The View From Here
by Peregrine Morkal-Williams, Seminary Intern
I've been thinking a lot lately about discipline and spiritual practice. I grew up Unitarian Universalist—we didn't talk about discipline at church. My family did practice it, however. My mother was in the choir, so unless we were visiting family out of state, pretty much every Sunday, we got in the car and listened to her sing warm-ups on the way to church. When I joined a UU church on my own as a young adult, I was similarly dedicated in my weekly attendance.
But it wasn't until I started training in Aikido that I named my consistent attendance "discipline" (or "commitment," which I see as a different word for the same aspect) and started to understand its benefits. When I switched from training three days a week to six, I also learned how different a daily or near-daily practice is from a weekly practice. With less forgetting or unlearning time between classes, the quality of my training changed. Part of the change was, I think, physical. But the more important change was letting training into my heart—letting it change me. I became more intimate with the dojo; I began carrying the dojo with me everywhere I went. I loved Aikido from the beginning, but it didn't start living in my heart until I started giving it what initially seemed like an inordinate amount of time.
These lessons about near-daily practice are why I'm so excited about the Advent practice I'm leading. I don't currently have a daily quiet centering practice. What will happen in my life when I organize every weekday morning around prayer? How will Scripture and devotional readings enter my heart when I commit to making space for them every day? How will my heart change when these readings start to live in me? I hope you will join me on this journey or part of it—sign-up information is below in the What's Happening Here & Now section. Regardless of whether you are able to or choose to participate in this series, may you find some time to listen to the Holy this holiday season and make space for God to move a little more deeply in your heart.
