These past weeks have been a whirlwind. \u00a0Even contemplative minded folks can get overwhelmed by the many demands of life and forget to pause, reflect and simply be. \u00a0This has been my last few weeks in Spirit Play. \u00a0There is so much to do. \u00a0I have found that the change in our curriculum from our regular stories into reading books to the children is both sad to me and a relief. \u00a0I feel none of us get as much out of the book reading as we do with our regular stories with objects to act them out. \u00a0And, I have also been relieved that I can come with less preparation than usual. \u00a0There is no story to try to memorize for another week. \u00a0I can just come. \u00a0I can just read.<\/p>\n
Last week in Spirit Play we were talking again about families. \u00a0This time we specifically talked about families who have adopted someone. \u00a0I read through the books and wondered with the children and dismissed them to their work.<\/p>\n
I had a chant running through me that day so I sat witnessing and observing the play happening around me occasionally humming to myself. \u00a0I actually felt very connected to the children and joyful. \u00a0And also very tired. \u00a0One child used the nesting blocks to stack into a tower. \u00a0She found ways to stack large blocks onto little blocks by stacking them sideways making spaces in her tower that were open to one side and into which another block fit. \u00a0We stacked together in silence. \u00a0I handed her boxes and she handed me boxes and we stacked till things fell and then stacked again, and again. \u00a0We made sculptures and towers and nests and spaces.<\/p>\n
Inside I was chanting to myself, \u201cListen, listen, listen to my heart\u2019s song. \u00a0Listen, listen, listen to my heart\u2019s song. \u00a0I will never forget you. \u00a0I will never forsake you. I will never forget you. \u00a0I will never forsake you.\u201d \u00a0Over and over. \u00a0Last week my heart just needed to rest. \u00a0It was good to rest. \u00a0I found rest in observing the classroom. \u00a0I found rest in the silent dance of building and re-building. \u00a0It was enough. \u00a0It was beautiful. \u00a0I am happy to have found for that moment, a place of acceptance in being easy on myself and letting myself simply be. \u00a0When I forget that open space and focus on what I do (or more often, what I haven\u2019t gotten done) it can feel like my heart is out of place, like it isn\u2019t welcome. \u00a0I want to bring my heart into belonging. \u00a0I want my whole self to be like the families we have been learning about\u2026to be all one because of love. \u00a0I want to honor my doing and honor my resting. \u00a0I want to choose my heart and choose my work. \u00a0I want to relish my rest as much as my accomplishments.<\/p>\n
I am so grateful to be with our children in a space of openness and exploration where we can listen to our own and each others\u2019 hearts. \u00a0That\u2019s one way our church is a family for each other\u2026to welcome each others\u2019 heart songs and encourage each other in the dance of doing\/being and belonging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
These past weeks have been a whirlwind. \u00a0Even contemplative minded folks can get overwhelmed by the many demands of life and forget to pause, reflect and simply be. \u00a0This has been my last few weeks in Spirit Play. \u00a0There is so much to do. \u00a0I have found that the change in our curriculum from our regular stories into reading books to the children is both sad to me and a relief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}