Dear Kaleid Ladies,
This Lent, we are embracing a tension of Christian reality, which includes the “already” and the “not yet.” Women are familiar with threshold moments. We know what it means to stand between two seasons in life and recognize that what is past was enriching and what is to come is promising, even while what is now may be disorienting.
Lent recalls Jesus’ wilderness season, which was an in-between space. God himself knew a season of unfulfilled expectation and shifting identity that was marked with dryness, loneliness, and more open space than was comfortable for a human heart. Through Lent and its practices, we follow Jesus and practice living with honesty and hope in the threshold spaces of life.
To open ourselves to God’s life in the threshold moment of Lent, at Kaleid we are practicing a discipline called “Statio,” a spiritual practice where we pause, marking a moment as we cross a threshold, recollecting ourselves and remembering God.
Today, we stop to pause at something very simple: the urge to take a drink. Our eating is often carefully planned and even highly anticipated, but how many times a day do you find that you’ve consumed a whole glass of water or cup of coffee without even noticing?
What threshold moment is tucked inside the simple act of taking a drink?
Practicing the Statio before we take a drink is a way to notice our thirst. It can lead to gratitude to God for the gift of water, but it can also become a pause to check in with our soul to see what we might be truly thirsty for in the moment between thirst and consumption.
The Hebrew word for “soul” is “nefesh.” Its most basic meaning is “throat.” When our souls are tight with thirst, we need God to visit us with refreshment that will allow us to drink, talk, eat, breathe, and even sing again. As the Psalm says, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1)
Today, allow the simplicity of taking a sip of water to invite your soul to be honest about its thirst. And allow that honesty to lead your soul to hope in the One who shares living water, freely.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)
Would you Statio with us today, three weeks into Lent, on this ordinary day that holds the soul-prompt of thirst? Will you join us as to stop, to breathe, to recollect, and to pray?
Stop: Look at the clock. Mark the time and the day. Note where you are. Perhaps close your eyes for ten or fifteen seconds to come to a complete stop before you fill your glass.
Breathe: Inhale deeply. Exhale fully. Twice. Become aware of the gift of grace that is the life in your lungs.
Recollect: Collect yourself. What is your thirst about today? Where are you dry or tight or lagging in your soul? Thank God for your thirst. Remember God. Imagine Jesus holding out living water to you right now. Imagine the love with which he offers it. What does this simple and caring act do for your soul?
Pray: Here, standing at the sink or at your table, offer a prayer to God for water and for living water, both of which are freely available to you today.
Here is a poem reminding us how simple things like water can lead to deeper truths.
The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry
When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Gratefully,
The Kaleid Team
P.S. We are SO excited to be offering an Art Circle at Kaleid this Spring! Visit one or both art experiences (one this Saturday 3/26 at Refuge Coffee and one in April at the Carlos Museum at Emory) and then join us via zoom to debrief the experience and consider how art helps us to see others. Bring a friend! It’s free!