{"id":1388,"date":"2022-12-09T13:54:30","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T19:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/?p=1388"},"modified":"2022-12-09T13:54:30","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T19:54:30","slug":"rhythms-of-daily-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/?p=1388","title":{"rendered":"Rhythms of Daily Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jane Nickodem<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have always struggled with consistency, and the same is true in maintaining the daily rhythms of my spiritual practice.   I am consistent in always hoping to practice with more fidelity, but I so often fall short. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon rising early, I oftentimes greet the day by opening the blinds of the only east-facing window in my apartment.  If I time it just right, and if the conditions align, a sunrise is the first thing I see, and I sing a short anthem, entitled Morning Prayer<\/em><\/a>*<\/em>, that I learned from Anna Fritz, from her CD On a High Hill<\/em><\/a>*<\/em> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cGood morning, earth and sky,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

             Wind and rain and sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

             Thank you for this life–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

             A new day just begun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, as a number of Milwaukee Friends do, I read the daily message from The Center for Action and Contemplation.  Franciscan Father Richard Rohr often writes the message. There is a diverse multi-cultural group of theologians who also contribute. The theme for this year is \u201cNothing Stands Alone.\u201d  Weekly themes with daily messages begin on Sunday.  Saturday\u2019s email is a short review of the week\u2019s messages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I either reflect on the message, meditate, or write in my journal.  This step is where I struggle to stay with the reading.  Being a morning person, my impulse is to get out into the world without delay to attend to what can only be described as \u201cbusy-ness.\u201d  I am a hopeless thrifter and my car often drives me to Goodwill on Palmer or Oakland as soon as they open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The early afternoon finds me with flagging energy and in the need of quiet alone-time.  I\u2019ll usually read anything from poetry (Mary Oliver) to non-fiction (Thich Nhat Hanh) to children\u2019s picture books.  Sometimes I will catch up on snail mail correspondence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I turn in for the night, my thoughts turn to what transpired during the day and I express gratitude for blessings bestowed.  Here I must admit that my concept of The Divine Mystery is a personal one so I whisper anything that I wish to say in a conversational way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, parts of Saturday are spent apart from the fray, and I try for less technology and more simple living.  Happening upon Wayne Muller\u2019s Sabbath at The Little Read Book on State Street in Wauwatosa a decade ago was an important event in my life–reading it encouraged me to find little Sabbaths in my daily life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*  Music shared with the permission of Anna Fritz, the music author.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I sing a short anthem, entitled Morning Prayer that I learned from Anna Fritz<\/p>\n

Photo: A. Fritz Album Cover<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-december-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1391,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions\/1391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}