Beyond the Rain
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
Consider how the practice of mindfulness can help us embrace challenges as opportunities toward spiritual growth and deeper empathy.
Ecclesiastes 3:1
For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.
That you will learn most from the situations
you did not choose…
…That life isn’t fair.
That life is sometimes good
and sometimes better than good.
That life is often not so good…
That you must accept change
before you die
but you will die anyway.
So you might as well live
and you might as well love.
You might as well love.
You might as well love.
— Pádraig Ó Tuama, “The Facts of Life”
Food for Thought
I recently visited my daughter who is studying abroad in Italy for the semester. I was eager to take in as much of Florence and the surrounding Tuscan landscape as possible during my short trip. Florence is a lovely city, full of history, beauty, and delicious food! We were able to experience much of its wonders despite the rain. And boy, was there rain! The day of our Tuscan countryside outing, it poured buckets. Before even meeting up for our tour, we were completely drenched — pants, shoes, and socks squishy with water. My first stop in Siena was not to see the world’s oldest surviving bank, or its incredible cathedral, but rather to buy dry socks. By most accounts, our tour was a wash.
As we traveled, sopping wet, on the bus that day, my daughter remarked, “today is a good opportunity to practice mindfulness.” As a part of her study abroad program, she has been taking a class in mindfulness — a practice centered around being present and recognizing our relationship to each moment. In her class, my daughter learned an interesting truth: those who view obstacles and moments of hardship as opportunities for growth and learning tend to have better health and well-being outcomes. It is not the stress itself, but how we perceive it that makes the difference. In fact, those who perceive moments of stress as moments ripe for potential growth or learning, typically fare better even than those who experience no notable stressors or obstacles in their lives at all. Those who have the best outcomes, it would seem, are those who experience stress and hardships in life, yet grow and learn beyond them.
And so, as she evaluated the situation — our dampened Tuscany tour — she suggested that we could choose how we would relate and respond to the moment. Either we could choose to be discouraged that things didn’t go our way, or we could view this as a moment that offered something toward our own becoming — a moment that aided in our resourcefulness, fostered our sense of community with the new friends on our tour, garnered an excellent restaurant recommendation from our wonderful tour guide, reoriented us to remember all we did have to be thankful for even though perhaps this experience was not what we’d hoped, and gave us the possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stand atop the Leaning Tower of Pisa and feel the rain on our faces, and see the duomo in that particular moment — glistening with rain, puddles reflecting its beauty, as the sky darkened into evening.
I recognize that my rainy tour of Tuscany is far from a deleterious hardship, but my daughter’s reminder in the midst of that less-than-ideal experience, brought some things into focus for me. There is so much in life that is beyond our control and understanding, plenty to disappoint and discourage, so much that saddens the heart. I do not mean to suggest that grief, that disappointment, anger and heartache, or experiences of hardship and injustice are not valid, and I certainly do not aim to push people into a toxic kind of joy or denial of these realities and emotions. Yet, as my daughter reminded me, alongside our challenges there are things we can choose to remember, moments we can honor and notice, and ways we can grow and learn in love that arise from even our deepest moments of pain and difficulty.
In this season of Lent, we are invited to reflect on Jesus’s lived experience — one that fully understood the injustices and hardships this life can hold, yet embraced a calling to love expansively through each trial. Everything under heaven, it seems, will find its way into this world. And so, perhaps the practice of mindfulness — of centering into each moment with curiosity and humility toward our own possibility — can allow us to receive and perceive, in whatever comes our way, opportunities for growth in Christ-like compassion, service and gratitude. Even as our challenges bring us to see the world in a new light, may we choose to navigate through it all toward something of goodness for ourselves and our world.
Reflect on your own experiences of hardship and growth. Take some time this week to journal about or create a work of art that reflects your journey.
Get outside and go for a walk as the weather gets warmer. Maybe take this opportunity to practice mindful walking. Notice all of the life that is blooming around you, taking moments to pause in gratitude along the way. Use the walk as a space to connect with yourself, with others if they are with you, with the environment, and with faith in a more embodied way.
For a printable version of today's reflection Click Here!
Blessing
Holy One,
In the midst of life’s challenges, help us to find your presence. Grant us the wisdom to view hardship not as defeat, but as a chance to grow in patience, compassion, and faith. Help us to remain ever mindful of your love and guidance in each moment, with hearts open to those around us.
Amen.
A little Table Talk for your table...
How do you typically respond to challenges or hardships, and how might shifting your perspective help you see them as opportunities for growth?
In what ways can mindfulness and being present in the moment deepen your connection with God and others, especially during difficult times?
How can we support one another in our community to embrace challenges as opportunities for spiritual growth, and what role does gratitude play in this process?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Ask your kiddos how they feel when things don’t go the way they want them to go. How might seeing these moments as opportunities, rather than disappointments, turn those tough moments into something positive? What is now possible that wasn’t possible before?
Discuss together what it means to be "mindful" or "pay attention" to what's happening around you. How does noticing the world help us feel connected to God and one another?
Make a list of the ways we can help others feel better when they are having a hard time. How does paying attention help us better take care of one another when things are difficult?
Meet This WEek’s Writer...
Rev. Daryn Stylianopoulos is originally from North Carolina, but has called Boston, MA home for nearly twenty years. Daryn is an advocate for the marginalized and works against injustices in her community. She believes in creatively cultivating a spirit of cohesion, welcome, and healing in the world. A lover of art, music, gardening, and, most of all, family, she often looks to these for inspiration in her work and ministry. Daryn is on staff with American Baptist Home Mission Societies serving as Program Director for the Nurturing Children Initiative, and also serves as a Baptist pastor in the Boston area. She is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Boston University School of Theology.
To hear more from Rev. Daryn throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!