I almost drowned.

Yet that day in the water became my gift; one I’ve forgotten too quickly, but I hold it again now as I write of it. It was a reminder to hold what I have in the moment, but not to cling to it with fists clenched as if I could make anything stay for longer than it’s meant.

Follow more of my writing at my website: danielleklafter.com

Resources:

• The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter
• For resources on what children need to thrive that is hindered by parental anxiety consider these reads:
• • The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
  • Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident and Capable Children by Angela J. Hanscom

Our Western culture runs at a rapid pace. There are goals and check lists and books on how to be more efficient with your time, how to prioritize and avoid distraction, how to enter a state of flow, how to do more, be more. Sometimes it all feels like different aspects of how to live up to an impossible, ever-expanding expectation. You are never enough, it all seems to scream.

The tree in my front yard tells me something different.

Follow more of my writing at danielleklafter.com

Resources:

• A previous post that touches on layers of reclaiming the word "surrender": Emotional Overwhelm and the Welcoming Prayer
• My landing page for practices that involve surrender: Contemplative Practices

You can follow more of my work on my website: danielleklafter.com

The body carries a language and wisdom all its own.

This isn’t something I can prove or offer much in the way of rational explanations. It’s probably something that must be experienced. But it begins with an openness to believing this might be true. Otherwise, why would you bother listening to the body at all?

Find more of my writing at danielleklafter.com

More ideas and starting places for embodiment practices can be found on my website here.

I roll over in bed at two thirty in the morning this past winter, hearing my infant’s cries. Usually in that moment all I want to do is keep sleeping. Yet there are breaths now when a thought reminds me: this is my monastery bell tolling. I have to get up and answer that bell.

You can find Parts 1 & 2 of this series and other writing at danielleklafter.com

Resources:

• Previous posts in this series: Domestic Monastery Part 1: The Framework of Ora Et Labora and Domestic Monastery Part 2: Tailoring the Framework to What Your Life Already Is
• Domestic Monastery by Ronald Rohlheiser
• Introductory Wisdom School course at Wisdom Waypoints
• Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today by Joan Chittister (I have yet to read this one but it’s in my cue of books!)
• The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris (a memoir about a lay person’s experience in a monastery)

It seems I have a choice. Either I can be frustrated that parenting inhibits my desire to do other things that I consider “more spiritual,” or I can accept the current limitations of my life and trust that those very limitations are the means of my spiritual transformation in this season.

You can find more of my writing at danielleklafter.com

Previous Related Posts:

• Part 1 of this blog series: Domestic Monastery: The Framework of Ora Et Labora
• A previous post on expanding the definition of prayer: Prayer as a Way of Being in the World
• A recent post: Abundance ≠ Comfort

Other Resources:

• Domestic Monastery by Ronald Rohlheiser
• Introductory Wisdom School course at Wisdom Waypoints
• Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today by Joan Chittister (I have yet to read this one but it’s in my cue of books!)
• The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris (a memoir about a lay person’s experience in a monastery)

What was the purpose of the Benedictine Monastic rule of life and what does it have to offer us in daily living today?

Resources:

• The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris (amemoir about a lay person’s experience ina monastery)
• Domestic Monastery by Ronald Rohlheiser
• Introductory Wisdom School course atWisdom Waypoints
• Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living theRule of St. Benedict Today by Joan Chittister (I have yet to read this one but it’s in my cue of books!)

You may find more of my writing at danielleklafter.com

Recently my spiritual director and I leaned into a conversation about how abundance is not synonymous with comfort. What if my perspective of what abundance feels like shifts? I begin to look for it in the cracks of my long, worn-out days.

You can access more of my writing at danielleklafter.com