Blah. . .

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This being human is a guest house, every morning a new arrival.

Rumi

This is the first line of one of my favorite poems these days, The Guest House. I first read and reflected on it with a group of friends, women who get together each week to practice centering prayer and share faith. It was part of the introduction to a book we were reading as a group, Welcoming Prayer, Consent on the Go. To me, Welcoming Prayer is more than a single prayer, its a way to live prayerfully. Written by Father Thomas Keating, a leader in the Centering Prayer movement, it essentially welcomes all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations and conditions as agents for healing and growth. We are to welcome these feelings and emotions without judgement nor attachment.

I lean into this on days like today, when I am feeling blah. Tired of staying home, though my first instinct is to chastise myself, how could I possibly complain about the beautiful, comfortable home I live in when so many are homeless. Tired of my same walk through my neighborhood, safe and lovely, beautiful homes meticulously maintained, bursting with Springtime. How can I complain, when I have car I can hop into and drive to any other beautiful park nearby? How can I feel blah when I am safe and healthy, and can say the same for my family and friends. This social isolation is nothing more than an inconvenience, as I still have access to everything I need, most everything I want.

But I don’t feel like staying home, I don’t feel like going anywhere, I don’t feel like calling a friend or a sister, who I know would lead to great conversation and laughter. I don’t feel like anything today. . . Today, I just feel blah. . . And for today, that will have to be okay.

God is in the good, God is in the difficult. Today God is in the boring. Like every visitor, every emotion, this will pass. I will not judge it harshly, I will not judge myself, either. It is what it is. Rumi completes this poem, “Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” Who would ever think that boredom deserves gratitude. Boredom deserves scolding, shooing and every kind of what the heck is wrong with you. But out of boredom, I wrote this post, I assembled a collection of words that may have some meaning to someone other than me, and if not, that’s okay, too.

If necessity if the mother of invention, perhaps boredom is the sister of creativity. When we look back on this viral experience, with its spectrum of emotion from deep dark suffering to brilliantly bright lights of compassion and kindness, we’ll also see a colorful mix of creative expression, from silly videos to soulful poems. We will be thanking God for many things, maybe even the boredom, that prompted time to explore, play and create. Amen.