Browse Category by Spirituality
Art as Devotion, Poetry, Psalms project, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality

The Psalms Project: How it All Began

The poetry series I call ” The Psalms Project” began by chance. I was looking to fill the time while waiting in a coffee shop one day, when I had the random idea to try and paraphrase a psalm using my own language. I opened the Bible app on my phone, took out a tiny notebook I keep in my bag, and started.

The idea had never occurred to me before, but once I started doing it I realized what a powerful method it is for fostering a deeper understanding of the sacred text and intimacy with God. There is the way the Psalms have been written (and translated many times over throughout time), but each time I do this exercise, I discover what the words mean to me personally. It’s also a super-fun exercise for those of us who love to play with words!

So the poems you see under the category “Psalms Project” are the result of my reflection on (and sometimes wrestling with) the personal meaning of psalms that have spoken to me at a particular point in time. I love this exercise and I have found so much joy and solace in being able to refer to these reimagined psalms as my own prayers to God.

Here is another one I wrote, a paraphrase of the oft-recited Corinthians passage about love – one of my favorites!

Love Can Be Trusted
[A Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8]

by Tiffany Nicole Fletcher

Love is willing to wait,
love gives the best of itself.
It does not covet what others have,
It is not self-obsessed,
it is able to confess when it is wrong.
It does not take joy in things that separate it from God, but seeks and delights in full communion.
It is forever watching over,
forever believing in,
forever certain of coming good,
forever holding on.
Love can be trusted.

Have you ever tried to paraphrase the Psalms? I’d love to hear about your experience!

 

image credit: Aaron Burden/StockSnap

Breathwork, Nature, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality

My Favorite Spiritual Practices: Part II

In my previous post, I shared some of my favorite spiritual practices. These are very specific to who I am and to what fosters my personal connection to God. In thinking about potential spiritual practices for yourself, it can help to think about who you are and what resonates with you.

What do you respond to most powerfully in your life: sound, smell, touch, sight? Reading, listening, talking, stillness? If you react powerfully and in a positive way to smell, you might incorporate aromatherapy into your spiritual practices. If you’ve felt most connected to God through sound, you might want to try regular music practice or have sound baths, which I describe below.

If you don’t know what would be best, pick something and try it. God is ever-present, and will meet you at your moment of seeking.

Here are the rest of my favorite spiritual practices:

Breathwork

I first learned about breathwork through yoga, where it is called pranayama, and then through singing, where you do breathing exercises as part of strengthening the muscles used to sing. Breathwork seems simple; after all, we’re breathing all the time. But it’s a very powerful, healing practice that can release tension, remove emotional baggage, relieve stress, and connect us to our inner-knowing. I haven’t done it as a regular spiritual practice, but I have a hunch that it would probably be life-changing if I did. Breathwork is a practice of surrender.

My favorite breathing exercise is alternate nostril breathing.

Sound baths

My personal “sound baths” are when I put my headphones on, lay down in a comfortable position, and play music that is soothing, nourishing, relaxing, and/or healing to me (sometimes it’s classical piano music, sometimes it’s gospel or worship music, sometimes it’s 90’s R&B!). I pick music for what I need in that moment and then relax and let the music wash over me. Music is truly healing.

Spending time in nature

Nature is a healer, and God is in her. Whenever I spend time under green trees, in wide open space, near mountains or sea, or outside with the sun warming my skin, I feel the divine presence and I leave renewed. It’s such a simple cure that I often forget it. With New York’s hot and muggy summers and frigid winters, it can sometimes be a challenge to spend significant amounts of time outside comfortably but when I do, the benefits are immediate and lasting.

Go outside. Find a patch of grass. Remove your shoes. Sink your bare feet into the grass. Enjoy. Repeat often!

Self-blessing

We don’t realize the power of our own words. We have the power to bless or curse ourselves by the words we speak and it is very healing to speak affirming, uplifting words about ourselves and our lives. Self-blessing is not about trying to speak words like a spell to achieve a specific outcome in your life—it’s about conspiring with God to surround yourself with love.

You can write the words you need for your specific situation. Or you can use a devotional book, the Psalms, or any other prayers or blessings you find that resonate with you. I’m currently using a book of devotions by Julia Cameron, Prayers to the Great Creator: Prayers and Declarations for a Meaningful Life. The first section is written like long affirmations—I randomly pick one each evening and say the words over myself with my hand on my heart. It feels so good, and keeps me believing in goodness regardless of whatever is going on in my life or in the world.

The World Needs Your Joy!

A holistic practitioner once encouraged me to sing regularly simply because of the joy it brings me. “You don’t need any other reason,” she told me. She talked about how powerful sound is and that if singing brings me joy, then I’m adding the vibration of my joy to the world just by engaging in it as a practice. “The world needs more joy!,” she said.

I couldn’t agree more. The world needs more joyful, peaceful, aware people who are connected with the One who loves them. Spiritual practices will connect us.

