Centering Myself

I am always grateful for time with my writing friends. This morning Bonnie and I were the only ones able to make our early morning Starbucks meeting. I told Bonnie about my time at the Renovare prayer retreat and about the workshop on centering prayer. I told her I’d been practicing faithfully since my return home. I shared what I’d learned at the workshop and suggested we spend ten minutes in prayer before we began writing. She agreed, and the two of us spent ten peaceful minutes praying silently in the midst of the busy Starbucks where our group meets each week.

After the time of prayer, we wrote about centering ourselves. One member of our Starbucks’ group is an artist, who teaches pottery. I have learned from her about the importance of centering the clay when beginning to throw a pot. If you don’t center the clay properly, it will wobble, and the pot will become misshapen as the wheel spins. I realized that if centering prayer is a way to enter into God’s silence and center myself in God’s presence, then centering prayer is also a way to allow God, the Potter, to properly shape my life. If I never slow down enough to center myself on the Potter’s wheel, my life will be wobbly and misshapen. That reminded me of the hymn, “Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” which includes the words, “Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. 
Mold me and make me after Thy will, 
While I am waiting, yielded and still.” Now you will also hear this lovely hymn playing in your mind.

It has been easier than I expected to make time each day to center myself in prayer; to let go for a few moments of all those things I think are so terribly important. It is always a blessing to step into God’s presence. This morning’s time of prayer at Starbucks was a reminder that it is possible to do that anywhere.

Grace and Peace,

Donna