The Slow Way: Sunshine and Vapor
It’s true that the world is beautiful. And it’s also true that the beauty and goodness in the world can dissolve in front of us. Life is unpredictable, and we can still be here to see and bless it.
The end of June always feels to me like the peak of summer: when all of nature seems as it was meant to be. Yes, the roses and peonies have moved on, but the plants they supported? They are stretching their green arms toward to the sun, longer everyday. My lilies are lift their heads as high as possible, opening to these longest days. I’m loading up the family’s stuff for our trip to Maine, where the mornings will be cool but the sun will vibrate hot on the rocky shore
Summer is the moment when all is what it was made to be. Vibrant, flourishing. We accept the heat for the sake of the light. We slow down and linger beside the water. We eat all the veggies and fruits that have been born into this season. We drink cold drinks on porches.
It’s Ordinary Time in the Church calendar. I always love that here in the Northern hemisphere, this is the season we call “ordinary,” the longest days stitched together into months. Ordinary Time lingers in the sun. Ordinary Time gardens and has picnics and learns to dive off diving boards. The rest of the year, when we don’t have stone fruit or ripe tomatoes, that’s when we need to be reminded of the big stories of our faith. But here, right now? The sky and the water and the fireflies do the reminding.
My husband pulled out an old favorite among our poetry collection this week. Robert Siegel’s A Pentecost of Finches holds within in a poem about fatherhood that knocks Chris over every time. He wanted to read it on Father’s Day.
And so, as most books do in our “lived-in,” and not-always-tidy house, Siegel’s poems sat in the entry all week, until I picked it up on Wednesday, and opened it to a poem I must have missed before: “Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy / while each leaf thrusts into the universe of air / and the light green haze of April rises like smoke / sweet in the nostril.”
This poem, “Aubade,” spends its first stanza in the realm of the natural world, where the sun “beats a million white wings.” But it slowly moves inside to the cat that stretches by the window and the mattress that creaks, and the children who “feel their way through cool porcelain bathrooms.”
These are the scenes of Ordinary Time, the moments of being alive —the back pain that wakes a man in early morning, the monotony of whiskers on the face that demand to be cut again, and “the fragile sanctum of the present moment.”
Long days don’t last, and the natural world never promises to stay the same. But what if we allow these long days to make us wise to all that is ordinary and temporary, knowing that even as kids only stay up late smelling like bug spray, and sticky from the dripping popsicles for a moment in time, we can still be here to see and bless it, receiving the beauty, even as it comes in temporary form?
I haven’t spent much time with the Hebrew book of Ecclesiastes, but it came to mind as I read this poem. I recently learned that what we usually translates from Eccclesisates as “meaningless” might be better understood as “vapor.” Mysterious, impermanent, something that is there but cannot be contained.
It’s true that the world is beautiful. And it’s also true that the beauty and goodness in the world can dissolve in front of us. Life is unpredictable, like the author of Ecclesiastes says, it’s a “chasing after the wind.”
As Siegel writes:
…the frame blurs, the attention fails
And we fall into one or another distraction:
The horrors and banalities of the news, the half-typed letter,
The mysteries of long division, the tumbled tower of blocks,
Regret’s heavy shadow or the usual obsession.
As far as the lilies in my garden stretch their necks toward the sun, they cannot extend themselves far beyond the month they bloom. Vapor.
And so we’re vapor too. I sit at my vanity before bed rubbing cream on my neck and doing the anti-wrinkle jaw exercises I learned from Instagram. My kids grow taller and make choices for themselves. Soon they too will extend past my reach.
And this sunshine that “beats a million white wings” will slow itself and invite us to get quiet along with it, fading into the cool sideways glow of autumn. But we’re not there yet. Yes, it will vaporize. But right now, it’s hot and bright and alive. What will we do with these long days?
Siegel ends his poem by praying: “Lord, in this bright vehicle of this moment, / Descend to us and spread your golden tent.”
What will we do with the Lord’s descent? The beauty of all that we hold and all that has been lost? The sweet vapor of meaning?
May we live with wisdom right now in the “bright vehicle of this moment,” beneath the spread of the Lord’s golden tent.
A Slow Practice
Today I want us to practice a little Lectio Divina with a passage, not from Ecclesiastes, but from Proverbs 3:13-18. In most practices of Lectio Divina, the participant reads through the passage several times, practicing reading with the heart, as opposed to the head. This is not a time for intellectual rigor. It’s a time for openness, for engaging with the Spirit, asking for transformation. When we practice Lectio we read slowly, with silence before and after, inviting our souls to listen in a deeper way than the ways we usually come to words.
Ruth Haley Barton invites us to “four movements” of Lectio Divina. First we read and savor. We follow that by reflecting on what the passage might be saying to our lives. Then we look for a way to respond. The fourth movement is “contemplatio—to rest in God,” where we sit in the presence of the Spirit in peace and quiet.
I’d love for you to move through this process with me. Let’s begin with savoring. Sit in silence for a moment before reading the passage aloud. Let your body become still and quiet. Then read this passage silently and slowly, allowing yourself to settle into a place where you can hear from the words. As you read, listen to what stands out, maybe a word or phrase, that is louder than the rest.
Proverbs 3:13-18
Happy are those who find wisdom
and those who get understanding,
for her income is better than silver
and her revenue better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called happy.
Now allow yourself to savor any word or phrase that stood out to you. Sit with it. There’s always a temptation to jump quickly into looking for meaning behind your attraction to that word, but try to release that need to find meaning right now. Just acknowledge what you were drawn toward.
Read this passage again:
Proverbs 3:13-18
Happy are those who find wisdom
and those who get understanding,
for her income is better than silver
and her revenue better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called happy.
Are you still attracted to the same word? Or did something else stand out? Now is a time when you can ask yourself why you might be drawn to this word or phrase. Is there something in your life that is particularly touched by this idea or concept? Is there some wisdom you might be longing for? Sit with this prayerfully for a bit.
Now read it for a third time.
Proverbs 3:13-18
Happy are those who find wisdom
and those who get understanding,
for her income is better than silver
and her revenue better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called happy.
Sit in silence. Ask the Spirit to invite or challenge you to some sort of response. Perhaps the word or phrase has brought to the surface something you need to work through, or is challenging you in some way. Let yourself express whatever your response needs to be to God in the silence.
And now, read it one last time:
Proverbs 3:13-18
Happy are those who find wisdom
and those who get understanding,
for her income is better than silver
and her revenue better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called happy.
Your invitation now is to rest in the presence of God, to come close to God and invite God to come close to you. Allow yourself to take the word or phrase you were drawn to here and carry it with you into your day and week.
Close your time with a deep breath.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
A List of Things:
Next week I’ll be celebrating the 100th episode of the Slow Way Podcast! If you haven’t yet listened to the Slow Way, it’s a great way to refresh yourself on the content of the Slow Way letter, to be led through a prayer practice, or to simply recenter yourself in the presence of God.
I’ll be taking a break from this newsletter and from The Slow Way Podcast for the rest of July following the release of my 100th episode. It’s been an intense season of book release and publicity, and we all know how important it is to take time to delight in “bright vehicle of this moment.” :) I’ll be back around here in August.
Just a reminder that Amazon reviews make a big difference long term for the sales of my new book, Blessed Are The Rest of Us. Leaving a review is a way you can show your appreciation for my work, a way that means A WHOLE LOT to me. Click here to leave a review!
And as always, a reminder that Blessed Are The Rest of Us is available at 40% off the price of other booksellers at Baker Bookhouse. Just use the code SLOWWAY at checkout.