An Afternoon Ritual for Becoming Friends with Time on Hard Days, Easy Days, and Everything in Between
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 45-60 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“As I contemplated the intersection of this poem, the kitchen table, and time, I began to envision a spiritual practice that would honor time’s spiral nature. What if I sat at my kitchen table at one o’clock every afternoon (okay, most afternoons) to witness my relationship with time?”
Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life
Pause.
Sit in silence while taking four deep breaths. Use the words below for a breath prayer or breath meditation on each of the inhales:
Inhale: Be here now.
Exhale.
Inhale: Return to myself.
Exhale.
Inhale: Be here now.
Exhale.
Inhale: Return to myself.
Exhale.
Repeat the full cycle if you like.
Prompt.
Read or listen to “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo.
“And just about every spiritual direction conversation with writers is a conversation about some aspect of time. Last week one writer was considering how much time it would take to recover physically, feel more settled, and establish meaningful friendships after a recent move and job change. Another writer has been waiting on responses from publishers about her book manuscript and wants to be better at waiting but can’t seem to crack that code. A writer who is a new father keeps experimenting with his writing and prayer schedule with a baby. What used to work no longer works, and he has yet to discover a new system for contemplative practices and creativity that fit well with his new paternal obligations. What could it look like for him to practice belonging to time? How could he repair his relationship with time and work with its natural cycles instead of fighting against them?
While sitting at my kitchen table thinking about these questions, the poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo came to mind. In the poem, Harjo centers the kitchen table as a metaphor for a transformative space where life’s cycles unfold—children become adults, raw ingredients transform into nourishing meals, grief spirals into healing, and individual experiences cycle into shared stories through the rituals that occur around this gathering place.
As I contemplated the intersection of this poem, the kitchen table, and time, I began to envision a spiritual practice that would honor time’s spiral nature. What if I sat at my kitchen table at one o’clock every afternoon (okay, most afternoons) to witness my relationship with time? Like seasons returning with deeper meaning, this daily practice would allow my kitchen table to welcome all of me—all of my work and confusion, ideas and frustrations, hopes and disappointments, dreams and failures. Each return to the table would build upon previous understanding, like a spiral staircase ascending to new perspectives.
‘The world begins at a kitchen table,’ writes Harjo. ‘No matter what, we must eat to live.’ Stacey Balkun reads Harjo’s poem with attention to this cyclical spirit. She reflects on how the kitchen table is a domestic space, traditionally considered a woman’s space, but it is also a place where life’s rhythms manifest. Where minds meet to argue and further ideas, where mothers prepare meals in endless cycles of nourishment, where countless poets shove aside dirty dishes to capture not just events but the underlying patterns of existence.”
-Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life
Practice.
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Sit at your kitchen table with a cup of tea or another beverage and and take notes or journal in response to the poem and Spiritual Direction for Writers excerpt above.
What do you notice?
What do you receive?
What do you want more of? Less of?
Want More?
Read Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life.
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Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon. You can explore more of Charlotte’s work and offerings at Flourish Anyway®.
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