‘The little things’
Dear Friends
Welcome to Monday’s Companionship Email.
…it’s the little things
At the beginning of a fresh new week in Lockdown Land and at the start of Revision Week in our Semester, I have been considering priorities. What needs action, what can wait and what can I forget about! And whilst trying to write a To Do list in order to be motivated as we enter Week 6 of this brave new isolated world, I was, naturally, distracted by looking at Facebook.
Social Media and access to the internet has, for me and many of us, been a lifeline during lockdown. It has made possible a Zoom Cocktail hour with my friends when we all wore silly hats! It has meant that my cousin and Great Aunt in Canada were able to attend a Holy Week Zoom Compline where I was preaching.
Being able to see and hear, if not touch, loved ones really helps with being shut away in our homes. It is the little things for all of us that are making a large impact on our mental and physical wellbeing. Walking outside in the sunshine and seeing tulips open in the garden, these little things all add up to positive outcomes.
As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed this morning (whilst trying to write my To Do List), I came across a friend’s post who commented that she knocks on a neighbour’s door every day during her walk just to make sure they are okay. The neighbour really appreciates this and every day there is a new note for my friend on the door. This morning, the note read ‘Good Morning, all is well, cheered up by beautiful daffs, thank you’. I must admit it made me cry seeing this simple note. It really is the little things that matter.
So whether your day is spent writing to do lists that never will get done, watching the daffs open up and follow the sun during your daily walk, revising for an exam or preparing to write that exam, remember to take some time to do something that makes you smile. It really is the little things that matter.
To make you smile, last week you met Tilly my rescued ex-racing greyhound who is now a couch potato. This week please meet her partner in crime, the little thing in my life, Mungo the Westie, who is from Glasgow, loves to dress up, bark at the television and playing with his sister!
In the little things and the large things please be assured that Donald and I are here to listen and support. We are available for a phone conversation or a team meeting. All are welcome to use the Chaplaincy and we are here to support any member of staff or student, regardless of religion, creed, denomination or philosophy of life.
Evening Prayer
This week’s Pray with Sam continues with a slightly different approach to prayer. With a focus on Ignatian Spirituality, Pray As You Go is a daily prayer session, designed to go with you wherever you go, to help you pray whenever you find time.
A new prayer session is produced every day of the working week and one session for the weekend. It is not a ‘Thought for the Day’, a sermon or a bible-study, but rather a framework for your own prayer.
Lasting between ten and thirteen minutes, it combines music, scripture and some questions for reflection.
Their aim is to help you to:
- become more aware of God’s presence in your life
- listen to and reflect on God’s word
- grow in your relationship with God
The style of prayer is based on Ignatian Spirituality. It is produced by Jesuit Media Initiatives, with material written by a number of Jesuits, both in Britain and further afield, and other experts in the spirituality of St Ignatius of Loyola. Although the content is different every day, it keeps to the same basic format.
Ignatian Spirituality traditionally ‘finds God in all things, wherever you go’. I have been drawn to and been trained in Ignatian prayer for many years now. So this week, I invite you to explore what it means to enter that space.
Pray as You Go was set up a few years ago to give people travelling to work on the tube something to focus upon, prayerfully as they went about their day. On the website you will also find ‘Pray as you Stay’ which offers prayers to help sustain you in this period of lockdown.
I have found the app invaluable over the years and I offer it to you as a gift of a little thing to enjoy in your prayer time this week with God. As always, please contact the Chaplaincy or myself if you want a situation or person to be included in our daily prayers. Please click on this link to access Pray as You Go:
And lastly from your Crafty (Assistant) Chaplain…
“Journaling is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time.” Mina Murray
I have always been a stationery addict. Pens, paper, stickers and rulers. You name it, I love it. I have always written in a diary throughout my life. Sometimes every day, sometimes every other year. Writing, doodling, drawing and listing are tools I use to help with my mental well being and to document events.
Journaling is just one of the many crafts I have developed in the last few years. An extension of my every day jottings, I use it primarily in my prayer life to document and evaluate where God is working. It calms my mind and still my heart when I write or doodle what has happened in the day and where God was in all of it.
However, the joy of discovering the world of journaling via YouTube videos has got me into trouble. I am now a journal snob. Worse, I am a paper journal snob for whom only Tomoe River paper, an expensive fountain pen and the finest Japanese Hobonichi journal books to write in will do. For this craft has requires dedication and precision that none of my other crafts can really equal.
Above, is a picture of the current journals I use. One is a five year diary and one is a page a day diary. I use stickers and drawings alongside what is known in the journalling world as ‘ephemera’. This is ‘stuff’ to put in to your diary for example tickets, leaves, photos and just about anything to remember a particular event or person. These are all crafted into my journal alongside my scribblings of passages or quotes or notifications about the weather.
Many may question whether this is a craft. However, I believe that if you are creating something out of nothing then that takes skill, craft and patience. It also offers you a permanent memorial of that moment in your life.
Now more that ever I relish being able to chart this momentus time in my life. So much has changed, so much is changing and so much we cannot control. Journaling helps me control the maelstrom by writing it down line by line using my beautiful pen gifted to me by my Grandfather when I was ordained. Journaling helps me control the worry by clearly laying out the issues I have before me in black and white. Journaling helps me process the sadness I see every day by recording in my litany the people and situations that I include in my daily prayers. Quite simply, journaling helps me.
You do not need a posh notebook or expensive pen to begin to journal. You just need a piece of paper and a pencil. You do not need to struggle with wondering what to write – there are many journal prompt websites out there so just google ‘Journal Prompts’ to get started. I hope you will find benefit from documenting your world at this moment in time. Be careful, you have been warned, for once you go down this particular rabbit hole you will be ordering washi tape on Etsy and looking up obscure Japanese journaling websites before you know it!
Be blessed, be a blessing and Happy Crafting!
Samantha