
- Daily routines
- Advent calendars
- Scriptural meditation time
- Journey to Bethlehem
- Maps
- Spiritual self-Gifts
What would be the ideal version of all these ideas?.. A version that I’d most love to find, finished and ready to go?…What would it look like?… What would working with it do?… What particular things would it have?…What solutions have I seen in the secular world to similar problems?…
- Daily routine – I guess by this I mean whatever most helps compose and frame the day, I’m a morning person, and have always loved desktop goodies like day-planners, calendars, and other levengeresque type items. Aids that you enjoy both starting your day with and returning to again and again. Polished touchstones..
- Advent calendars – What if instead of the usual chintzy (albeit lovable) chronological-candy-dispenser you had daily access to your own wall of heavenly post-office boxes, each one with a love-letter inside.. carved into marble.. inset with silver.. framed in gold.. punctuated with jewels.. and just for you..
- Scriptural meditation time – Lets face it, some verses you’ve seen or heard enough that you actually think you know-all-about them.. but then you see it in a slightly different light or hear it with a slightly different context or emphasis, and, whether incensed intrigued or inspired, if your not careful, you might wind up thinking about it off an on all day:
- “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us..”
- “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us..”
- “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us..
- Maps – Not everybody finds a good map inspiring. I do. Not one that’s befouled with here-one-moment something-else-the-next political placenames, but one that shows God’s artistry in carving the earth with sun wind and rain.. with each locale it’s absolutely unique gift of “place-ness”. Such maps I find are perfect mental pegboards to hang otherwise dry (but important) spiritual or intellectual things on to keep them out of the oblivion of being mere factoids.
- Spiritual Self-gifts– To return to the divine bottom line.. Advent is not about parties or giving and receiving baubles or the sugar-frosted quasi-sacramentalism of religioussecular tradition, except to the extent that they help us become a living gift to the God who loved us enough to give himself. What’s odd is that this time of year they can help do this. How much more (hopefully, and prayerfully) can intentionally built traditions, humbly and prayerfully hallowed and designed do.
- Flash cards – If your stuck and get tempted to just keep plowing ahead with your active mind, don’t. Get the best, the very distilled cores of all your ideas written out on small papers or index cards, say a prayer and let go. Clip them together and start carrying them into various contexts..
- Rich materials – I’m the type of artist who always faces writers block, so I usually keep some bits of construction materials around to help in the development of ideas. When stumped sometimes just seeing these blank-slate samples in different lights and next to my ideas helps alot..
- Other’s work – I also keep a select few catalogs around for the same reason. It always helps to see what other’s have done that’s similar in some way to what your trying to do..
Non nobis.
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