Naming Ants....The Spiritual Act of Presence and Boredom

I can count the number of times I left my hometown as a little kid on one hand. We were pretty poor so there weren't a lot of opportunities for travel.  Every August my Aunt Janet who lived in Warsaw, Indiana would come and visit us. I looked forward to her visits every year because she would play endless games of Scrabble with me. Even though I was a little kid she never took it easy on me. I would prepare for her visits by reading the dictionary. It was GLORIOUS!

There was one summer that we got to go and visit her! I felt so fancy telling my friends, "Yeah...we're going to be out of town for awhile..." To this poor kid who never, EVER got to go anywhere the phrase "out of town" felt so fancy and cosmopolitan! My mom never learned to drive and I can't remember how we even made it to the mythical land of Warsaw, Indiana but I remember being there in Aunt Janet's house.

Aunt Janet's two boys were both grown up so she didn't have a lot of stuff for a little kid to do but I didn't need a lot of stuff to do because I had Aunt Janet and I had my imagination. The most distinct memory I have of being at Aunt Janet's house was sitting on her front porch steps watching the ants bustle about the sidewalk and giving them all names. There was Lloyd and Minerva and Jessica, and Mike....on and on we went giggling as we came up with new names.  I have no idea how long we sat there because it was so much fun that time didn't matter.



I hadn't thought about that in years until the other day when Becca, my 7 soon to be 8 year old, and I and I were talking about what it was like growing up in a time without a lot of technology and in my case without a lot of physical resources.

I do remember saying "I'm bored" a LOT. But I didn't always have an adult who was available to entertain me, Aunt Janet was a once a year treat. Her spiritual act of Presence to me when she was physically present was such an incredible gift that it filled in the spaces when she wasn't there, even after all of these years. She taught me that boredom was a gift in which we can look around and see things that we may never have noticed before. In the boredom we can name things and in that naming we are present to a world in a way that fosters connection and delight.

Today may you lean into presence and boredom as your spiritual act of worship to the Creator of the Universe. May your eyes be opened in new ways to your connection to creation, to each other, and to The Holy One who lives in sacred community. May The Spirit anoint you with holy boredom and presence in a way that you encounter His grace, mercy, and love.

Know that you are loved and held today.