Why We Name What's Saving Our Life

Unconventional Spiritual Practice #3

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One of the things saving my life this week is finally being able to talk about my next book. Thanks for all your support after the announcement last week! I can’t wait for you to read it so we can continue the conversation about leaving rooms and finding new ones. If you missed it, here’s where you can learn more about How to Walk into a Room: The Art of Knowing When to Stay and When to Walk Away.

We do this on the Internet sometimes, with kind regards and a healthy hat-tip to Barbara Brown Taylor who asked it first. It’s now become part of our cultural ethos to be able to name what's saving your life.

This may not be a literal “saving your life” but we love this question because it's a large bucket for a lot of things.

If you've been around here a while, you already know that once every quarter I like to reflect on and name what’s saving my own life and invite you to do the same.

You could name simple and small moments or you could name dreams coming true.

You could name handy gadgets, skincare favorites, or tips and tricks that you've learned and loved.

You could name a person, a community, or a prayer practice.

The list of what's saving your life right now may be really long or it might be really short, but if you sit to consider it, I bet you could come up with something.

And I think it’s important that we do.

It’s part of living a reflective life.

Noticing once may not have a huge impact. But a regular practice of naming what’s saving your life right now is a way to see your life as you live it.

It’s a way to honor the highlights of your own self-care, the relationships you cherish, the small gifts of daily life.

It’s a gratitude list with slant.

It’s an approachable practice for beginners.

If you’re a future oriented person, the idea of looking back may be boring at best, terrifying at worst.

But naming what’s saving your life right now could be a simple and approachable starting point if you’re someone who is curious about the practice of reflection but don’t know where to start.

Maybe you're a little bit afraid to look back on your life, afraid that all you'll see are mistakes and mishaps.

But what's saving your life right now is simply about naming what you look to for fun, comfort, grounding, and hope.

It’s a baby step into generative self-reflection.

It’s grounding in a sometimes-sinking world.

Identifying my favorite mug and how happy my office plants make me will not make a drop of difference in the midst of a personal or global crisis.

But what it will do is form me into becoming a grateful, curious, and present person.

And that is the kind of person I want to show up as in the midst of personal and global crisis. You see how the practice is often not about the thing but about the becoming?

You see how naming the small, the silly, and the sacred is part of our actual spiritual formation?

You see how God can show up, even in this?

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

—St. Teresa of Avila

And so this week, after seeing the devastating news in Israel and Gaza and carrying some personal crisis of my own, this practice is one I’m deeply grateful for.

It may not be what we turn to when bigger, more devastating things need tending to, but the small and big gifts named as we go along the way will be there to return to and will serve as part of our healing on the other side.

If you want to make your own list, here’s some inspiration from past episodes of The Next Right Thing:

• What’s Saving My (Autumn) Life - this week’s episode

• What’s Saving My (Summer) Life

• What’s Saving My (Friendship) Life

• Saving My Life list on Amazon

And if you want some inspiration from others, the comments on this post are gold. Here’s a peek:

Now may you have eyes to see the quirks of your own personality, the things you like that bring joy and delight in this season, and may you have the wisdom to fully enjoy them.

epf

P.S. What does the unconventional spiritual practice of naming what’s saving your life do for you? Are there particular gifts you’re willing to name in the comments?