Tag: distraction

Longing

Post author By dw
Post date December 30, 2024
No Comments on Longing

Longing is a liar
close kin to Coveting
a deprecated religious word
meaning there’s something I want
want enough so it bothers me
bothers me enough to distract me
distract me from what’s before me
right now:
the opportunity to live and act
fully
undistracted

Tags attention, distraction, Poetry

attention the real self

A million things

dark black and white photo of trees in winter

…to run anything in this world…is like being lost in a forest of a million trees…and each tree is a thing to be done… A million trees. A million things. Until finally we have eyes for nothing else, and whatever we see turns into a thing.
…
So how am I to say it, gentlemen? When he came, I missed him.
— The Inkeeper
Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “The Birth”

I can’t begin to convey the magic of Frederick Buechner’s sermon “The Birth”. Sermon isn’t really the right word. It’s more like three interviews with people who witnessed the event: the Innkeeper, the Wise Men, and the Shepherds. The quote above is from the Innkeeper’s account, his witness, his confession – that’s what it is in the end – his confession. And it’s my confession, too; maybe it’s yours.

Are we lost in the forest of our concerns, so lost we can’t see the Light of the World around and among us?
He came to his own people and his own people…”missed” him. Do we, like the innkeeper, have no room, no mental or emotional space, for Jesus to be born? Are we missing him? Are we aware we are missing him?
What can we do to not miss him? (Attention is the beginning of devotion.)
List out some of the ‘million things’ in your life. Note down times in your life when those things caused you to miss something important. Write down what Jesus means to you and what you might do to give him more space in your life.

I highly recommend Buechner’s book and that you read this particular sermon. What I have shared here doesn’t begin to do it justice.

Grace and peace to you…

p.s. This is a refresh of a past post from early 2018

Tags Birth of Jesus, distraction, Frederick Buechner, innkeeper, million things, Secrets in the Dark, sermon

attention freedom the real self

So many coats – Mary Oliver

Post author By dw
Post date February 27, 2018
No Comments on So many coats – Mary Oliver

With growth into adulthood, responsibilities claimed me, so many heavy coats. I didn’t choose them, I don’t fault them, but it took time to reject them.

— Mary Oliver, Upstream

Tags attention, calling, distraction, eternity, Mary Oliver, responsibilities, Upstream, vocation

attention

Mary Oliver on ‘Attention’

Something is wrong, I know it, if I don’t keep my attention on eternity.
…
Attention is the beginning of devotion.
Mary Oliver, Upstream

I love Mary Oliver’s poetry and now am coming to love her prose as I read her book of essays Upstream. In these two sentences from the first chapter, she seems to focus on at least part of the antidote for the problem posed by the quote from Thomas Merton last week.

I think what we pay attention to is what seems most important to us at any given moment. What do we find ourselves paying attention to and what does that tell us about the things we value most?
How do we cope with keeping ourselves focused? How do we avoid constant distraction?
Are we as perceptive as Mary Oliver, knowing something is wrong when our attention strays from eternity?
Write down the things that you pay attention to. Which ones are ‘keepers’, things you definitely want to keep front and center? Which are definitely distractions? Are there some that are in between? What are they?

Grace and peace to you…

Photo by dw