Lent Through Your Senses

I’m all about small steps and short accessible faith practices to give meaning to time and bring reminders throughout our days of God’s presence in our lives. I discovered the following practice in the “Lent at Home” guide for 2024 from Mennonite Education Agency. It’s intended for Lent, but could absolutely be used any time of year and any time you have a moment (or more than just a moment) to spend outside.

When I get all wound up or anxious or I’m trying to do too many things at once, I will occasionally turn to a simple centering practice of the senses: still my body and name 5 things I see, 4 things I feel, 3 things I hear, 2 things I smell, and 1 thing I taste. Author Talashia Keim Yoder’s suggestions below remind me of that practice. I appreciate both the simplicity and how kid-friendly this way of engaging in Spirituality is.

During the days of Covid lock-down, my kids and I would go on walks - so many walks! - and try different things to make it more engaging. One of the practices we had, in addition to scavenger hunts and chalk obstacle courses (two other faves) was to test what we could notice with all our senses. Encountering God through the sound of birds rustling in the tall grass, the smell of apple blossoms, or the damp air on our cheeks. May you continue to find connections to Creator and the created world in this season!

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Jesus began his ministry with forty days in the desert, and this practice is an invitation to step into the desert with him throughout Lent. Many of us see this time in the desert as a time of starvation, hardship, and temptation, but that’s a quite narrow view! In an interview on “The Bible for Normal People Podcast,” a member of the Chickasaw Nation Chris Hoklotubbe reframes the desert time from a Native perspective. Jesus was on a 40-day spiritual quest! It was Jesus’ extended Sabbath that prepared him for his ministry. Hoklotubbe thinks that perhaps it was on his quest that Jesus came up with some of his musings like, “Consider the lilies of the field…”

So, here’s your quest. Find a moment every day during Lent to be outside in a spirit of openness. It’s okay if somedays it’s only for two minutes! When you’re outside, take in what you discover through your senses. If you want more guidance, try this:

1. Start with your breath. Breathe in and out, counting to 3 on your breath in and 6 on your breath out. Do this until you feel centered.

2. Touch: What do you feel on your skin? Is it warm or cold? Breezy or still? Damp or dry? Notice the ground holding you up, the gravity that keeps you rooted.

3. Smell: What does it smell like today? Can you identify particular scents?

4. Taste: Stick your tongue out. Can you taste the air today?

5. Listen: What do you hear? Can you isolate and identify particular sounds?

6. Look: Where do you see life around you? Where do you see dormancy? What colors do you see? Other creatures? Pay some attention to the margins - what do you see where what is cultivated meets the area that is not?

Maybe once a week you want to carve out time for a longer desert quest. If you have young children, this can be a helpful part of the daily rhythm with an extended family quest each week.

Year in Review, 2022

Have you ever felt bad for not writing a year-end letter like all those put-together families who dependably send an annual year-end card? A card that's filled with beautiful pictures of their family along with a note or letter that shares what's happened in the past year. I have. I have also absolutely delighted in the pictures and the updates from some y'all or friends I'm mostly not in touch with anymore. Some of them are propped up on my desk or stuck to my fridge.

If you've felt the pressure to conform with the Christmas-letter masses, I'm here to release you; sending the letter or card isn't going to make you more worthy or interesting or lovable. You are all those things no matter what. If sharing a family picture and letter gives you joy, yay! Keep it up; your friends appreciate it. If you'd like to try a low-ish pressure letter-writing method that I started a couple of years ago which makes this task feel a less like a chore and more like a Spiritual practice, keep reading.

Real quick, though, here's a hot tip: a "Christmas" letter doesn't have to be at Christmas. I recently received an All-Saints Day letter (by email - a letter also doesn't need to be in the mail) from someone that included both her life update and gratitude to people who were her 'saints' in 2021. And I've sent both a Valentine's Day Letter and a Lunar New Year letter when those were the holidays nearest when I got around to sharing updates to my family and friends.

Okay, here's what I really want to share. I learned it from another family's annual letter. No point keeping secrets - it was Rex and Lenae. They shared (and still share) interesting or eventful or fun things about each month and I wondered how they remembered all the details. Turns out they were keeping track! Simple as that. So I started to keep track too. With no set schedule or routine, just whenever I think of it, I write down events or achievements or things of note that have happened that day or that week. I try to do it at least once a month.

