Trust What Happens in the Moment
D&D, Lord of the Rings, and "freedom watch," part 7
I chose a guiding word for 2024—the word freedom. I’m reflecting on the word freedom regularly in the Blue Room, to see how it’s guiding and challenging my life, with hope that these explorations will guide you into greater freedom as well!
Part 1: freedom means accepting difficulty but reducing misery
Part 2: freedom means doing nothing extra
Part 3: freedom means not fighting with reality
Part 4: freedom means less preparation, more presence
Part 5: freedom comes from singing your heart out
Part 6: freedom means trusting the time you have
Happy Friday, Blue Roomies!
Last week I offered some tips for writers, including the importance of a writing community, and mentioned the Writing Table. A couple days after that post, I logged in to the WT. I was a few minutes late, but I heard our host Eileen Campbell-Reed say, “So if anyone has any wisdom for this back-to-school phase of the year, send it along.” I threw some quick comments into the Zoom chat and dove into my writing for the day.
Turns out I didn’t quite “understand the assignment,” as the kids say. This wasn’t just a share-comments-in-the-chat thing—Eileen was putting together a newsletter article about the back-to-school season! When it landed in my inbox, I chuckled at the thoughtful paragraphs from the other contributors. Here’s what I had written:
Here’s the thing though: although my comment was completely off the cuff, it wasn’t wrong! In fact, as a recovering perfectionist, I’m glad I logged in late and didn’t hear the full context of what she was looking for and why. I probably would have overthought it and maybe even let the opportunity pass me by.
There’s freedom in offering what you can in the moment and not worrying whether it’s “right” or “enough.” Trust that your spontaneous offering will be of use.
Relatedly: my colleague, who was scheduled to preach last Sunday, came down with covid at the end of the last week. Thankfully I had preached on the scheduled scripture text before, so it didn’t take much time to adapt it into something presentable two days later. It was a patchwork of past work, some thoughts gleaned from discussion in my clergy group, and a couple of new thoughts, including our family’s experience playing D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) and some good ol’ reliable Lord of the Rings. How did it all come together? You can decide for yourself. Manuscript is attached to this post in PDF form or audio.
Where are you experiencing freedom right now? Or seeking it?
Steady on.