Monday Manna
Lightly, like it's part of the dance...
If you are new to Monday Manna, I’m so glad you are here. My prayer with this little pause on Monday mornings is to offer some nourishment (“manna”) for you — via my reflection, prayer, and painting — as you are nourishing the world around you. Together, we are watching for the ways God is with us and for us as we take one day at a time….
Good morning, my friends, and blessings of peace and gentleness to you as we begin the day — a marked day….
I reflected last time on my 2024 Star Word of “Giving” with the promise I would return this week to share about my 2025 word. If you missed last week, the gist of the Star Word tradition is receiving a guiding word for your life and journey with God in the new year, akin to the magi following a star to discover Jesus. It’s a North Star, of sorts — something to keep returning to for direction, hope, and oftentimes, challenge.
In December, I journaled and prayed over what word the Spirit had for me in 2025, and one quite clearly arose…
Lightly…
I am not one to hold or approach things lightly. I am a bona-fide clinger. With the narrative of loss in my life, I realized in fresh ways this past year how that’s impacted the way I hold on to what I have, how seriously I take things, and how fearful I am. All this heaviness and fear have taken their toll.
As 2024 came to a close with some hard surprises, I felt a yearning, deep in the bones of my soul, to live more lightly. I came across a quote in my journal I’d heard years ago which a friend reminded me of…from writer Aldous Huxley—
“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig. Lightly, lightly — it’s the best advice ever given me…so throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly.” *
I was struck by the gorgeous paradox of his words — how we can live lightly in the face of difficulty, loss, fear, pain…When he talked off throwing away the baggage, I immediately thought of my life-verse from Hebrews 12: 1…"Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
Before my recent running injury happened and I was running more regularly, I was especially moved by an image I would see whenever I ran along Lake Michigan. In the early light, I’d often glimpse a lone sea gull, riding on invisible currents, letting herself be carried, gliding gracefully…lightly….
Each time I saw her, I felt a yearning…that’s how I want to be. I want to live lightly in my spirit, in my body, in my home, on the earth. Not so much stuff inside and outside. Not so much holding tightly for fear there couldn’t be anything better. Not so much seriousness around what others think about me, or how seriously I take myself.
I am sensing the Spirit wants to reorient my whole posture and approach to life. To, as the quote I learned from
years ago taught me from Ram Dass, approach everything as “part of the dance.”The promise of this star word feels like a life-preserver for me today. I’ve felt so heavy over the fires happening in California, and the crushing heaviness of today’s impending presidential inauguration. And yet, today we also mark the life and witness of a hero who had a vision, a dream, and followed a star. Martin Luther King Jr. lived lightly, calling others to link loving arms in peaceful protest. Following the way of his Savior, King didn’t force or control. He simply chose faithfulness each and every day, inviting others to join him in the dream God continually told him was possible.
I hope to return with more reflections here and there throughout this year on the theme of “lightly” and how God’s changing me through it. Know that as I pray for this in myself, I pray for it in your life too. Remember what Jesus told you… “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
The yoke isn’t ours to carry. Try softer. Be gentle. Breathe and open your hands…**
Lightly, child. Lightly….
*Aldous Huxley, Island, 1962.
**I had a post about this whole theme of “try softer, be gentle,” which you can read here.
A Prayer
Oftentimes I share a prayer here from my book, Ash and Starlight: Prayers for the Chaos and Grace of Daily Life, Second Edition, but today, I want to lift up a blessing from Jan Richardson I’ve been returning to again and again and again. It’s for Epiphany/Women’s Christmas, which I still find us in the tide of, and to me, speaks of how we hold our map (i.e. control) loosely. Lightly. We listen within…
You have looked
at so many doors
with longing,
wondering if your life
lay on the other side.
For today,
choose the door
that opens
to the inside.
Travel the most ancient way
of all:
the path that leads you
to the center
of your life.
No map
but the one
you make yourself.
No provision
but what you already carry
and the grace that comes
to those who walk
the pilgrim’s way.
Speak this blessing
as you set out
and watch how
your rhythm slows,
the cadence of the road
drawing you into the pace
that is your own.
Eat when hungry.
Rest when tired.
Listen to your dreaming.
Welcome detours
as doors deeper in.
Pray for protection.
Ask for the guidance you need.
Offer gladness
for the gifts that come
and then
let them go.
Do not expect
to return
by the same road.
Home is always
by another way
and you will know it
not by the light
that waits for you
but by the star
that blazes inside you
telling you
where you are
is holy
and you are welcome
here.
— Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons
Something that nourished me recently…
*I have never successfully kept an orchid alive longer than a couple of months, so when a friend gave me an orchid a year and half ago, I knew I would just have to hold it “lightly” and enjoy it for the time it survived under my roof. There’s a whole Monday manna post and parable in here somewhere that I hope to write another time about this, but when we returned from our travels over Christmas, the orchid had sprouted a flower —the first time it had bloomed in almost a year and a half! I had nearly put the whole thing in the compost last fall when I saw rotting roots and yellow on the leaves. But something within me said, “not yet.” And here, blooming after I thought it was completely over…
*Our family made a 2025 Family Vision Board last weekend and had a lot of fun cutting out magazine words and images depicting our hopes for our family this year. The idea comes from the brilliant Traci Smith who shared this, along with many other nurturing ideas, in her TREASURE BOX TUESDAY. She is a Family Ritual Whisperer.
Ash and Starlight, plus other good things…
*SECOND EDITION OF ASH AND STARLIGHT ~ Find the updated edition of my book here at Chalice or at the Amazon link! Also, I am happy to mail personalized bookplate stickers to you. And maybe one of my watercolor bookmarks, too. :) Just ask!
*MONDAY MANNA ARCHIVES ~ You can view previous Substack Monday Manna reflections as a paid subscriber here, or for the really old stuff, go to my website.
*WHAT DOES MANNA MEAN? ~ Check out an earlier post to learn how this little bit of “daily bread” got its name…
In the midst of all the heaviness, I pray God will somehow lighten things within and around you today. That you will catch of a glimpse of the map you are making with the Spirit’s help. And that you will do it like it’s part of the dance….
Love and Light,
Arianne
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Thank you, Arianne! I think I might be posting the word “Lightly” in my space as well.
Peace,
Jenni
Love your family vision board ❤️🙏❤️ beautiful to do.