The Hermitage: Checking in on my goals

I made some specific goals when I visited The Hermitage last fall. Mariko recommended setting those to help with follow-through. I’m checking in on them now.

Prayer

Prayer became once again a part of my daily life during and after my stay. Then: Ramadan Rebound this spring. It’s been two and a half months and I’m not back to praying regularly. I can feel God when I reach out and I have no worries that I’ll be welcomed back when I’m ready. For now, it’s like I’m taking a season off from prayer.

Church Attendance

I decided to go back to weekly UU services in January and did so through, you guessed it, Ramadan Rebound. My seat buddy has joined the congregation and is a regular attendee. I miss him, as I’ve missed well over half the services this summer. Our new minister starts next month. My goal is to be a rock solid churchgoer when he’s seated.

I’ve committed to the once-monthly, year-long Islam 101 classes. Dragon, Beth, and I go together and I haven’t missed any since January. The Imam is engaging, welcoming, and warm. But he glazes over some issues. I’m not there to challenge him in his own mosque and I’ve never so much as asked a question. But I’ve noticed where he takes an easy route. Still, I like going and being engaged.

Service

I volunteered winter semester with the Refugee Development Center at the UU church as a once-weekly English as a Second Language learning buddy. When Bethesda got sick I didn’t volunteer for the summer.

Physical Health

I’m still parking on the far side of the lot when I feel up to it, which was a very specific goal from my time at The Hermitage. This is also summer and Dragon has a pool at her apartment complex. We’ve gone swimming several times together.

Dragon and I started doing what we call cooking marathons where we cook and cook and cook and stock our freezers with delicious, homemade foods. Some of them are low on the food chain! Like a delicious, curried, vegan, split pea soup. Others are just delicious. But they’re almost all better for my health than the alternative of eating out. And I’m packing a lunch much more frequently instead of eating out at the office. Even if I eat a PB&J, that’s going to be better than a plate of french fries in the caff. Definite progress.

Further Spiritual Direction

I followed up with JMD and we had monthly sessions January-June. It was very helpful. That relationship is still open.

Islam

I reported that I was struggling with this but I feel like in the meantime I really faced my fears by going to Friday prayers, attending Islam 101 classes, and fasting Ramadan 2019. Progress! These steps are exactly what I needed and I’m still in the midst of this process.

Spiritual Reading

When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushner

I found this book immensely comforting and discussed it with JMD. Dragon and I talked about it, too, and she poked a thousand holes in it. I still like it. I think that’s because I’m happy giving God the benefit of the doubt.

Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton

I was expecting this book to knock my socks off and while I enjoyed much of what he wrote about joining and living at the monastery, to be honest I found his early life kinda boring. And there was an awful lot of that in this book. Oh well.

Psalms

I found these really comforting at The Hermitage but after a couple of weeks I didn’t continue to read them. Re-reading my goals, I remembered how great they were, and how King David was my favorite Biblical character when I was a child. I should go back to them.

The Second Mountain by David Brooks

Is now on my reading list! I’ll get to it soon and I’m looking forward to it. This is the follow up to The Road to Character.

So, in short, the goals I made at The Hermitage were reasonable and attainable. I’ve seen a lot of benefits from following through with them. Looking back I feel good that I was pretty well in touch with what I needed. Following through was good for me and has gotten me further along my spiritual path.

I plan to take the next few months kinda easy in terms of my spirituality. It’s a stressful time at work and we just got Scout, who is a big focus right now. My thoughts are elsewhere. That’s ok. God isn’t going anywhere. And he knows I’m not turning my back on him, just focusing on some temporal things for a bit. A time to every purpose under heaven.