Intro: 00:00

Welcome to the Infinitely Precious Podcast produced by Infinitely Precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

James: 00:12

Hello, beloved. It's me, James, and it's time for another episode of the Infinitely Precious podcast. It's time for us to continue this lovely companioning together with one another. So I was thinking this week for me as a clergy person, as a person who works inside a religious institution, in this case, the Christian church, which gave me birth and which began my spiritual journey and continues to be a part of it, I was thinking about the extraordinary times, what we would call the feast times in the church, and then the ordinary times. Because there's a lot more of the ordinary times than there are of the extraordinary times in our lives.

James: 01:08

I mean, every moment we could say is an extraordinary moment. I'm with you on that. But you have to be fully present in that moment to really experience the extraordinary nature of every breath and every heartbeat. And let's be honest with each other, most of us aren't there yet. We are experiencing life sometimes as it comes to us and trying just to get by.

James: 01:40

And then come along these extraordinary moments. And sometimes our temptation is to then compare the rest of our lives to the extraordinary moments. Take for instance this last week. We are just after Western Protestantism's celebration of Easter, the resurrection story. And leading up to that, there are services and other kinds of events that lead up to it.

James: 02:11

So there's a wonderful multi church experience of what we call Maundy Thursday, the night to wash feet and to share the Lord's Supper communion. And then Good Friday night when we celebrate and remember the crucifixion. And we had seven wonderful folks at the church I serve, each who brought a different perspective to Jesus' words on the cross. There was a big Easter egg hunt with lots of kids on the Saturday, which is traditionally meant to be a space of standing back, of in between space between Good Friday and Easter. But it's also a very convenient time to celebrate an Easter egg hunt, lots of kids, lots of events, lots of preparation for that.

James: 03:11

And then two Easter services and perhaps the largest number of people I have seen at the church I've now served for nine months, almost standing room only. In fact, it looked a little bit like standing room only in the worship center. So certain of those were high points, high points of being together with lots of folks who were focused on this miraculous moment in our history, a feast moment. But then what happens afterwards when we go back into what we might see as the ordinary experience of our everyday lives? Are we disappointed because it's not always living on a high?

James: 04:01

I've heard people also compare that at times in my life to you can't really appreciate the highs unless you also experience some lows. But is ordinary really a low? Is ordinary simply ordinary? And what does that mean for everyday lives? What do we do with these juxtapositions that we sometimes feel wanting for those high points, those moments of extreme exhilaration and excitement that overcome us.

James: 04:40

As is the case with the Christian church, Easter and Christmas, both big feast days and not just the days of a feast. As I was reminded yesterday by our IT engineer, that Easter is a season. And it absolutely is. It's fifty days. And the preparation for Easter is forty days that we call Lent.

James: 05:07

And Christmas is not one day. It is twelve days. And there are four Sundays, roughly four weeks leading up to it, Advent. So then the rest of the year falls into that ordinary space. What do we do with the highs and lows of our lives?

James: 05:29

How do we really engage life when we are sort of up and down? And if you're anything like me, there have been times in your life when you really yearned for the high moments. You remember them. They sort of become touch points in your life where you, why can't every moment feel like that? And I don't know that I have a good answer for that, except that that's just the way life works.

James: 05:57

There are truly high moments and there are probably truly low moments. But most of our moments are the everyday engage with work, engage with the people around us, engage with our retirement if that's where we are in life. And so what I want to suggest that I'm trying to do, you know, having come from what is often an exhausting period of time for people who are leading congregations. Any feast season, no matter what religion you're a part of, when you have a feast season, those who lead those times often feel a kind of exhaustion after it's over. What do you do with the after times?

James: 06:46

What do you do in the ordinary times? And here's what I want to suggest to you. Show up. Show up. It's not just about showing up in the big times.

