Laurie Klein, Scribe

immerse in God, emerge refreshed

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In the Dark: 1 Old Bird Learns a Few New Licks

by Laurie Klein 44 Chiming In

In the dark, waiting
In the dark, waiting . . .

No one would choose this.

Enforced seclusion
for the past month (with recurring
C. Diff, a vile intestinal bug)
resembles—viewed hopefully—
a dubious Gift: unwanted,
yet potent as incubation.

And not only pathogenically.

C. Diff is highly contagious. For now, I can’t leave home.

Like embryonic birds trapped inside eggs 24-7, I face confinement.

Waiting in the dark for something to change, the psyche squirms. And, like those chicks, slowly, surely, the soul stretches. And develops.

Emotionally and spiritually, some days there’s not a heck-of-a-lot of light.

How cautiously, then—choice-by-choice—the soul met by grace befriends isolation. Limitation. The ambient darkness.

Good thing I’m not alone.

A process built right into creation

In a landmark 2016 study, ecologists in Australia staked out the nests of superb fairywrens and red-backed fairywrens. Concerned about their predation rates, researchers concealed a microphone beneath each nest. They hoped to record 24-7 avian alarm calls, warning each other of predators.

Later, they replayed the recordings. Parents engaged in lively duets called to their eggs.

And the nestlings, unhatched, called back—from inside their shells!

Learning to sing in the dark

Almost a century before the Australian study, Oswald Chambers wrote about songbirds being taught, over time, to sing in the dark.

Are you in the dark just now in your circumstances, Chambers asked, or in your life with God?

[W]e are put into the shadow of God’s hand, he adds, until we learn to hear Him.

Chops, Riffs & Licks

Songbirds, like humans (and bats), learn to make sounds by imitation. Further Aussie recordings replay fairywren hatchlings mimicking the song of their father.

Tirelessly, the father repeats his signature song. He drills his chicks on introductory notes—even slows them down.

He spaces out phrases, clarifies syllables. Mastery requires a lifetime of practice.

 

For everything, there is a season: a time to listen. A time to sing.

What time is it in your life?

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As for me. I’m learning a lot. I’m calling my voluntary seclusion Laurie’s Backward Sabbatical. I read, work puzzles, color, and enjoy books-on-tape. I’m perfecting Klein’s Killer chicken broth.

I spend more time than usual in silence, listening for God. Sometimes improvised songs arise (It’s been years since this happened!).

Currently on a two-month tapering regimen of a Big Bucks Medication, I am (mostly) grateful for this cloistered season, and completely thankful for your prayers.


 

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Learn to Sing out on a Limb

Learn more here. And here.

Many thanks to Susan Cowger for pointing me toward Oswald Chambers’ thoughts.

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: fairywren, incubation, waiting February 17, 2019

Sigh, Sigh, Sigh (& Stay Alive!)

by Laurie Klein 17 Chiming In

Sigh … audibly. Deeply. Frequently. (So says my fitness instructor)

Sigh: Take One

Dreamer’s latest angiogram date looms. After 5 bypasses, why are we here again? Dismay feels substantive enough to mold—like river sludge between cupped palms.

Sigh. Empty the hands, lift them in trusting surrender. 

An audible sigh re-inflates the vital, occasionally squashed alveoli within our lungs, keeping us alive.

So sigh some more.

A sigh alleviates stress. Research shows that 12 hourly sighs help us regroup, emotionally. Read more here.

  • Yes, bad news strikes, and fear makes us bristle, become thistle-y with those we love
  • Yes, sometimes even the air weighs on us, seemingly saturated with unshed tears
  • Yes, how easily we slide toward the sump of dread

Stalled out again,
going nowhere fast,
I remember
“nowhere”
plus the addition
of one slender space
becomes “now here.”

Presence. One slender pause—a breath, a hum, a prayer—invites a sacred recalibration. The built-in reset for body and soul.

Inhale. Sigh aloud. Repeat.

“there is a changing of everything —
when breath becomes prayer.”*

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Richard Rohr teaches a simple breath prayer. Using the name YAHWEH for God: inhale, audibly voicing the YAH; exhale, audibly voicing the WEH.

I also like Dr. Andrew’s Weil’s calming breath exercise:

  • Exhale as much air as possible with a big whoosh
  • Place tongue behind upper teeth, inhale for an easy count of 4
  • Hold breath for a count of 7
  • Exhale audibly for a count of 8

Do this four times. As it becomes easier, increase to eight repetitions, twice a day.

I vary the 4-7-8 exercise by counting on my fingers, simultaneously humming or praying.

*Prayer, Ann Voskamp

Filed Under: Small Wonders Tagged With: breath, pause, prayer, presence, sigh, space, waiting February 15, 2018

Longing: What It Wants, Where It Points

by Laurie Klein 28 Chiming In

Longing: What does it want from me? This insistent ache, at night, weighting the chest like an X-ray apron.

This unfocused energy, jangling as a florescent tube on the fritz.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: grace, longing, regret, waiting, wellspring January 16, 2017

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Where the Sky Opens, a Partial Cosmography

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