Mining Your Life

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is.

In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness:

touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it,

because in the last analysis all moments are key moments,

and life itself is grace.

~Frederick Buechner, Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation

Related to sharing the story of our lives, I think of spiritual direction as mining your life. So much of our life passes so quickly, and we are often so distracted and scattered, that if we do not regularly slow down or pause to really take it in, we may just miss it. Spiritual direction invites us to look again, to take a deeper listen to the life we are living, to see if there are gifts and invitations we are missing.

One image that comes to mind for this kind of exploration is gem mining. Perhaps you’ve done this before on some mountain adventure. Not too long ago, we took our two boys for their first gem mining experience near Dahlonega, GA. We paid for what looked like a couple of buckets of dirt and rocks. Then we took them over to a table and trough where there is running water. You take your bucket, scoop by scoop, and place it in a square tray with a mesh bottom. As water washes away the dirt and debris, you are left with sizeable rocks and gems, perhaps an emerald or a moonstone, a ruby or amethyst.

Spiritual direction feels a lot like that. You bring in your life bucket by bucket, scoop by scoop. It may look like just a pile of dirt. But we run it under the water of prayerful listening, see what falls away and what gems remain to be turned over in our hands for more careful exploration and appreciation. A spiritual director hopefully offers you a frame and a filter, and an extra set of eyes and ears to catch glimmers of gold or stones of significance amidst the muck. And you’d be amazed over time, how many treasures you find, and how much even that old dirt starts shining in a new way.

One of my most enduring lessons from my own experience of spiritual direction, that now gives me such a sense of trust and hope when working with others, is: If you dig around, there is always gift in the mix. We all know good and well the owners of those gem mines have assembled those buckets with an interesting gem or two or twenty; why else would we keep bringing our kids and buying buckets of dirt? In much the same way, I have come to believe Love is forever dropping grace upon grace into our muddy mix, wooing us to come to the flowing water for the joy and surprise of discovery.

Got a bucket of life you’d like to sort out? Read here to learn more about the practice of one-on-one spiritual direction, or here if you’re interested in joining a community of other seekers mining their life together each week.

Gratefully,

Kimberly