liturgy: delight & satisfaction.
a january liturgy without resolutions.
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As a person who loves an Emotional Support To-Do List, January 1 feels like the Super Bowl.
A time to dream big dreams, set big goals, and plan out the entire year in excruciating, unrealistic detail until I feel ~completely in control~ of my one wild and precious life (whoops).
This year, I feel like I could use something different.
With all those resolutions comes an equal measure of anxiety and dissatisfaction with the present. We can spend so much time focusing on what our lives are going to look like then as a way of trying to escape the discomfort in lives now.
But our lives right now, whether we know it or not, are filled with immense beauty.
So instead of setting intentions or listing resolutions, I thought we might spend time somewhere else.
The first creation story in Genesis shows the Divine modeling deep satisfaction for us. It is good, we hear God say, over and over, in response to creation.
It is good. It is good. It is good.
As people formed in the image of the Divine, we have this capacity within ourselves, too.
Turns out, maybe we weren’t created for anxiety and over-functioning, but for delight and satisfaction.
If you’re able, as we begin, do something to open the space. This may be as simple as shutting the door of the room you’re in, or sitting in a particular chair, or turning on some soft instrumental music, or lighting a candle. This can help settle our brains and bodies by signaling that this is protected time, set aside for a particular purpose.
Opening.
Take a few deep breaths.
Arrive.
Be just here, for the next few minutes.
Read the opening scripture.
Genesis 1:20-25, NIV
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Pause.
Sit for a moment in silence.
Is there a word or phrase from that text that stood out to you?
What might the Spirit be calling you to notice?
Read the reflective poem.
Li-Young Lee, “From Blossoms”
From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
Take a moment to reflect or journal on one or more of the prompts below.
What in your life right now, big or small, can you look at and say, “it is good”? Is it a friendship, a beloved pet, the temperature outside, the taste of your morning tea, the book you’re reading?
What does it feel like in your body to think of the good? Where do you feel it? What does it feel like?
What does it mean to hold onto satisfaction, to “take what we love inside, to carry within us an orchard”?
Call to mind a moment, big or small, in the last few days where you experienced satisfaction. Bring yourself back to that moment – What did it look like? Sound like? Smell like? Linger in the feeling-memory for a few minutes.
Move the moment out of your head by sketching it or writing a six word story describing it (don’t worry about what it looks like or sounds like - this is just for you!)
What might it look like to cultivate satisfaction and delight in your life in the coming weeks and months?
Did any particular word or phrase in the poem or Scripture stand out to you? What might the Spirit be calling you to notice?
What truth or wisdom is revealing itself to you?
Closing prayer.
God of loving creation,
You have created a world that satisfies,
Yet we can still find ourselves rushing through life,
Restless, ambitious, and greedy.
Shake from us the lie that we need to earn the love of God.
May we remember that the God of the universe is satisfied with us.
In turn, may we delight in God’s good creation.
May we delight in ourselves.
May we delight in others.
Amen.
May this year bring delight. satisfaction. peace.
lsk