Window of Sun
Well I think I chose the best time of the day to swim today. It was cloudy all morning like it has been all week. After 10 am, my meeting schedule cleared and I could see faint patches of blue in the sky. I left and by the time I got to the beach, there was significant swaths of blue from the shore heading eastward.
The air temp was in the low 60s. The water was a lovely pale green and there was some decent surf and fairly smooth surface. The water felt good. Surfline claims 62-64. We are definitely heading in the right direction. Visibility is not so good but I can definitely see the tops of the kelp trees and the water is a beautiful blue hue. Something about this warmer water makes it feel lighter to me. I’m sure it all still weighs the same but that is just how it feels.
It just seems like it is taking longer than usual to complete my initial southward journey to the cliffs. Then I turn around and it feels like I am being propelled northward. About half way through the swim, I sense more texture on the water but it is still relatively smooth. It’s nice to be out. The last couple days have been hectic at work with technical work related problems. Part of me likes this. I certainly do not like the stress or the prospect of customers being impacted but I do like a real problem to troubleshoot. It is challenging to get to the root of the problem but feels really good after you do. It’s hard for me to focus on other things when work is like this. Fortunately this is pretty rare.
I’m also thinking of the Lectio Divina group I participate in on Wednesday nights. I’ve been doing this for a few months now. Lectio Divina is a Christian contemplative practice of scripture reading in a meditative style. Each week we will read about a paragraph (currently in the gospel of Luke). Each person spends about 5 minutes on their own reading in silence. The practice is not to read with the left, analyzing, logical brain but rather to let the words wash over you and note how you feel and the images and sensations that come. Each person chooses a word or phrase that speaks to them from the passage and shares what it is. Then we spend another 5 minutes contemplating that word or phrase and open ourselves to what that word or phrase is saying to us. Then we spend the rest of the, usually 90 minute, session sharing on this topic.
I had previously heard of Lectio Divina years ago and it seemed super interesting. I never actually practiced it until recently when I heard there was a group here in Dana Point. It has been more impactful than I anticipated. We often cover passages I find sort of mind boggling or challenging. Like last week Jesus is talking to the robbers being crucified on either side of him and he tells one that he will meet him in paradise. Paradise?! Really?! I often find talk of heaven and hell really difficult. When I think of our images and conceptions for these places and how we take them literally, my mind goes into this “cannot compute…invalid input…please contact your system administrator” mode. It just doesn’t make sense especially when you consider that time is an artificial construct and when I put myself in that literalistic box, suddenly the scripture feels small and confining. Yet as I let the word paradise wash over me along with the words around it and allow myself to melt into the spirit of the passage, I feel an expansiveness and a connection with a love that is big big big.
Lately I have been noticing that this lectio practice seeps into other parts of my life outside of Wednesday nights. I wonder how I can let this practice guide me through problems and perplexities in life. How about letting experience wash over me and let myself feel what a memory or personal interaction or emotional trigger to the news might be trying to say beyond the words and conversation on the surface.
As I complete my swim and come to shore, the sun feels really good and I make my way up the stairs. I am noticing footprints from water on the ground. I wonder how it is that the entire bottom of this person’s foot remained wet all the way up this 7 minute walk up the stairs. Wouldn’t it eventually dry? Mine does. The mysteries of life. Perhaps I need to just let myself melt into these footprints and feel out any message here. Perhaps, but I don’t yet now that I am thinking of it I’m betting there is definitely something here.
The sun runs off not long after I get home. Glad I caught this window of sun when I had the chance!
