Rhythm

"Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” -Matthew 11:30 (MSG)

One of my goals for 2012 is to "create rhythm, and live in the rhythm".

If you're anything like me, then you're always reminiscing about the past or impatiently waiting for the next big thing to come along. Sameness and routine scares me. But too often I slip into the predictability of "the daily grind" because I am not deliberate enough in separating my moments, one from another.

What creating rhythm means for me is separating the ordinary, everyday moments into distinct notes that combined together, form a beautiful melody, instead of an indistinguishable blur of monotonous background noise. That is what I hope to do for the year ahead.

During the last week of 2011, I took some time to jot down a few words in my journal related to the kind of rhythm I want to create in my daily, weekly, and monthly routines. I'm sharing them here in case you might be inspired to do something similar.

Daily rhythm:
mornings - peaceful, anticipating, refreshed, calm, stretch, read the Bible, shower, eat breakfast at home
afternoons - don't eat at desk, low-carb, focus, energized, walk
evenings - relax, reflect, recharge, rest, family, friends, no email

Weekly rhythm:
workdays - less Facebook, sleep earlier
weekends - family, creativity, physical activity, outdoors, cook, bake, play

Monthly rhythm:
celebrate one thing (be thankful)
cultivate / get rid of one habit (practice discipline)
tell one person's story (write)
ask for one thing (pray)

Physical rhythm:
Divide a wall in my room into sections and paste up...
'Celebrate' - what I'm thankful for
'Ask' - what I'm praying for
'Others' - how people have inspired me or made me think

"We need rhythm in our time—it’s what makes one moment different from another. It gives shape and color and form to all of life.

The first Christians understood this—that time, like sound, is best when broken up, divided and arranged into patterns and rhythms. And so they created the church calendar. A way to organize the year, a way to bring variance to our days, a way to find a song in the passing of time.

What the church calendar does is create space for Jesus to meet us in the full range of human experience, for God to speak to us across the spectrum, in the good and the bad, in the joy and in the tears." -Rob Bell, Why Advent

Image: Some rights reserved by Brandon Giesbrecht

In every season

This is my prayer in the desert
And all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides

And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames

And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

And this is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on it's way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand

All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've recieved I will sow

"For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven." -Ecclesiastes 3:1

Blessed 2012, and see you next year!

Hello friends, I'll be away from this blog for some time to do some real world catching up with friends, feasting, celebrating, and basically just living.

So I'll see you in the year ahead. :) Hope you're spending some good time with your loved ones as the year draws to a close too, and making the last few days of 2011 count.

Relish11.9 - Words

What quote, or line from a poem or a song, most captures what this year was for you?

It's hard for me to pick one. So I've narrowed it down to one of each: a quote, a poem, and a line from a song. :)

This year, in a nutshell, has been an incredible journey. There was a lot of travelling done - literally, as well as within my soul. So many new and unfamiliar experiences have been squeezed into the past 11 months, but  in the middle of all the wandering and exploring, there is the one thing that anchors me, that always brings me back to where I began, and to who I am.

Quote.
"Not all who wander are lost." -J. R. R. Tolkien

Poem.
"We shall not cease from exploration.
And the end of all our exploring.
Will be to arrive where we started.
And know the place for the first time."
-T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Song.
"Wherever I wander, the one thing I've learned;
It's to here, I will always return." -This is Where I Belong, Bryan Adams

Relish11.8 - Beans

What flavor did you most relish this year? Perhaps it was a whole meal, but what can you say about the flavors of the last eleven months, what do you want to remember?

Beans

Image from TasteFood

I spent a lot of time eating alone in the UK. And so if there's one taste I'd want to keep in my memory, it'd be the better taste of food when it's shared with good company.

Other than that, new flavours I've discovered this year would be pulses and beans - which should be a staple of every cheapo student's diet. Healthy, fiber-filled, and powdery, beans are a way better alternative to potatoes. From hummus to bean stews, soups and casseroles to dhal curries, beans are an amazingly tasty, healthy, and cheap way to fill up.