"Time and time again" — Is ours the only way to look at time?
"Center: Pause for a moment, closing your eyes if you wish, relaxing your body and taking a few deep breaths. Listen to a phrase from the Hebrew scripture: 'This is the day the Lord has made.' Reflect for a moment on your own day so far in light of this phrase. Again: 'This is the day the Lord has made.' Finally: 'This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.'
"Check in: Can you share something of a recent action step? If you prefer, share what has been most life-giving or life-draining about your work week so far.
"Focus: Our culture tends to view time as a resource or commodity: we spend it, save it, invest it, waste it, and so on. Almost any term we apply to the use of financial resources, we also apply to time. Other societies, however, may understand time differently. Reflect for a moment on the variety of 'times' you have experienced in your life, at home, at work, and elsewhere.
• Have you had the opportunity to experience time in another culture? What was it like?
• Can you recall the way time flowed when you were a child? What story or memory from childhood or youth captures your experience of time?
• What images come to mind when you think of the way you currently experience time? At work? At home?
• How has your experience of time changed throughout your life journey?
"Reflect: Time in our culture tends to be linear, 'rational.' As a way of seeing time from a new perspective, it might be useful to experiment with non-linear strategies for entering our experience of time. Choose one of the following 'mini-exercises' and take a few minutes to work with it privately, using a notebook or some space at the end of this agenda.
1. Jot down some word images or a brief 'poem' about how you experience time.
2. Create a 'doodle' that captures in an image your current feelings about time.
3. Close your eyes and meditate on the meaning of time in your life; pay special attention to how your body reacts; where do you tense as you reflect on time, what happens with your breathing?
• What was your emotional response to this exercise?
• What did you learn about your own experience of time?
"Connect/Respond: A discernment tool we often use as part of our check-in asks the question: 'What in our lives is life-giving or life-draining?' In this way, we may come closer to discerning the presence of Spirit in our activities, in our 'times,' and closer to discerning how the Divine is inviting us to lives of greater wholeness. With respect to the stories, images and thoughts we've shared today:
• Have any of these ways of experiencing time been especially life-giving or life-draining?
• Can you recall an especially life-giving experience of time? In what way was Spirit present in the experience? What divine invitation was hidden in the experience?
• What might you do this week to become more mindful of your life-giving and/or life-draining relationships to time?
Blessing: Offer the person on your left a word of hope or blessing for the coming week."
