Some time ago I decided while at the health food store (i.e. Henry's Farmer's Market, my second home) to buy myself a box of "Detox Tea". Yogi Detox Tea, to be exact. Since I have become an avid wine drinker (in moderation of course) I thought I should probably do something to help my liver process out all toxins I was putting in my body. -Not to mention the numerous surgery drugs, pollutants and chemicals in the air, water and food. As far as detoxing my body goes, the goal is to get ride of the waste, so that all that is left is the good stuff to live a long, healthy, productive life.
What I didn't expect from this whim of a decision so many months ago is that it would initiate a aggregate process of the purging of my soul. Maybe I should have figured as much, as the body and soul are ever so intimately connected, but this wasn't my plan or intention.
As the detox tea was just a beginning, I began to be aware that there is more potential for toxins to enter my soul in my daily life that I was immediately aware. Facebook. The internet. Television. Hulu. Netfix. NPR. Food. Work. School. Housework. Homework. Responsibilities. --all the good and bad seems wrapped into one. Where was there space in my life to sit, be, listen to the Spirit, sleep, cook, bake, swim? -Where did the life giving activities of my life go? Work, FB, the internet, movies and television are not inherently bad; however, what was becoming clear is that they were crowding my life, leaving me with no space to be a human being. I was restless and the noise was giving me a debilitating headache.
Then the purging. The season of Lent.
A few weeks ago the radio went off in my car. By that I mean, NPR began to sound like pots and pans clattering and clanging rather than enriching information about the world. Purging. Other than the Spirit's movement in my soul at this particular time in my life, I have no explanation for this experience. But I am thankful for it.
What I am finding to be the case is that the more purging we actively participate in, the more space there is to sit and be with ourselves and with God. -Being with myself is not always -or hardly ever, a comfortable or enjoyable place to be, but learning to be present with another is the most life giving experience. That is what I want to move towards.
Purging. Learning how to create space in my life: soul and body, is giving me a small taste of the experience of "the good life".
