During my years as a pastor, I often visited older folks or those recovering from serious illnesses and asked, “How are you doing?” The most common reply was, “I have good days and bad days.” At the time, I assumed this was just a familiar phrase, something they had picked up from their elders.

Now, as I sit here on a low-energy day, gazing out at gray skies and cold rain, I understand their words differently. In my younger years, I rarely paid attention to what my body or emotions were trying to tell me. I pushed forward, ignoring signs from my body, mind, and spirit. There was always work to do, people to care for, sermons to write, and a family to nurture. Even when I experienced near-daily, migraine-like headaches, I seldom gave myself permission to pause or rest.

At 65, I’m learning—like a child taking their first steps—to pay attention to what my body is experiencing each day. I adjust my plans and pace accordingly. On low-energy days or when my body feels sore, I slow down, allowing space for rest and reflection. On days when I feel energized, I embrace the vitality and let it carry me forward.

One practice that has helped me cultivate this awareness is meditation. For the past several years, I’ve used an app called Centering Prayer by Contemplative Outreach, Inc. It allows users to customize their practice by selecting opening and closing prayers, sounds like a gong or chant, and silence durations ranging from 1 to 99 minutes.

For two years, my opening prayer has been The Welcoming Prayer by Mary Mrozowski. Developed in the 1980s, based on the work of Father Thomas Keating, it offers three simple but profound movements:

1.     Feel and sink into what you are experiencing in your body at this moment.

2.     Welcome this experience as an opportunity to consent to the Divine Indwelling.

3.     Let go by saying: “I let go of my desire for security, affection, control, and embrace this moment as it is.”

This prayer has transformed my relationship with my body and my experience of God. It invites me to welcome whatever kind of day I’m having—whether joy-filled or difficult—and say yes to the Holy One in every moment.

This practice also reminds me of Rumi’s poem The Guest House:

*"This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
Some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
Who violently sweep your house
Empty of its furniture,
Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
For some new delight."*

Thank you, Father Thomas Keating, Mary Mrozowski, and Rumi, for teaching me how to walk through each day with awareness and grace. And thank you, meditation, for helping me welcome each sensation, feeling, and moment as an opportunity to consent to the presence of God within me.

There is no season more fitting to practice The Welcoming Prayer than Advent. I invite you to try it today.

Walking with you,
Vicki