting, is also a time of heart work and an encounter with "the mystery of God's presence."

All is good.

Sunday Prayers

 by Shaun

Kyndra posted about us visiting the Labyrinth Garden at Rancho San Rafael Park, and she’s right, it’s great.  We went back again this past Sunday night for prayer, so I thought I’d share what has come to me there these two times. 

A week ago Sunday, (1st time there), I walked to the center circle admitting confusion and anxiety.  It was a good, slow walk.  And, once in the center I sat down for reflection and hopeful illumination.  I began to thrust a stick around in the smattering of dirt that is the very center.  The stick-in-hand was an intimation of what would come about in my prayer.  After a bit, what came to me was - “the earth can change our minds.” 
I’ll unpack what that’s meant to me soon at ThoseAwake.  For now, I’ll note that my walk out of center somehow focused on a song many of you may know - Charlie Hall’s Prepare the Way.  Especially the meditations - “you are the light of the world, you are the king of the earth.”  These chants connected with how “the earth can change our minds.”  For the first real time, I had a better sense of what it means that Jesus called himself the “Son of man.”  More on that later...

Last Sunday (2nd time there), I walked to the center circle eager for new discipline.  Being in a new city, with completely new places, people, and things seems to offer me so many new directions.  I also don’t currently have a job, so I’m going in ALL sorts of those directions!  How shall I fill up my life? I wondered. 
I walked faster this time.  In the center I sat - staying there longer this time.  I thought of another time - when I searched for discipline as a sophomore in high school.  A mentor to me and close friends was Victor Estevez, and the first time we met he talked about our thoughts being tied to who we are, quoting verses like Proverbs 23:7 - “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” and Phillipians 4:8 - “...if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”  Victor wanted us to know that sometimes discipline begins with focusing the head and the heart. 
This was my new message, and I walked out thinking about certain things that I wanted to think about.  It is simple, but sort of wonderful to think, “what do I want to think about tomorrow?  And, then the next day?  What is worthy of thinking about?”  I saw the map of the brain much like our experience of wandering the internet, with the ability to click links, go forward and backward, controlling the clicks, choosing the worthy content.  (I then thought of the great book I read a while back, Barabasi’s Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else and What it Means).

So today I thought about blogging the Sunday prayers so far.  We have had a good time, and I immediately sense a connection of praying not just in my head or my heart, but moving and feeling while I do.  The Labyrinth has been a nice place to exercise that discipline and simply being outside is a big step, I think.  We’ll be there or somewhere outdoors, Sunday nights at sunset.
Thanks for thinking of keeping up with us.  May your prayer life be rich as well.

Now I think I’ll go read.

Walking the Labyrinth

by Kyndra

I was so excited to find a labyrinth garden a couple of weeks ago at Rancho San Rafael Park here in Reno. The labyrinth holds a special memory from occupational therapy school ...

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The first week of OT school was really exciting and a little scary. But when we had our first class with Mrs. Fletcher (rated one of the favorite OT professors by many students, including me), she had us sharing our lives and interests with each other through clay/molding and other creative arts. She also took us on a field trip to a nearby church with a labyrinth. I had never walked a labyrinth and had no idea what it was. It turned out to be one of the most meaningful and unforgettable experiences of my life. As I walked the labyrinth in Dallas in my first week of OT school in late summer of 2006, I reflected on my journey to that day. I had gone through nursing school, decided it wasn't for me, chose to pursue child life, then discovered the wonderful world of occupational therapy in that process and decided to go for grad school. I felt pleased with my journey and was happy to be where I was at.
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Sunday evening, Shaun and I walked the labyrinth at Rancho San Rafael, as I was feeling a little anxious about my internship (that started the next day, Monday).

Now, in summer 2008, OT school is completed and I find myself anxious about beginning fieldwork where I have to put to use all that information I spent 2 years learning. I was frightened, worried, excited, and hopeful about the internship. I walked the labyrinth, and again reflected on my journey to that day. I was proud of every choice I made. I thought of the wonderful friends I made through the years of nursing, child life, and OT school. I thought about the challenging moments of OT school such as speaking at Celebration of Scholarship about my research, and about the projects I spent hours on, and the group projects that pushed my last nerves. I looked back, and I was grateful for every experience I had, and realized that everything up to that point had prepared me for the one step I would make toward my future the next morning.

As I walked, I was calmed by realizing that I am like a flower ... a bud right now ... a bud that yearns to be open and beautiful, but knows that blooming is a process - it is slow and takes time, with small gain each day. I was also calmed knowing that God would go with me. I asked how I would know. The answer was, "you will see me in the people."  That made me smile.
I was relieved. 
I'm only two days into it, but my fieldwork so far has been a great time!