"When we are brought to the verge of crisis, our well-honed philosophies and careful, controlled strategies fall away. All the spars that make up our life raft, the things on which we daily rely, have a tendency to break up in the force of events. It is usually when we feel our utter solitude and helplessness that we call upon the spirit world for assistance. Even though we may have no well-founded belief, we instinctively know that even if all other things have fallen away, divine providence will not let us down."  ~Caitlin Matthews, The Celtic Spirit

These words were a part of my daily devotional reading today. I have to admit they were jarring words with which to begin a day. Crisis? I am not in crisis! I don't want a crisis! Please, don't let there be a crisis! At least not today!

While no one every wants a crisis in life, there is great wisdom in Caitlin Mathew's words. The idea that we can be going along, minding our own business, until a rock gets thrown in our path can wake us up to how we walk, or don't walk, with an awareness of Spirit. While the Spirit's presence is always with us, most of the time we are oblivious. Then there is an illness, an accident, a loss…..you name the crisis……and we are brought up short to the many connections that hold us. Laid bare, we reach out to make contact with friends, family, a faith that we'd let go by the wayside of daily distractions. Helpless, we stop and re-member ourselves, our whole selves. Mind, body and spirit selves. 

I think of the times in my life when crisis came to call. In the midst of that stew pot, the only thing left to do was to stop, take a breath and be present to the beating of my own heart, knowing that it was connected in ways words could not express, to the Heart of the Universe. I think this is praying, deep praying. And I know that in those times when no logic or reason could help me, this wordless, breath-filled act did. The stillness, the silence, the solitude, the breathing, became an embodied experience of a relationship with the Holy. 

I pray that today is not a day of crisis for you. I pray it is not for me. At the same time I pray that whatever is the gift of this day, I will be able to greet it as a guest, remembering that the One who breathed me into being is still breathing in all of it.