Goodness Weekly 5.1.23
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.”
– Rumi
What’s Good:
This past week, North East Independent School District awarded our community the Superintendent’s Award for our work with Camelot Elementary! We’ve been serving Camelot Elementary since 2019 through Snack Paks and Camelot Christmas. This past Christmas we were able to set up an affordable shopping experience for the families as well as serve them breakfast and play fun Christmas games! A big thank you to Kyle Fry for his continued leadership and support of the Snack Pak program, providing weekend meals to children in the school. If you’d like to plug-in with Camelot volunteering, email us at hello@chariscollective.org
Message from Jess:
How is glimmer-seeking going for you?
The word enchantment won’t seem to let me go lately. Enchantment is a feeling of great delight and is a word much like one of my favorites—wonder. Ever since this word has grabbed hold of me I notice myself looking up more, searching for glimmers of beauty and wonder.
This past Friday my daughter Shiloh and I grabbed coffee at One Another and sat in the garden for a few minutes. Each of us pointed to our favorite flowers in the garden, she jumped on the benches, and we listened to the birds. We were only there for fifteen minutes but I felt restored—more connected to my daughter, more connected to my own body, and more connected to the earth.
Shiloh’s piano teacher, Ms. Bethany recently told her that, “It’s more important to practice five minutes every day than 60 minutes in one day.” This is the same sentiment my rest coach shared—that sustainable rhythms of rest are small and daily. Many of us have read James Clear’s Atomic Habits and know that this same thought is well supported by the author—tiny, daily changes yield lasting results.
In my journey toward sustainable rhythms of rest, I learned the practice of “rest bites.” These are small, 10-minute chunks of time that can be used during the day to recharge, much like Shiloh and I experienced in the garden. If you’re like me, ten minutes is a coveted amount of time—I can catch up on emails, place my grocery order, buy that birthday gift, or load the dishwasher. But this type of frantic, marginless lifestyle pushes us more and more towards becoming human doings, when instead our invitation is to relish in our human being-ness.
I’d love to invite you to join me in a challenge this month: carve out ten minutes each day to sit and look at the clouds, to put your bare feet in the grass, to breathe deep, to meditate, to walk—whatever is truly restful to you. I will be sharing some of my favorite practices over the coming weeks and months, but the important thing is to start small each day.
I know the timing of this is ironic as for many of us the month of May is one of the busiest of the year. And yet I think that’s exactly why it’s the right time to start integrating “rest bites” because there will always be more to do, somewhere to be, and an unending to-do list. Perhaps this month we can all be a little more prepared for the busyness because we’ve allowed our precious hearts a little time to breathe.
Love, Jess
Upcoming Events:
Sunday, May 7th, 4:30pm Supper Church
No Youth Group this week
Saturday, May 13th, 10:00am Second Saturday on the front lawn
Saturday, May 13th, 11:00am Charis Park Groundbreaking Ceremony!
Inhale:
I struggle to allow my head and heart to rest
Exhale:
Help me to breathe in this good moment, aware of the beauty that is around me and inside of me.
