Focus for Your Stroll

Blessings.
Today we continue with our series of inspirational messages that will focus on Homes, as we take time to stroll our neighbourhoods, back yards, parks, or just sit and look out a window. This resource is adapted from, and used with permission from, The Prayer Bench (https://prayerbench.ca/).
Our Habitat for Today is: Spring Peepers in shallow waters, ponds or wetlands. 

Reflection: Metamorphosis 
Often in spring, someone posts a line on Facebook that says: “I hear peepers ...”  This is exciting. 
Peepers are rarely seen, but during mating season in the spring, their chorus at dusk is heard.  They are among the first to call and breed in spring. If you’ve never heard a peeper before – take a listen to this: Listen to Peepers
Growing up in England, I (Rev. Gail) never heard Peepers, but I would wade down to the nearby canal and collect tadpoles in a jar, and then watch them slowly transform into small frogs.  This process is called Metamorphosis.
As I reflect on this process, I wonder how much we allow God to perform the act of metamorphosis in our lives?  How willing are we to let go of our old ways of being, and be willing to be created into something new?
Peace to your house Spring Peepers. May God cause all to be well with you.

Focus for Your Stroll 
As you prepare for your Stroll, listen to this piece of music called, “Metamorphosis” by Philip Glass.  
As you listen, practice the Spiritual Practice of Audio Divina (Sacred Listening).  Let these words of Christine Volters-Paintner guide your listening: 
“Play the piece of music once to enter into its landscape. Notice the sounds of the notes and silences between them, rest into the movement of the music. Be present to how it rises and falls in your body and imagination. Allow the music to fill you, breathing it in. Slowly become aware if there is a dominant sound or image or feeling that is calling to you in this initial experience. Rest with that image or feeling, taking it in and being fully present to it.”
Video - Metamorphosis
Now go Stroll for your Soul and allow your ears of your heart to be fully present to sounds around you. Be consciously attentive to what you hear? What thoughts and wonderings are evoked?

[Click here to learn more about Audio Divina handout
Happy Strolling.
Peace.  Rev. Gail