Interruptions

At the Grove seeding event, I bought Celia Whitler's book, "On the Way to Somewhere." It's a series of short chapters, each followed by discussion questions. I was stopped by the first set of questions -- part of the "Sacred Interruptions" chapter.

I've written about interruptions before (here) and have had discussions with JtM about ministry of interruptions. Maybe that's why these questions caught my attention, but I thought they might make a good blog post.

1. When is the last time you gave serious attention to an interruption? What does it mean that I can't think of an example? I hope that I am able to do this...I have a feeling that it is an important skill in my new job.
2. Do you take time to hear others' stories? Probably not as much as I should. I get impatient at times or distracted by my own thoughts and lose focus. I do think it's important, and I try to make an effort, but it doesn't always work. There are also certain habits that I find distracting. I'm not very patient when the speaker is trying to speak with me and do something else.
3. When was the last time you focused on hearing someone else tell his or her story? This morning, but I don't think I'll go into details here.
4. What one thing could you do to help yourself listen more closely? I have found that eye contact helps me to continue listening when my mind would like to wander. I also, since my Emmaus walk, have found that when I discover that I am not listening, if I say "focus" to myself, I pull my attention back to the person in front of me. FOCUS.
5. How do you tell your story? Do you journal, write songs. blog, teach, draw, paint, write, sculpt, act, sing? I used to journal. When I started blogging, I stopped journalling-- too hard to do both. I do find find that I self-edit somewhat on the blog, because it is public, while I didn't when I journalled. I have also found that I am able to maintain the discipline of writing more with the blog than I was with the journal. I teach, but I'm not sure that I do that to tell my own story. I'm pretty sure that's NOT why I do it. I work with my hands as an outlet to creativity -- crafts.