{"id":220,"date":"2022-11-04T09:03:07","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T09:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/?p=220"},"modified":"2022-11-04T09:03:07","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T09:03:07","slug":"spirit-play-reflection-presence-and-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/04\/spirit-play-reflection-presence-and-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirit Play Reflection- Presence and Absence\u200b"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Absence and Presence<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For the first time this year I missed a scheduled Spirit Play class. \u00a0I traveled over the weekend to see family and wondered how class would go in my absence. \u00a0I felt very fortunate that a wonderful sub was found and felt a lot of gratitude that my spirit play friends were being held in the capable hands of others in our community. \u00a0And the last few weeks of holidays and breaks meant that I have been out of the classroom for several weeks in a row. \u00a0In our classroom I strive to connect with each person who comes, greeting them as they enter and engaging them in conversation. \u00a0The quality of my presence is very important to me. \u00a0During our peace greeting I try to make eye contact with each adult and child in our room. \u00a0I want them to know that I see\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0beauty, hear\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0needs and honor\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0wisdom. \u00a0What I am doing is trying to facilitate a relationship of love which, of course, doesn\u2019t end when I leave the classroom. \u00a0If you see me in the parish hall on Sundays chances are you may miss me as I greet one of my spirit play friends down at their eye level. \u00a0This act of coming down to meet them, to listen to them and to hear them is beautiful. \u00a0The children light up. \u00a0An adult is interested in them. \u00a0They are seen and heard in a way that shows them that I have stopped my own agenda and am present to them where they are. \u00a0This fall our children had a few Sundays where they sold flowers and produce from our garden in the parish hall. \u00a0One young boy was standing just in the doorway directing the influx of people to the table with their garden stand ready. \u00a0I observed the adults as they walked right by without seeing him. \u00a0I observed the adults who looked at this boy and nodded their head without really listening and walked right by. \u00a0I did what I do with my young friends and knelt down to ask about the garden and the sale. \u00a0The animated and proud answers to my questions lit up both of our hearts. \u00a0It was a brief moment, but a moment of connection. \u00a0It makes me think about how I am present, crouching down to meet the eyes of a child, or how I\u2019m absent, even when I\u2019m right there, but too distracted to stop. \u00a0It also makes me wonder about how I interact with the other adults at church. \u00a0I try to be present too and listen to others, but I notice that I am sometimes absent when asked to give voice to my own heart. \u00a0It takes courage and vulnerability to engage in mutual presence. \u00a0It can take us to unexpected places when we choose to be present and give voice to what is true and real in us and allow another to witness our words and respond in kind. \u00a0This is the best of church, when we can choose to show up to each other in all the risk and delight that entails and listen each other into speech and love.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n<\/header>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time this year I missed a scheduled Spirit Play class. \u00a0I traveled over the weekend to see family and wondered how class would go in my absence. \u00a0I felt very fortunate that a wonderful sub was found and felt a lot of gratitude that my spirit play friends were being held in the capable hands of others in our community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","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=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions\/222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}