Living at the Core 10: Getting Back Up Again

Living at the core means being able to get back up and re-establish once something has slipped away. I have noticed a pattern that when I have a baby, eventually my morning routine starts to slip in one way or another. After having my 5th baby, eventually I strayed from my 5am start time. Even before I had my baby, I was getting up at 5am but felt so exhausted that I sometimes wondered, was I praying or had I fallen back to sleep?

Eventually, I find my way back, but it take commitment and perseverance. It takes discipline with thinking about when I am going to bed. It takes slowly re-integrating by setting my alarm to a little earlier and a little earlier until eventually, I am back to being awake at 5 am. Sometimes it means, even if I am really tired, I wake up, pray and then go back to bed.

This spring break I had the opportunity to meet with my spiritual director. As I talked about how I was still struggling with getting back into a solid morning routine, he reminded me that even tired prayer is good prayer because I would still be in the chair for God. He talked about the danger in the spiritual life of stopping to try. That helped me to come back home with renewed dedication to set my alarm, to show up, and recognize the value of prayer, no matter how awake I felt.

It was just what I needed to hear at just the right time. This month my daughter turns one. She is starting to sleep longer stretches at night. Though I am recognizing I am slipping into going to sleep later than I should and need to focus on getting to bed earlier, in general, I am starting to get better sleep.

I can feel a sense of normalcy come back to my morning routine. Often I am able to have this time while my girls are sleeping; although, sometimes, someone wakes up during the time and it does not all go according to plan. In general though, my mornings are starting to have a sense of rhythm to them again.

By pushing through the resistance and getting back into a routine, an important part of my day has been re-established. Over time my morning prayer routine has looked differently, these days, this is what I have been focusing on:

• Praying the Litany of Humility, prayers related to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a psalm that has stuck with me since it was part of the responsorial psalm back on the first week of Advent last year, "Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior and for you I wait all the day" (Psalm 25:4-5).
• Read the readings for the day. 
• During the month of May, I have then been shifting my attention to some Lectio Divina with narratives of Jesus' healing.
• I often spend some time either writing or reading some spiritual writing. 

In general, I am able to currently spend up to about an hour, depending on the day. 

Introducing Walking Well

The centurion said in reply, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 

-Matthew 8:8-9

Just as the centurion was able to use his background in the military as a lens to understand God's love and power, we can reflect on how our careers and interests connect to how God is working in our lives. My foundation in education provides a powerful means for me to ponder how the craft of teaching and the process of learning have implications for walking well in my relationship with God and with others. 

If you are also an educator, I hope ideas in this series will help you to consider implications for your faith development from concepts that are common in the field of education. I loved Lindsey Schlegel's Don't Forget to Say Thank You, showing how reflecting on motherhood provided her with insight into her relationship with God. The ideas she shared resonated with me, and the concept in general, as she framed it in her book, has drawn my attention to viewing everyday interactions with my girls as a means to understand my identity as a daughter of God. Reading my thinking about educational implications might have a similar two-fold effect for other educators - my ideas might resonate with you and the overall concept could help you to be more aware of different layers of your career that have implications for your spiritual life. 

If you are not an educator, I hope that the ideas will provide you with new angle to consider, as well as probing your thinking about how you can examine how God is using your career, hobbies, or talents to lead you toward him.

In this series, I will provide a brief description of an educational related concept and then transition to why it is relevant to growing closer to God or to walk well with others as they navigate their lives. 

Join me each month during the 2019-2020 academic year over at Catholic Mom as I explore these concepts.

August: Purpose

September: Growth Mindset/Asset-Based Approach

October: ACEs

November: Learn by Doing

December: Constructivism

January: Social Constructivism

March: Zone of Proximal Development

April: Gradual Release of Responsibility