Week One – Day Four : Rhythms in Nature

The scriptures say, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.” And we believe that in the natural world around us there are lessons to be learned from the patterns and rhythms of nature that we see around us, patterns that can inform our own patterns of living and our own ways of structuring our lives. Jesus often drew from the natural world when he spoke in parables or used examples in his teaching. He talked about sowers sowing seed, and vines and vineyards. He talked about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, and he drew spiritual lessons, spiritual truths from these.

So as this course continues we’re going to invite you to reflect on the natural world. Particularly we’re going to focus on the metaphor of a garden thinking about our lives as “garden plots” and thinking about what we choose to plant there, and how we can nurture those plants and help them come to their full expression.

– Br. David Vryhof

Today’s Question to Journal

How might the rhythms you observe in nature inform the way you live?

This Week’s Workbook Exercise

Before we begin planting our gardens, we may want to take a stroll around and explore other gardens to see what works well and what doesn’t work well. Look at some of the examples of different Rules of Life. Use the blank ‘seed packets’ to jot down notes as you explore other Rules of Life. What inspires you? What ideas stand out that you could incorporate into your own Rule of Life? These are ‘seeds’ that we can consider planting in our own Garden Plots.