Daily Nourishment for July 5, 2024: Helping Others and Ourselves with Guidance from Words by Sophfronia Scott
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 60 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“Do you have a talent or skill that you help everybody else with but you don’t do it for yourself?” - Sophfronia Scott
Pause.
Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while sitting in silence and looking at this photo taken by Thomas Merton.
Prompt.
Read this short excerpt from The Seeker and the Monk by Sophfronia Scott:
“A hermitage is not where I’m supposed to be. Somehow I sense this. I’m supposed to be saying something, doing something. And yet I feel anything I could offer would get swallowed up in the noise—I’d be an infant crying out into a hurricane. I stand on the edge of an abyss, my hands in my pockets. . . . I feel as though Thomas [Merton] stands next to me in a similar stance. He helps me think about the possibilities. I think he’d say I have to get out there. I have to find a way to serve. He’d definitely say my hermitage idea is wrongheaded.
‘The contemplative life is not, and cannot be, a mere withdrawal, a pure negation, a turning of one’s back on the world with its sufferings, its crises, its confusions and its errors,’ he writes. ‘The attempt itself would be illusory. No person can withdraw completely from the society of other people.’ When he entered the monastery after months of spiritual struggle, Merton described a lightness, as of . . . a leaving of the world. . . . His writings from his earlier years focused mainly on the cultivation of interior spirituality. . . . But as he matured, both emotionally and spiritually, he too sensed there was more—way more—he could be doing. The world, the very state of it, required that he bring his voice to the table. . . .”
Practice.
Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the words above and the items below:
Consider the question above posed by Sophfronia Scott: “Do you have a talent or skill that you help everybody else with but you don’t do it for yourself?” If so, what are those talents and skills and how can you benefit from them too?
Think about when you withdraw to nurture yourself and when you turn outward to nurture others. Which do you do more of? How much thought do you give to being intentional with each, with inhabiting both postures regularly? What do you need more of right now?
I’m not a fan of saying I need to nourish my mind, body, and soul so I can serve others. I need to nourish myself because every person requires nourishment. However, when I am nourished, I have more energy and space to serve and care for other people, places, and things. So, there is a relationship between the two. What are your thoughts on this? How do you treat your nourishment as a worthy cause only if you are turning around and serving others?
How do solitude, silence, and plenty of time to nourish your own body, mind, and soul affect your desire to do good work and make good art?
Want More?
-Watch the three(ish) minute video from Sophfronia Scott’s website where she asks “Do you have a talent or skill that you help everybody else with but you don’t do it for yourself?”
-Read “I Want to Talk to Thomas Merton about Race” by Sophronia Scott
-Read The Seeker and the Monk by Sophfronia Scott
Sophfronia Scott will lead a creative nonfiction workshop at this year’s Glen Workshop. During the month of July, Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment will feature Glen Workshop facilitators and other Glen-ish people, places, and things. Enjoy!
*
Here’s more about Sophfronia Scott from her website:
Sophfronia Scott grew up in Lorain, Ohio, a hometown she shares with author Toni Morrison. She holds a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She began her career as an award-winning magazine journalist for Time, where she co-authored the groundbreaking cover story “Twentysomething,” the first study identifying the demographic group known as Generation X, and People. When her first novel, All I Need to Get By, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2004 Sophfronia was nominated for best new author at the African American Literary Awards and hailed by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as “potentially one of the best writers of her generation.”
Her latest book is The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton. Sophfronia’s other books include Unforgivable Love, Love’s Long Line, Doing Business By the Book, and This Child of Faith: Raising a Spiritual Child in a Secular World, co-written with her son Tain. Her essays, short stories, and articles have appeared in numerous publications including Yankee Magazine, The Christian Century, North American Review, NewYorkTimes.com, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Her essays “Hope On Any Given Day,” “The Legs On Which I Move,” and “Why I Didn’t Go to the Firehouse” are listed among the Notables in the Best American Essays series.
Sophfronia is the recipient of a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts. She has taught at Regis University’s Mile High MFA and Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction. She’s also delivered craft talks and held workshops at the Yale Writers’ Workshop, Meacham Writers’ Workshop, and the Hobart Festival of Women Writers. Currently Sophfronia is the founding director of Alma College’s MFA in Creative Writing, a low-residency graduate program based in Alma, Michigan. She lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut where she continues to fight a losing battle against the weeds in her flower beds.
*
Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
—The July Co-Writing Schedule is live.
—July 8: Thoughtful Readers Gathering with Anna Gazmarian 7-8 p.m. CT
—July 21-27: Charlotte Donlon will provide a few spiritual direction offerings at the Glen Workshop in Seattle
—July 27: Online Revision Stations Designed by Lauren F. Winner
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
*Please help us protect our intellectual property, our creative process, and the integrity of our work. Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment is covered under the Spiritual Direction for Writers® trademark. You are welcome to share this link with others, but any other use (written or spoken) is prohibited without written permission from Charlotte Donlon.