Life as Offering

A very simple exercise of naming EVERY SINGLE THING in my experience as God’s.

Sometimes I get grumpy and out of sorts. Despite all the really cool spiritual shit that I’ve experienced, I can easily forget all of it and constrict myself into dense ball of overwhelmed nerves with raw ends sticking out.

This reminds me of a joke my sister likes to tell:

A piece of string walks into a bar.

The bartender says, "Sorry man, we don't serve pieces of string in here, get lost."

Upset, the piece of string walks out the door. A sudden thought strikes him. He ties himself in a knot and messes up his hair.

He walks back into the bar and approaches the counter. The bartender says, "Hey, aren't you that piece of string from before?"

"No," says the piece of string, "I'm a frayed knot."

But I digress.

Last week, I was having a bout of grumpiness. I wasn’t doing my morning devotional (or any devotionals for that matter). In fact, I wasn’t doing any of the things that I know gives my life meaning. I was just caught up in a yucky feeling of strife. 

After a night of being too caught up in mind loops to get any good rest, I lay in bed and berated myself (always a helpful tactic for getting into a relaxed state of mind…I recommend it to NO ONE!). It reminds me of the time my poor husband made the mistake of saying to me, “You need to calm down.”

Again, I digress.

In any case, as I lay there, I reminded myself that I often write about 5Cs of relationship, and that curiosity is the very first C (the others are consent, compassion, communication, and container tending). I told myself to bring some curiosity to the moment instead of continuing to react poorly to it. I started asking myself some questions, one of which was actually helpful: Hey, didn’t I used to have an exercise of some kind that I’d do any time I needed to get back to basics?

“Yeah, that’s right,” I replied. “There was something I used to do. What was it?”

And, miracle of miracles, I actually remembered what it was!

It’s an exercise that I call Life as Offering. It was something I developed years ago after reading ‘Outrageous Openness’ by Tosha Silver (which I HIGHLY recommend).

It’s a very simple exercise, but has always had a profound impact on me. It goes like this:

I name EVERY SINGLE THING in my experience as God’s.

Now, I understand that the word “God” can be particularly sticky, so if you want to do this exercise, feel free to use whatever word or name you prefer for the Divine. For myself, I tend to use various words interchangeably, but for this exercise I like the one-syllable word “God”. Again, use whatever term feels right to you. Then, just start naming.

For me on that grumpy morning, I began with the tangible things around me.

God’s pillow. God’s bed. God’s blanket. God’s window. God’s room. God’s husband.

Then I added my internal experiences.

God’s grumpiness. God’s frustration. God’s fear.

Almost immediately, I did feel some better. I felt my metaphorical fists begin to unclench.

God’s comfort.

But the mind is a potent thing and she wasn’t going to let go that easily. She started her loops up again, making lists of everything that needed get done. Over and over. This time I was able to stop, though, and I remembered the exercise.

God’s habits. God’s overthinking. God’s strife.

The word ‘strife’ made me think about the teaching of Empedocles, the ancient Greek philosopher. Empedocles was the man who created the system of the four classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water. The elements are a big part of my life and work, so I am very grateful to Empedocles for his contribution. He taught that the elements are the basic building blocks of all matter and that (here’s the relevant part today) the force of Love brings them together, while the force of Strife pulls them apart.

When I am in a mindset of strife or striving, the elements that are my very body, are pulled apart. No wonder it makes me grumpy.

When I remember the Life as Offering practice, I get out of the striving mindset.

By naming everything God’s I soften my grasping and clinging. I stop trying to control. I step into the realization that none of it is MINE, and so I don’t have to carry the burden of it. Even more, I remember that I am a steward of this life. I look after it, I take care of it for a time. It belongs WITH me, it does not belong TO me.

In a nutshell, the practice helps get me to a place of surrender. Striving and surrender cannot exist simultaneously. So, in surrender, I move away from striving and closer (at least a little) to the Love end of the spectrum. From this place, the elements that make up myself and my body can come back together and I can be made whole.

Try it for yourself next time you’re feeling out of sorts. Just start naming absolutely everything as belonging to the Divine. If it feels okay, I’d love to hear about your experiences with it in the comments below.