Making Space

May 7, 2023

“Sometimes you gotta make space for God to walk through the room.” - Ted Lasso quoting Quincy Jones

Sunrise, May 4, 2023

Last week I wrote about, “waiting, for what I don’t know”. The next day I watched Ted Lasso¹ and stopped dead in my tracks when I heard the quote above. “Space for God to walk through the room.” Sometimes you hear something and it fills in the blanks, provides a container for something you have experienced but didn’t really recognize until the words formed a structure around it. The words that make the unthought known tangible after all. “Space for God to walk through the room.” The holy pause.

Sometimes space is just what a photo needs too. (the utterly uncommon bird we call a common loon)

YES! This is what I do every day when I walk in nature. I make space. This is what meditation really is for me - making space. This is what all of the various mindfulness practices I have been tinkering with are pointing to. Making space where that which is larger than me can enter, can surprise me, can show me something I’ve never seen or heard before, can find a way where none seemed possible. A place where my way of thinking can expand and my sense of wonder is invoked.

A place where birds can be just as silly as they want to be. (lesser yellowlegs)

His larger avocet friend getting in on the silliness too!

I knew this week was going to be very challenging at my day job. This idea of making space came to me just as I needed it. A way of approaching a situation where I didn’t have the answers or the resources I needed. This week I practiced this quote over and over again. Pausing every time I thought of it. Pausing between one task and another. Pausing before I tried to find an answer. Pausing before speaking. It was a hard week - but I think I came through it a little more whole than I might have before.

Avocets, incoming!

I once heard a teacher in a guided meditation say, “What if you could trust the silence as much as any thought?” I am starting to understand. It’s trusting that pause. Trusting that I do not have to fill the space. Trusting that in that space something else can appear and it might not look like anything at all but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. I’m starting to understand this is the bridge between what I do “out there” and what I need to bring “in here”.

This is one of my favorite places to pause.

Today the clouds were thick and the light was poor but the warm air had surged in. Today there were birds - lots and lots of birds. First of the season orioles, indigo buntings, vireos, warblers, thrushes - so many birds. The light was bad and I doubt any of the photos will be decent so I focused instead on listening. Walking, pausing, listening. I used the Merlin Bird ID app to identify birds by sound. And guess what? In one of those pauses a new bird appeared. A loud, chatty bird I had not heard before. It turns out it is aptly named - a yellow-breasted chat.

I didn’t get a decent photo of the chat, but this white-eyed vireo was singing his little heart out.

Sitting at sunrise is a holy pause between the dreams of the night before and whatever might unfold in the new day. As I sat on the edge of the water Thursday morning, I took an extra long pause. Five little birds appeared, least sandpipers, the smallest of the shorebirds. As I watched these delightful little birds run back and forth across the boat ramp, I found myself humming: “Don’t worry, about a thing. ‘Cause every little thing’s, gonna be alright.” It was only later I found out this Bob Marley song is actually titled, “Three Little Birds”. No wonder I love it so much! It is often the birds that bring that message to me after all.

“Three little birds, lit on my doorstep…” (least sandpipers)

Least sandpipers bob as they walk and it’s easy to imagine them singing, “every little thing, gonna be alright.”

May you find the sacred pause in your day and may you discover little moments of magic.

A few more of my delightful bird friends:

Little Lincoln’s sparrow just appeared for a moment, then he was gone.

The tiny-but-mighty blue-gray gnatcatcher

Magic can be found in the most mundane places too.

1. On the one in a million chance my fellow Kansas Citian Jason Sudeikis ever reads this - please Jason, find a way for Ted to live on! Three seasons is not enough! (If you haven’t watched Ted Lasso on Apple TV, I highly recommend it!)