I might take note of the start of school in person, a birthday, a funny thing someone said. Maybe it's getting vaccinated or planting a garden or a new interest someone's getting into. I also try to think about what I've been thankful for each month and to notice what's felt especially hard. No surprise there was a lot of Covid-related and things-we-did-at-home content in my 2021.

At the end of the year (or at Lunar New Year) I take a look back over the notes I've made. Not everything makes it into the letter. I edit things down a bit. But part of the beauty of this way of doing the letter is the opportunity to remember where we were and what we were doing throughout the year and giving thanks. This year especially I was thankful for all we made it through!

You might already be a journaling type and have a place to put these little notes. But a notes app on a phone would probably work pretty well. Last year I set aside a couple pages in a notebook I use for doodles and hand-lettering. The year I just tucked a couple pieces of printer paper into my planner that I'll move along to wherever I am at the moment.

I also include pictures in my letter, which seems slightly redundant in the age of social media, but it does liven up the page a little. May you find grace and blessing in the moments of 2022, whether or not you are writing them down.

Learning to Bless

 The past couple of weeks at the end of my storytime with kids I've use the ASL sign for 'God bless you'.* We've blessed each other as we say goodnight, learning one more way to speak our love without words. ALS signs have become a meaningful way to connect with each other in our congregation, longing as we are for ways to communicate and signal our care for one another.

In the same way that it takes observation, imitation and practice to learn the signs that we have, so we learn the language of faith. Blessings (ASL or not) are one very simple way of speaking our faith out loud. Unlike other other forms of prayer which are directed at God or other form of the Divine, our blessing are directed at the person we share them with. They speak into the presence of God our desire and hopes but are not directed at God. They invite God into the space with us.

Tami Keim, director of the Early Childhood Program at Hesston College, and contributor to the Building Faith blog (Mennonite Early Childhood Network), reminds us that blessings are all over the Bible. If you want to offer a blessing there's no need to make up your own or come up with the words yourself. To paraphrase Lavar Burton: Take a look, they're in a book! I'm a language person and I like getting creative with blessing words, but even I default to scriptural classics when I'm stuck: "May God bless and keep you. May the face of God shine on you and bring you peace." There's nothing like it.

When we speak blessings, we get used to having the language of faith in our own mouths and we model the use of this language to our kids. In the same post that Tami talks about the blessings in the Bible, she suggests a daily blessings at bedtime (she even created this handy list of blessings you could print). I do like the idea of daily blessings, but teens who go to bed later than their parents (only me?) get left out with that particular suggestion - though it's a good one - and there's no bad time to bless. Morning blessing over breakfast? Great! Blessing as you log into school? Sure!

I also like to mark special or difficult or new experiences with blessing. The beginning of school is a time to bless our children with courage and wisdom. A new bike might be cause to bless a child with safety and the joy of the ride. A blessing for patience and grace would be appropriate when they're going through a hard time with a friend or sibling.

*In this link, start at the 0:50 mark if you really don't want to watch the whole 2 minutes, but I love this pastor and have watched several of her signing tutorials. She's kind of awesome, so you probably won't be sorry if you watch the whole thing.   

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Photo by Sai De Silva on Unsplash

Back to Our Senses

This morning on the podcast "Seattle Now" education reporter Ann Dornfeld talked to several parents who were trying to figure out the balance of getting their own jobs done and caring for and educating their kids. There was a great variety of experiences but needless to say everyone is feeling stretched and unfocussed. And some are finding some bright spots in time spent with family in new ways.

My bright spot in what has been a stressful time of sharing a relatively small home in which both of the adults are trying to still do our jobs full time, including connecting through online meetings which require attention and focus, has been walks. We're all going on a lot of walks. And walks can start feeling monotonous too, even in this beautiful city and especially for kids and teens who would rather be at a playground or hanging out with friends.

When I can go for a walk my myself I will often listen to music or podcasts or books. Obviously not possible when you're walking with others. So I've found a couple of the things have made walks a little more interesting when we're walking together. The first is scavenger hunts (this one is especially for the little one, who loves to check things off of a list) that I've found online or created - with pictures for non-readers. I thank my mother, the retired teacher, for turning us onto this suggestion. Orie has started making his own scavenger hunts to bring on walks, which is great because that's one less thing I have to prepare.