James: 06:57

It's not just showing up at birthdays and Mother's Day and all those kinds of things in life. It's showing up in the small moments. It's listening, in the small moments to people. It's showing up when people need us, not when it's just exciting and a big show to do that. I suspect that as much as we all think we show up in life, many times we are so distracted by all the other things that we need to attend to in our lives that we aren't truly showing up in the moments when we are there.

James: 07:37

Our bodies might physically be in a place, but our minds, our spirits are wandering. I would suggest to you and to myself that that's why we look for ways to practice our attention, being really present. That's why in the contemplative tradition of many religions, there is a component of meditation, of contemplation, of sitting and quiet, of emptying our minds of the many thoughts, the monkey mind, as our Buddhist friends would say to us, that jumps from thing to thing, to empty our minds for a moment, to focus our minds for a moment so that if we keep practicing, we won't be perfect, but we'll be better able to show up in the moments that we're in. We can really be there and notice what the moment holds. I was looking out my window yesterday morning thinking about what I'd say in the Infinitely Precious podcast.

James: 08:49

And as I was looking, I was noticing all the changes that have occurred over the springtime outside my window. The barren trees are at least budding, but many of them already are unfurling their leaves. The outdoors is changing. It's changing. And it's changing them.

James: 09:09

And I almost had that kind of feeling, when did this happen? It happened before my very eyes. It's been happening as I look out that window and I look out that window every morning. Well, every morning that I'm here at home, I look out and every morning I see that and it's slowly crept up on me and I didn't notice all of the creep. I didn't notice as it began to happen because I wasn't always attentive to the moment I was in.

James: 09:44

Sometimes when I'm sitting in my chair in the morning as I am seeking to ground myself for the day, to center myself, to let go of whatever I'm carrying at that moment, mainly as a practice so that I can do it throughout the rest of my day. Sometimes I get distracted by what is coming up in the day, by my schedule. Sometimes I'm not really looking out the window. My eyes are focused that way, but I'm really thinking behind my eyes as opposed to simply being in the moment with what I'm seeing. What I would like to invite you to do and what I would like to invite me to do as we enter into the ordinary times of our lives maybe you've got big events coming up in your life that you're looking forward to celebrating, whatever it may be, birthdays, anniversaries, special events, retirement, a new job, a new promotion.

James: 10:49

There are a lot of things that catch our attention that feel like the big things of life. Remember that most of our days, most of our days are kind of ordinary. And in that, they are our everyday days. What would it be like to practice showing up in the everyday moments? Really drinking in the moments you find yourself in.

James: 11:18

When you look out the window and it's sunshiny, be thankful in the moment for sunshine. When you look out the window and it's dark and rainy and overcast and it feels gray, celebrate that moment too. Be present in that moment. Figure out what those kinds of events outside of yourself elicit within you. What arises in those moments?

James: 11:44

Because that's how we learn to show up. We learn to see what's arising in us that's distracting us from really being present. And when we see that arising, we can let it go. But you have to catch it as it's arising. Otherwise, you get on the train with it and you ride for any indeterminate amount of time until you realize, wait, I'm on a train.

James: 12:10

I'm not here. And you have to call yourself back. So breathe in. Recognize where you are right now. Maybe you're listening to this podcast in your car or in your home.

James: 12:27

Maybe you're listening to it somewhere else altogether. I don't know. Wherever you are, recognize where you are. If your mind is wondering, release that wondering and return. Return to where you are.

James: 12:44

Moments will be filled with extraordinary and very ordinary times. And there are probably more of the ordinary times than the extraordinary times. And we can appreciate life more if we are there for the ordinary as well as the extraordinary. So practice showing up. That's what I'm going to try to do in the days ahead.

James: 13:09

But remember, whether you show up or don't, you are infinitely precious. You are unconditionally loved for the gift you already are. Thanks for joining me on the podcast today. Look forward to being with you again the next time. If this has been helpful to you I encourage you to share it with others.

James: 13:27

And again, my deep thanks.