The Dance

“Sometimes it’s like the veil is torn back and I see the wonder of what God is doing and then…there is also the laundry and today I have gastrointestinal issues." I said this in a conversation with my son-in-law on the phone. We were talking about my work and he was asking how it’s going.

My husband and I work out of our home. His office is in half of the living room and mine is upstairs in what used to be a child's bedroom. From those places we are honored to lead the Soul Care Institute. We travel to retreats in various locations, but when we’re not on the road, these sunlit rooms in our 200 year old house are where we lead from. 

In the midst of such mundane and human environs I find myself often encountering the Spirit of God. I’ve discovered it to be like a dance. We waltz between praying, eyes cast upward, and hearing from students whose lives are being transformed by the love of God to printing out nametags and hearing the dryer beep and back to praying with someone who needs help “right now” and then to making a quick lunch. This is how the dance goes.

Every day we sashay between what feels holy and what feels human. I am learning to live in this space of holy humanness and find it to be helping me become wholly human. I can be folding towels and beholding the Divine all in one instant.

Last summer we were making our way across Kansas on the open road. We loved having ready access to the broad expanse of sky. God felt closer somehow. Jimm said, “ Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there would be a cathedral out here in the middle of nowhere?” Within minutes we saw a sign reading Cathedral of the Plains. We took the next exit and within 10 minutes found ourselves standing in front of an imposing Basilica with no one else around. The wind was threatening to push us down, but we leaned into it and opened the unlock door to wonder. Jimm found a restroom immediately, as one does in a gigantic, ornate house of God. I stepped further into the sanctuary. Silence and awe overwhelmed me. The air was golden with dust and glory streaming in through stained glass. I felt tears flooding my eyes. This is what it feels like to be human in the presence of God, I thought. I was standing in my travel clothes while my husband emptied his bladder in a nearby room and I was experiencing deep awareness of the breath of God all around us.

When the Spirit is present nothing is mundane. So I pray with eyes wide as I go through my day, open to learning new dance steps. Open to being human in step with God. 

Now it’s time for breakfast.

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