The second is a mindfulness practice that you may have seen if you follow me on Instagram (@amymarieepp). It's a practice that invites you to pay attention to the moment and your body. And it works great at any age. When I feel like I've been focusing to hard on something or I've been staring at a screen too long, or my mind is racing, or my body is tense, this is a great way to slow down and check in with myself. On a walk, it's a way to notice both our bodies and our surroundings.

Take a few deep breaths. Now notice with your senses. Identify the following:

• 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can hear
• 3 things you can feel
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste.

On the walk with my kids yesterday we were seeing things like flowering trees, clouds in the sky and neighborhood cats. Hearing the birds, the crunch of our feet and the wind. We felt the drops of chill of the air and bent down to feel the rain on the grass. We smelled the someone cooking and thought we could take how fresh the air was. It did almost turn into a competition of who can name things first, but overall it was a lovely practice and turned into an eye-spy like game of noticing and naming other things we saw and heard on our way.

Some of y'all may be experiencing this time as slower and more spacious, but many of us are doing double duty. Nurturing ourselves and the ones we care for is hard! I thank God for gift of moments that bring us back to our senses and allow us to experience the moment and each other. 

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images: (top) a forsythia in a neighbor's yard; (above) scavenger hunt in action

Shifting Ground and Grounding Rhythms

Do y'all know about the podcast 99% Invisible?  It  looks at elements in the designed world that we largely take for granted and tells stories about them.  This week's episode, "This is Chance" is about the 1964 Alaska earthquake and the voice one woman who kept her community grounded.  Genie Chance was the local 'newsgirl' and it was her presence on the airwaves of the one still-functioning, back-up-generator-powered radio station that held the community together and connected Alaska to the outside world.

I listened to this story about how the ground literally shifted and swayed and buckled under the feet of those Alaskans.as I was already thinking about the way the ground is shifting in a different way for us.  The terrain looks different each day and possibly each hour - more recently the stay-home order - and probably it will look different tomorrow again.  No one knows how long this will last or when the landscape of the corona curve will finally flatten. And at the same time, one day slides into the next as

I'm not one of those parents who has implemented a color coded schedule or rigorous expectations of my kids.  I don't even understand parents who are talking about 'homeschooling' right now.  I can barely figure out what my own work is supposed to be in this new way of doing business.  I printed an activity sheet today for my five-year-old and I'm pretty sure the older one is doing some assignments on Schoology.  But there's a lot of screen time.

And yet, while there's no magnetic schedule posted on the fridge, we do have a routine and we do have some expectations of what gets done around the house or academically before the TV gets turned on.  And there is comfort in routine and rhythms.  One benefit of all being at home is that we're actually eating our evening meal together every day - which because of my spouse's usual late work hours didn't always happen before.  I try to take breaks during the afternoon to scooter in the driveway with Orie or go for a walk with Naomi. 

There is comfort in rhythms, including spiritual rhythms.  I cite Traci Smith and her book Faithful Families often because it's such a wealth of simple and doable family spiritual practices (and 50% off the kindle edition right now). One practice that I liked for right now is "five minute sabbath" (or even one minute sabbath).  Sabbath as a spiritual practice is marking a particular day, year or time to return ourselves and our resources to God.  We think of Sabbath as Sunday - or perhaps another day of the week.  Pastor Megan talk regularly about her Friday Sabbath practice.

Traci Smith suggests a set-aside time within a day or within an hour.  She also suggests making note cards and choosing practices at random.  But whatever - I'll just suggest a couple I like and also one of my own that I found on my friend the internet.  One suggestion for a one-minute sabbath is: go outside.  Notice what the weather is like.  Breathe deeply and take note of the feel of the air in your lungs.  Another is a breath prayer with the phrase, "I breath in God's love." "I breathe out worry and fear." Especially good right now!  Breathe!

Here are a couple of Smith's five-minute sabbath suggestions: write someone a note or gratitude or appreciation; find a poetry book or keep Psalms handy, read and reflect on a poem or Psalm.  The one I've like recently is to pay attention to my senses and notice: five things I can see, four things I can hear, three things I can feel, two things I can smell, one thing I can taste. The thing I can taste is usually coffee.

