💚 Grounded in the world

Email Read Time: 40 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 10 minutes

Announcements:
—The Pauses, Prompts, and Practices for this week are from Sarah Sanderson. AND Sarah’s first book is coming out next week! You can pre-order it here. Congratulations, Sarah!
—Fall Cohorts for Group Spiritual Direction for Writers are forming now. Today is the last day to register.
—SDW Members: We have SDW Co-Writing today at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. & 7 p.m. CDT. Join us!

“Nature’s silence is its one remark, and every flake of world is a chip off that old mute and immutable block.” - Annie Dillard

Pause.

If you can, find a rock or stone to hold in your hand.

Feel its texture, temperature, and weight. Keep it nearby all week.

Prompt.

If rocks could speak, what would they say? If you became a rock, what would you experience? How does noticing rocks or stones keep you grounded in the world? Take nine minutes to write your response to one of these questions.

Practice.

Over the next few days, notice the physical world around you and the way you feel being in it.

Whenever you can, notice the sensation of your feet on the ground, or the feeling of air on your skin, or the way the physical world, with all its rocks and soil and grass and bark, presents itself to your touch.

Capture those sensations in words.

Want More?
Read Annie Dillard’s essay “Teaching a Stone to Talk.” Or, for a more childlike experience, reread William Steig’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, or watch it being read aloud here.

Sarah Sanderson

Sarah L. Sanderson's book, The Place We Make, releases from WaterBrook on August 15, 2023.

Find more information at www.sarahlsanderson.com.

spiritualdirectionforwriters.com

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