Time to Listen: Tuesday's Reflection

One of the reasons that I have had short hair for most of my life is that taking care of it takes less time than my wiry, wavy, curly, thick hair requires when it is long. Longer time to wash, dry, style. In my case longer hair has required more fussing, more attention --and more product. 

But I am also someone who appreciates variety in her life, so it is fun to change my hairstyle, and in the last year or so I have grown my hair, and yes, it does take much more time, but for some reason right now I don't mind using more time in this way. 

This may be the reason why: I use the hair-tending time to listen to podcasts, specifically ones that lift me or challenge me spiritually. 

Recently, I have been listening to "Another Name for Every Thing" with Richard Rohr. Saturday I listened to a conversation with James Finley, who will focus on the mystics in a new season of the podcast. At several points I put down the curling iron, to write down something that was said.

                "What's in the way is the way."

                God "protects us from nothing, 
                but sustains us in everything."

                "Everyone has a 'behind the curtain'
                question."

Those statements took my breath away and in those moments Finley became my spiritual director. In my imagination I heard Finley say, "Nancy, listen. Put down the hairbrush and pay attention. This is for you."

As I listened to the podcast I opened to a spacious presence.  I experienced the extraordinary in the ordinary act of taking care of my appearance. In an earlier podcast Richard Rohr said that when the ordinary becomes extraordinary, you don't need the extraordinary. You can bet I paused the audio at that point, too, and wrote down those words!

I am not much of a multitasker. I try to do one thing at a time, and much of my day is spent in silence. But somehow listening to "On Being" with Krista Tippett or "What Should I Read Next?" with Anne Bogel or my church's "What Does This Mean?" when I chop vegetables for the evening meal makes me more present to what I am doing in that moment. I am not sure why it works that way, but it does. 

(I confess those may also be the times I listen to the news or on Saturday mornings I often listen to NPR's "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" when I am hometending. Chuckling as I dust is a good thing!)

I guess if I decide to cut my hair--and I might do that when the weather becomes hot and humid--I will have to figure out another way to include time for the podcasts that have become part of my devotional life. 

An Invitation
Do you listen to podcasts? Which ones? I would love to know.