Find rest

This post is part of the  “Finding Spiritual Whitespace Blog Tour” which I am a part of, along with a group of soulful, journeying kindreds. To learn more and join us, CLICK HERE!  




Do you find it hard to rest?

I remember when my son was a toddler. He would fight sleep so much! It was as if he feared he would miss something important.

In a way, I see myself fighting rest. Fighting the whitespace that I truly need.

In Bonnie Gray's book, Finding Spiritual Whitespace, she says this about spiritual whitespace:

"When we make room for spiritual whitespace, we step into the beautiful journey of letting go to discover what's really worth holding on to. To slow. To savor a moment. To enjoy a conversation. And renew an intimacy. "

Making room for this whitespace should be an easy thing to do, don't you think?

For someone who has experienced tragedy, loss, or leads a stressful life, it might not be so easy to let your guard down and allow Jesus into this tender place. The places we might not dare let anyone see. The hidden things that make us cringe when a certain person, place, thing comes into mind or view.

I'm an admitted "stuffer".  There are things that I've stuffed, I don't want to "unstuff" because really, who wants to clean up the mess?

Not me.

Bonnie's words, they seem so familiar to me. Things I'VE thought, she's put to paper for the world to see.

"I only have whispers etched in pain. And I speak them with hope and encouragement, to assure you that no matter what is in the past, we can walk forward on this journey of the soul. We can find the whitespaces inside us to rest together with Jesus."

So what you're telling me Bonnie, is I have to carefully (willingly) open up my seams and pull out the stuffing. Examine it. Feel it. Really feel it. So that I can get the closure I need to live without this extra weight?

Taking my sweet time.

Each page I turn, I want to savor and examine. Even if it does make me dig deep into my soul and pull out those old or maybe not so old pieces of stuffing.

When I was a little girl of about five, I felt very safe. I didn't have a care in the world. I remember nights like this:

Dusk. A Midwestern summer sky. Pinks,purples, greys, blues swirling above me as the sun found it's place of slumber, and the stars slowly lit up seemingly one by one peppering the night sky. The air was warm but the cool of the night was moving in.
After a bath, hair still damp, cotton pajamas cool against my skin, I would run through the back porch and out the back screen door letting it slam behind me. Running through the cool evening grass as fast as I could to our back fence. Each time I tried to run faster.
 As I got older, the family Dog and I would race. He always won.
Sometimes, I would stop on the way back to taste an apple from our tree, branches heavy with sweet fruit.
Dandelion puffs dotted the yard in a peculiar pattern and mom would warn from the kitchen window not to get dirty again since I just had a bath.
I would stand and gaze at the sky. The world felt so big and I felt so small. Those quiet moments in the backyard, waiting for the security light to come on,
blowing dandelion wishes into the sky.

Now that I'm grown and have a child of my own, there are moments that I long for that simpleness, the safety of being oblivious to the worlds problems and my own.

The little girl in me longs to run barefoot through the backyard in the cool evening grass. Picking dandelions and blowing wishes to the sky. Watching the sky change colors and the magical fireflies flicker their yellow/green light until mama calls me in for bed.

Stay tuned, In the coming weeks I'll be continuing my journey of Finding Spiritual Whitespace. My book review is coming and lots more!

One last quote from Bonnie to ponder:

"Finding spiritual whitespace isn't about carving out an hour of time to escape the things that stress us.

It's the opposite. It's getting away from everything we do to distract ourselves from all the hidden pieces-in order to nurture our soul."

Do you make time for whitespace?




Bonnie Gray is the writer behind Faith Barista.com who wrote a book about her inspiring, heart-breaking journey to find rest, which garnered Publisher’s Weekly starred review. I’m taking the journey to find rest through this guidebook and invite you to read it too.  You can get a copy HERE.

Linking with Bonnie today at The Faith Barista Spiritual Whitespace tour!


















photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/masonmasteka/4624048251/">Mason Masteka</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">cc</a>