When my son was little, he loved picking up stones everywhere he went. I remember the time he came out of the lake and all the pockets of his life vest were filled with stones. Or the time he walked out of the woods with his after school primitive pursuits club tired and sweaty. We offered to take his backpack- what’s in this? We asked- it was so heavy! Rocks. Some of them huge. Why did you pick up this one, we asked. Because it was so big! He answered. We had to create a special place on our porch, and then our garden, for all his special stones.
Our sprits are like this, I think. We pick up all kinds of things in our daily lives. We pick up shiny sparkly things because they delight us, we bear the heavy weights of grief, of anger, or resentment. We can’t carry it all indefinitely, we need sometimes to pause and lay things down.
These stones here are from once I picked up last summer at Lake Ontario, because they delighted me. I spent hours on end walking the shore, admiring, inspecting, choosing, discarding that unique diversity of rocks. Even after I returned and set down many others, these were so compelling I had to take them home with me. I thought perhaps they could help us work on letting go, on laying things down together. When I empty my pockets after a day of collecting- there is a lightness, What might be worth letting go to feel a bit lighter?
I invite you to come up take a handful to help us focus our time this morning. (or if you are at home, to gather some stones or other objects you’d like to use for our ritual today). Sometimes it helps to have an embodied way to focus our intention and attention.
Once you’ve got your stones, I invite you to inspect them, notice them, and silently begin to consider, as you hold your stones, what is heavy for you right now? What feels like it is weighing you down?
This will be the practice. Choose a rock, and as you hold it, look at it, imagine that it represents the thing that is heavy for you. Maybe choose a rock that reminds you a bit of the thing. Once you decide what it represents, ask yourself if you are ready to lay it down. Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. You can hold it as long as you like. Follow your own inner sense. IF you feel moved come up to the altar and lay down something with or without speaking a word or phrase you can do that at any time. I will alternates questions and silences, the goal is not to find an answer to every question, but to notice what comes up for you.
I’ve noticed for my own inner journey, that deep things can take time to move, so please don’t worry about matching your rock with my question. Just take your own time and come up whenever you are ready. Or not.
- First -- things that have served you well that you no longer need. Old beliefs, habits, stories, patterns, practices?
- Next -- self judgement. Is there something you are too hard on yourself for? I, for example, over-pack when I travel. I’m a nervous traveler, and it helps me to feel ready for uncertainty. Is there some self judgement you’d like to lay down?
- Forgiveness is another way of laying things down. Are there old hurts, old resentments you are carrying around?
- Grief or sadness; is there some heaviness in your heart you are carrying? Whether or not you are ready to lay it down, it might be helpful to notice the weight of what you are carrying
- Are there unfinished goals, projects, visions, wishes that you are wanting to release?
- Is there anything you have completed and are ready to set down? Accomplishments, milestones, chores?
- Last- are there things you are not ready to lay down, that you would like to lay down someday, but the process is not yet complete? … Feel free to hang on to, and take with you one or more stones to represent those processes, to let them go in a week or a month or however many years it takes to be ready.
As I stood at the edge of the lake looking at those stones sparkling I felt, somehow, responsible for seeing, tasting, enjoying and being grateful for it all. There is so much when you gaze on the world around us; some days it overwhelms me. It is too much for our human hearts- it is simply too immense. We cannot carry it all.
When we come together in worship, we practice setting down what we need, even if it’s only for an hour. Perhaps in this beloved community, it feels safe to haul out, to release, to let go what we are ready to release, all at once, or a bit at a time.
I hope your metaphorical pockets feel a bit lighter now, and there is room for whatever you feel called to pick up or hold in the present moment.