These are practices that kids could easily be pulled into - especially the embodied practices. Surely y'all can come up with creative one-five minute mindfulness practices that would be meaningful to you or your family. I would love to hear the ways that you are creating rhythms and inviting the Spirit into your own and your families life.  Or maybe it's just too hard to think about anything so systematic.  I'm curious about that too. 

This is an earthquake we weren't expecting.  God is with us now in the upheaval and will be waiting for us when we come out the other side.
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image from the 99PI website, "The largest landslide in Anchorage occurred between Point Woronzof and Fish Creek"

Fertile Soil and Growing Light

In these clear, bright days I have been extra attuned to the beauty of the growing light. We're about to enter the season of Lent. Like Advent it's a season of anticipation. But unlike Advent which heads steadily into darkness, Lent anticipates new life and the light grows. It is also a time of waiting readiness. Under the dark soil, seeds are being germinated and prepared, inside the buds, trees ready themselves to bloom.

In worship this season, we're using the theme "I want to see," acknowledging the difficulty in following through on Jesus' message and the gap in our understanding of what we're really supposed to do as disciples. As the adults in the lives of young people we're not only trying to be disciples ourselves, we have this extra responsibility (if we take it on) of bringing the kids in our lives along on the Jesus road. During the time of growing light, we're praying that the light may grow in us too. During this time of fertile germination, we pray that moments of clarity might bloom.

I wonder Lent gives us some opportunities for introducing faith formation practices into our homes and to our children. Seasonal practices can be times to say, "Let's try this thing for a few weeks as we wait for Easter." I know lots of adults who give something up for Lent - the practice of fasting intended to make space in our spirit for a depth of connection with our Creator. But giving up food isn't necessarily going to be a fruitful practice for a little one - or for a family to practice together.

Last year for a time I tried prayer cards with dinner prayers and psalms. It worked for awhile until the cards became a source of conflict - who gets to pick the card, which color we'd read, etc. This year I'm going to try again with beloved Bible texts - especially prophetic and hope-filled verses that have helped me to remember the coming newness of life, and which I hope my children will also learn to know.

Here are a few other suggestions for practices for Lent. Maybe some of them will resonate or be adaptable for your family.

Reading together: In her book Faith at Home: A Handbook for Cautiously Christian Parents, Wendy Claire Barrie suggests a family read-aloud, choosing a book with spiritual resonance like The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe or A Wrinkle in Time. I remember my mind being blown as a pre-teen when I began to see the Biblical story in the story of Aslan and the Pevensies in C.S. Lewis's book.

Planting Seeds: If you're a gardener who starts their own seeds, now is a great time to start plants and to use that opportunity to talk about new life. Lacy Finn Borgo and Ben Barczi in Good Dirt: Lent, Holy Week and Eastertide suggest planting a seed next to the side of a clear cup, so that you can see the roots grow and change. Each time the seeds is watered and observed is a time to remember the way we are 'watered' and nurtured through a relationship with God.

Grow a Butterfly: Borgo and Barczi also suggest ordering a butterfly kit to see the growth and transformation of caterpillar to butterfly in real time. A butterfly emerging from a cocoon is a beautiful way to draw a parallel to the coming story of Easter and resurrection. This seems like a very cool project and I think I'm going to try it! The authors suggest Carolina Biological Supply but I'm sure there are plenty of other suppliers if you Google.

Collecting an offering: Almsgiving (along with fasting and prayer) is one of the 'Three Pillars of Lent' A Catholic family I know keeps a collection box on their table which they fill through the season for a church relief organization. As a family you could choose either a local organization or food bank or an international organization like Mennonite Central Committee to collect for. Keep talking about why you're collecting and include them in your prayer if you pray together at meals.

I hope that whatever you decide to do (or not do!) during this coming season, you and your family will be filled with God's Spirit.

Faithful Parenting: Hopeful or Terrifying?

