I love the questions that Padraig O Tuama links to the poems he shares on Poetry OnBound. Sometimes you hear it in the podcast but his weekly email always hinges on a question that gives me pause.
Questions tend to live in me. A really good one will take up space and continue to appear in small moments of wonder. It was a few weeks ago now that Padraig asked about time and I’m still thinking about it. In thinking about Ode to My Homegirls which spans years of friendship and No Time to Wait that is so full of urgency, the question comes as how you and I find ourselves in relationship with time.
The power of a good question is sometimes in how it is phrased and here — thanks to a brilliant poet — I find myself surprised by the word relationship. I don’t think of time as something that I can befriend or even know. It exists. Maybe. Or perhaps it’s just a construct we have made for ourselves. But as much as I consider this, time is something other from myself. It’s not something to which I feel connected but something which which to wrestle or even control. Impossible things that are still so very human. We want to understand and we still don’t.
It’s a question that has stuck with me this summer as I travel around Europe trying to embrace a slowness of leisure. We are so lucky and still time seems to escape me. That’s me though.
As you feel so moved, you might add your thoughts in the comments or hit reply and share with me directly. I welcome your thoughts and ideas but I am more interested in how you share this question with God.
Take it into your prayer time. Journal it. Walk with it. Pour a favorite drink into two cups and let this be what sparks conversation on the back porch while the stars twinkle overhead. Give space for this question and all of the other questions and may God surprise you.
If you are interested in spiritual direction and are interested in a first conversation with me, please reach out or go ahead and book an appointment here. I am currently welcoming new directees and would be delighted to explore the holy threads of this life with you.
I really want to try the two glasses in the twilight.