Time to Notice

Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good, for God’s steadfast love endures forever. – Psalm 106:1 (NRSVUE, adapted) 

This summer, I tagged along on my wife’s sabbatical, and on the day you are reading this, she will be back to work with the congregation she serves, and I with my coaching clients. Just like a kid going back to school, my spirit says “Yay!” to exciting things like sharp pencils and a new schedule, but it also says, “Mmm, yes, well, wasn’t it nice not to have to hold so many things in mind at the same time?” 

Our summer included a month in a house in western Maine surrounded by birch trees and pines and moosewood maples. I spent hours watching the birch trees chatter in the breeze, drawing leaves and branches with colored pencils in my journal, or simply listening to the rustle of God’s steadfast love expressed in creation. 

I had time to notice. 

I almost wrote, “For once, I had time to notice.” 

Home now, I wonder what stops me from noticing here? In her song, “Invisible String,” Taylor Swift describes time as curious, mystical and wondrous, and that’s how it felt in a treehouse in Maine. Here at home time can feel blunt, fleeting, and utilitarian. 

Or do I let it feel that way? 

Because I remember how I have stared out the window at the Japanese maple tree in our front yard, watched its green-to-red leaves wave at me. Communing with the tree becomes prayer and praise, a practice that is not a routine but a revelation… 

…if I take—if I make—time to notice. 

Prayer
Slow me down, Lord, to see and hear and delight in the steadfast love you show right outside my window. Amen.

About the Author
Martha Spong is a UCC pastor, a clergy coach, and editor of The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, from The Pilgrim Press.