Art as Devotion, Morning Pages, Prayer, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality

My Favorite Spiritual Practices: Part I

Spiritual practices keep my soul tethered to what really matters. They keep me centered, offer healing when I need it, and remind me of the active and loving movement of God in my life. Every last one of these practices are always available to me and at no cost, which means that the ability to connect with God and center, calm, heal, and refresh myself is always within reach. This is truly empowering.

Even if you participate in institutionalized religion (attending services led by clergy, for example), it is so important to have spiritual practices that you participate in and have access to on your own. That you are not dependent on others as your ultimate source of spiritual nourishment and growth. If you do belong to a spiritual community, devoting yourself to personal spiritual practices will create a depth of connection in you that you can then contribute to that community. It’s all win-win.

Having a spiritual practice is a gift we give ourselves. A statement that we are worth the time to slow down and surrender, regularly. Loving ourselves is the ultimate statement of devotion to our Creator.

Here are some of my favorite forms of spiritual practice:

Morning Pages

Morning pages, as named by author Julia Cameron, were my first consistent, long-term and intentional spiritual practice. Three pages of longhand freewriting, done first thing in the morning. Morning pages helped me empty my mind of any concerns, learn more about myself, and over time, find deeper connection to God.

Morning pages changed my life and I won’t even try to explain how because I believe the process is quite mystical and special in a different way for each person who truly makes the commitment to it. I would say there is magic in doing morning pages, but maybe it is simply that God is always working and when we commit to paying attention closely and regularly, we become more aware of the “magic” happening in our lives.

Prayer

Talking to God, and listening. Turning to God as one would to a good friend, as if our concerns do matter to the Creator. Doing it regularly. Making it a way of life: “Pray without ceasing.” Surrender.

Some people like to speak their prayers aloud, some pray silently. Some find that writing their prayers feels best to them. (And art is prayer too: we can sing, dance, play, write, paint as prayer!)

Prayer is the opposite of control. It is a practice of letting go and letting something larger respond to our concerns with the ultimate balm: presence.

Dancing

I started dancing as a little girl, swinging my arms and pounding my feet to the beat of a live drum in African dance class. Remembering this recently, I decided to devote regular time to dancing freely. This dance practice was also inspired by a Five Rhythms workshop I attended.

I turn on the music (current soundtrack: Essential Djembe Rhythms by Budhi Harlow) and let my body flow and move how it wants to—there is so much freedom in this! As adults, we live with very controlled, composed bodies in daily life, which is the opposite of how we lived as children. Children run and skip and shout and move their bodies very freely. Devoting regular time to letting your body be, just letting it be free, is a true spiritual practice that brings joy, freedom, and ease.

Singing

I have also been singing for as long as I can remember. Every time I sing, I feel sweet release and freedom and I end up smiling and laughing regardless of how I felt when I started singing. When I sing, I surrender. I lose track of time and enter a space where it’s just me, the notes, and the silent spaces in between. Singing, when done with consistency, is a spiritual practice. Any serious, passionate musician understands this. And I believe that all musicians need to engage their practice regularly; it keeps us happy and connected to ourselves.

However, singing as a spiritual practice is not about getting notes right or giving your best performance; it’s about devoting regular time to this act for the sheer joy of it, and for the time with God. You can also pick specific songs of spiritual devotion and sing those – worship singing as spiritual practice. I’d have to write a whole post on that alone!

The Practice is Key

What makes a spiritual practice powerful is the practice. Commit to regular devotion through one of these practices and over time the practice will shape you. Reveal God to you. Reveal you to you. Center you, enlighten you, and if nothing else, give you a refuge whenever you need it.

Stay tuned for the rest of my favorite spiritual practices in my next post!

Poetry, Psalms project, Spirituality

My Joy and My Total Protection

View from the Cloisters, NYC
View from the Cloisters, NYC

My Joy and My Total Protection
[A Paraphrase of Psalm 84 (NIV)]

by Tiffany Nicole Fletcher

There’s nothing better than your presence, O God!
In the deepest part of my being, all I want is to abide with you;
every part of me is asking you to draw near.
You have made a way for every living thing to be close to you,
wonderful Savior and lover of my heart.
When we live in an awareness of your presence, we have everything we need;
it makes our grateful hearts sing.

We have everything we need when we rely on you,
when we’re seeking you with the deepest part of ourselves.
Then we can go through the most barren of seasons,
and still grow verdant gardens in our lives;

and you then add even more blessings on top of that.

Living like this, we experience one victory after another,
leaning on you through it all,
until our days end and we come home to you.

Listen to my plea, Lord;
hear the cries of my heart
I, the one you love, pray for your blessing.

One day spent communing with you is better than anything else I could ever do.
(To know you is the gift above all gifts);
I would choose to have even the faintest knowledge of your goodness
than to live as if I had never known you at all.
For you are my joy and my total protection;
You bless me and I am precious and worthy in your sight;
You are always eagerly waiting to help those who love you.

My God, the one who believes you love them has everything they need.