If you are joining as part of our October Spiritual Journey cohort, please add your link below (scroll to the end).
If you are a Poetry Friday visitor, please enjoy this reflection (and the linked reflections of our cohort).
Margaret at Reflections on the Teche has the Poetry Friday round up this weekend. Join us!
For our October Spiritual Journey reflections:
Where, how are you trusting – or struggling to trust — in the slow work of God?
Patient Trust
by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—
“We are… impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.”
Most of my life I have not been a great example of trusting in the slow work of God.
As a young girl, I watched my older sister do just about everything a year ahead of me: cross the street by herself; first sleepover; wear pantyhose – and mascara! I wanted what was just out of reach and I wanted it right then.
As a young woman, I was impatient to find my purpose…constantly changing majors in college; toiling at jobs I didn’t love. When babies arrived, I imagined their school years, their summer experiences, always looking past the intermediate stages of instability.
Somewhere in my fifties, I realized that instability is another word for life’s constant unfolding. I am always a work in progress. “Now” became my goal. To be fully present.
The past two years I have lived this in technicolor. Eight weddings, each a joy. My sisters and I waded fully into caregiving for our aging parents. We rode the waves of their decline, feeling every heartache of anticipatory grief that crashed around us.
I am a planner. I’m uber-organized, always in command of a Plan A (and B and C…). Until I’m not. Losing my parents within a year of each other, losing an unborn grandbaby, navigating a move from our home of 35 years, watching my sisters begin moves that will take us further away from one another… At some point, I realized I have to stop fighting the current.
Today I try not to imagine much past the coming few weeks. It’s a way to let grace in, to “accept the anxiety of feeling [myself] in suspense and incomplete.”
These days, this is the best prayer I can live.
Link your October Spiritual Journey Reflections here:
Patricia Franz writes picture books and poetry. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Patricia, Navigating the losses that come is such a hard part of life’s journey. We have to trust in the hand of God to be held through it all. Thanks for sharing your spiritual journey and for gathering us this month.
Yes, trust in Presence (grace). Thank you, Margaret.
Hi Patricia: The older I get, the more I try to plan and get control. To be “ready.” It gets exhausting. I hope I can learn the lesson you wrote about above. Thanks so much for hosting and this prompt. It will need revisiting.
I’m trying to unlearn that need to control — hoping the older I get, the easier it might be!
You have learned well, grasshopper. It is not easy to live in the present and embrace change. It’s something I also strive for. Thank you for sharing your journey.
I wonder if that is what it means to grow up…
Patricia, this prayer and your meditation resonates with me deeply. I’m still in my work life, though at the end. I’ve been thinking more and more about retirement with excitement, wishing it here already. But too, I realize the sweetness of having the experience so that I do not have to worry about things. I can slow down a bit and be present…even though my entire work experience is designed to advance students to the next, the next, the next. I’m going to see my sisters this weekend. We are spending some time with our Dad who is well, thank goodness. I’m going to spend time in the sweetness of our moments together. There’s so much wisdom in this prayer. Thank you.
I always think of teachers as having to be fully in the moment, forgetting that you are also touching the future. Such a tender balance. Here’s to sister-time (I am one of 4)!
Patricia, it makes me think of the old adage of god laughing whenever we make plans. Meanwhile life is happening! Yay for your technicolor years! Thank you for the sweet prayer. xo
So appreciate the prayer poem and your earnest reflections. It is reassuring to know most of us share your feelings of struggling to cope with life’s many ups and downs. The saying is so true — life is what happens while we are busy making plans. Thanks for the reminder to live in the moment and not stress over what is out of our control.
You are wisely listening to the lessons that have been unfolding, to be fully present. I was just thinking yesterday that “listen” (my One Little Word) has been such a needed word for me this year. I can’t always make things conform to what I want, sometimes I have to just listen for what is. xo
This is a beautiful reflection. I lost my father and stepmother within a one year period, and empathize with the intensity of dual losses. Life’s journey is certainly an interesting one. I just read a quote by Anton Wildgans that came to mind when I read your post: “What is to give light must endure burning.”
Patricia, this is beautiful…
“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.”
I have a sign on a shelf in my bathroom that says, “If you are praying for it, God is working on it.”
Sometimes it’s hard to give our troubles and wishes to God and be patient, especially when it comes to prayers for loved ones. I have certainly felt this lately. Happy to have discovered the website that posted this poem.
Dear Patricia, I’ve known & sent hugs about your parents but I’m so sorry for your unborn grandbaby loss – I didn’t know. I’m glad you are relaxing into your Life & appreciate your sharing. I’m so not a folo-thru planner, more of a tumbleweed, bouncer from this to that, which has worked out ultra fine, I see now.
During those growing up years my parents were so old when I was born [Dad was grandpa age & mistaken for my grandpa, when it was just the two of us out & about], my Mom was 40 when i came along, had poor health already & it accelerated when I was little & my only sibling was developmentally delayed & I became her 2nd Mom beginning in h.s. years & ever after, her main Mom, so plans? To Make? To Enact?
But, to relate to the theme here, my life all thru this & still is, abundantly rich – in Nature, Travel & Creativity & Faith & Blessings & most important of all, Deep Love.
So powerful, Patricia. That same line grabbed me immediately – ” accept the anxiety of feeling yourself/
in suspense and incomplete.” It reminds me of “Cease striving and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)” Except I’m not the greatest at ceasing the striving! Your wise words ae helpful. Thank you! :0)
Patricia, such a poignant piece, so much loss is a short amount of time. This: ” trust in the slow work of God” made me think of chairos, in God’s time.
Patricia, trust is a great prompt so thank you for having us reflect upon it. Believing in the slow work of God connects with trusting Him. This line, “We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay”, is one of my issues. Your reflection is honest and soulful. It was great seeing you today on Zoom.
I feel as though you’ve been living this line as you and your family walk the path of grief…trusting in God’s comfort. I’m glad you were able to hop on the zoom!
Oh, struggling down the same path: you and me and Maggie (and for some, God–or the Buddha, who also calls us to the present). Someday we’ll have to have a conversation about the differences, if any, of trusting God vs. trusting the simply human Process. So sorry I missed the PopUp that I intended to attend!
I will look forward to that “someday” — these days I’m not sure who/what I pray to!
Patricia, with all of the ads we see about instant gratification, patiently waiting for God to answer our prayers is difficult. We want things done yesterday. Out trust in His is tested each day we have to wait for an answer. And yet, answer he always does. God’s time is not our time.
Thank you for hosting this month. I am going to try to get my post written today. Bob
I love that “time” is a construct to make sense of the mystery.
Take it easy, Bob. Hope you are recovering.
Sorry to show up late this month.
I love these words of wisdom from your post: “instability is another word for life’s constant unfolding. I am always a work in progress. ‘Now’ became my goal. To be fully present.”
I too struggle with looking too far down the road and thinking I can manage or manhandle life on my own.
Thanks for the beautiful prayer you shared with us. I printed it and am tucking it on one of my quote books.
I read a reflection this morning by Maria Popova on saying “yes” to life — yes to the mess, the pain, the joy, and not trying to fight things. Love the description of “manhandle life on my own.” I definitely want to give that up!
I adored this!
Patricia, THANK YOU for this important reminder. I have been to dark places like most others my age. Yet, THE reminder that I am never alone on this journey is one that I repeat regularly.