As I'm thinking about family faith formation, and meeting with many of you who live in households with children, I've been casting back to the work of Christian Smith, who's research over a decade ago showed that adolescents overwhelmingly mirror the religiosity of their parents. At that time he coined the term "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" (MTD) to describe what he saw as a kind of functional religion he saw in many of the teens that he interviewed. It can be briefly summed up as a belief that a creator God exists who wants people to be good and nice and good people will go to heaven. There's no need for God to be involved in one’s life except if there's a particular problem. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. Smith reflects in an interview at Crux, "there is obviously no Jesus here, no Gospel here, no transformation here. It is all about behaving well and feeling happy." He comes from a Catholic background but from a Mennonite perspective, there's also no discipleship, no justice, no servanthood. 

Recently Smith's current research and his book, Religious Parenting: Transmitting Faith and Values in Contemporary America has shifted away from the teens, who are absorbing MTD from what they observe in their parents, to the parents themselves. In the short interview with Smith, he talks about the just how parents can effectively create an environment and relationship that fosters faith formation in their children. I was particularly struck by this:

"Absolutely essential [is that] parents need to talk with their children about religion, not just once a week but regularly, during the week. Talking or not talking with children about religious matters during the week is one of the most powerful mechanisms for the success or failure of religious transmission to children. When parents never or rarely talk about their religion in personal terms, that sends a strong message to their kids that it’s really not that important."

I think this was especially resonant because I talked last week about modeling a life of faith and discipleship. Smith notes that practices alone are not enough. We also need to talk about the whys and hows of what we do when we go to church, pray, read scripture, gather in community, serve our neighbours and seek equity and justice. This, of course means figuring out for ourselves why we do it!

It is both terrifying and comforting to realize that our kids' formation is in our hands. I'm looking forward to reading Smith's book and (hopefully) feeling empowered to faith formation in my own family, and to pass along tools and information to y'all.

Advent is Here!

Hey folks. Advent is around the corner! And thanks goodness. Orie has been asking me LITERALLY EVERY MORNING for the past week if today is Christmas. It didn't help that my mom sent a package for the kids to open to get ready for Advent - I mean come on! At least when Advent starts the calendars will be a vehicle for counting the days. Yikes!

So here we go. Below are some new and some tried-and-true Advent ideas for you to take a look at. And maybe try! I would love to know what your traditions and family practices are related to this season of waiting for Jesus.

Chocolate Calendar - Divine Chocolate is my go-to treat-based advent calendar both because it's fair trade chocolate and because there's a little bit of the Christmas story in each window. I just went ahead and got one for everyone in my family because then no one gets left out. I chose the dark chocolate version for myself.

Do-It-Yourself Nativity - This Paper Nativity by could be printed and put together each day of advent little by little. Or just all at once as an activity. And if you're feeling creative, you could make your own or have kids make different pieces of it.

Tiny Image and Devotions: Thomas Mousin's tiny devotions calendar is a down-loadable one-page calendar with a brief verse and mini-picture for each day. In this years (he does one each year) you need to do a little searching to find each day. Could be colored in as the days go by, or just used as a prompt for reflection and conversation.

Praying in Color: In a similar vein, Sybil McBeth at Praying in Color does a new Advent fill-in-with-color calendar each year, which is more free form and person/child directed. I've sometimes done this myself as a little personal devotion for Lent or Advent and value the few minutes of mental space it creates. Explore the website to learn more about how to pray in color if you get stuck.

Advent Word: For the more online-inclined, join others around the globe through #AdventWord, an online advent calendar which chooses a focal word each day and encourages followers to post their own reflections, images and prayers inspired by that word and share with other followers through social media platforms. More at adventword.org or by searching #adventword on social media. I did something similar to this once on instagram and often see others doing so. It's fun to see what the different words inspire.

The 99c Advent Wreath - I am skeptical this this will really be 99 cents, but the supplies include glitter, modeling clay and birthday candles, so it's definitely affordable. Children can create it themselves and if each child in a family has their own, perhaps the competition over who gets to light/blow out the candle will be eliminated (my hope, anyway).

Living Advent Wreath - this wreath made of actual children pretending to be candles is probably not something any of us are going to do at home - I just thought it was a really cute idea. Maybe we can figure out a way to do this in worship some year.

Advent Devotions - Common Word, a resource from Mennonite Church Canada creates a family-friendly downloadable advent resource. This seems like it could be used daily or occasionally or weekly, whatever works for your family. This year it's called, "Waiting and Wondering"