Unblocking

I can't believe I haven't posted since May!  Well, actually, I can.  I spent June in some sort of twilight zone.  I didn't write on my memoir, nor did I blog or write sermons or - anything.  As the days went on I wondered what was up.  Yes, I was unhappy with so much in the world, big and small.  But I knew there was something more.  I was reading a lot, but I wasn't finding anything to write about.  (Well, sometimes I did, but they were scary ideas I was pondering from my reading, not ready for prime time.)

Then, two days ago, I asked myself what had changed.  I realized that I had stopped doing jigsaw puzzles. I had been doing puzzles and listening to music for the first two months of "enclosure," then I decided that the puzzling was probably leading me into rabbit holes and negative thoughts.  So I stopped.

I didn't know just how much I needed that open time to think.  I knew that I did much of my writing in my head, while doing a puzzle, but I didn't know just how crucial that time was to my process.  But doing a puzzle lets my mind wander while my eyes and hands do something trivial.  In stopping it, I was depriving myself of a crucial time of reflection and composition.  So two days ago I got out an old puzzle.  And here I am, ready and eager to start again.

This experience made me wonder where else we block ourselves by dropping practices that don't seem integral to our spiritual or creative lives.  Where do I block my prayer life by letting go some little thing that has worked for me?  Something as small as a jigsaw puzzle.  Or taking time in the garden, or exercising, or calling a friend, or listening to music, or cooking, or . . . 

If you're feeling blocked or cut off from yourself or God these days, is there a little practice that you've dropped?  Is there one that might help if you started?  And if you aren't feeling blocked or cut off, how do you keep an open channel?  Give thanks for it and keep it up!

And now, back to the memoir.  I haven't been posting pieces, but I'm moving along - again.  God bless you all.