Where We are Planted

As we pause to pray with Psalm 1 this day, we might consider where we find ourselves planted in this season. Some of us have had many options and agency to chose where we want to be planted. With others of us, we have found ourselves planted in places not necessarily of our own choosing.

We might take some time to reflect with the Spirit what this place of being planted is like for us now – maybe how our actual body feels to be planted here in this place, in this present moment. Allow a spacious pause to wait for an inner response. You might discover that your body answers by giving you a freshly felt sense around that. See if it is possible to linger with that for a while. Notice if other feelings arise around this. There might even be feelings about the feelings there. See if you can welcome whatever feelings are there with patient curiosity, so that you can get to know them better. See if you can be a compassionate listener to these feelings. Allow yourself to be accepted, loved, and known more fully just as you are, right where you are planted.

If and when you feel ready, you might sense what your roots might desire or need to sustain you in this place. Go slowly and take your time with this. Maybe a picture or metaphor emerges. You might say inwardly or aloud, “to be nourished and nurtured to stay or flourish in this place, my roots need ___”. Check inside and see if that description fits. The description might change, expand, or become more specific. See if you can allow this need, in all it’s vulnerability, to be your simple prayer. Notice the way the Spirit of Christ tarries with you here.

May the streams of living water find you this day, wherever you are planted.

Psalm 1 (The Voice)

God’s blessings follow you and await you at every turn:
when you don’t follow the advice of those who delight in wicked schemes,
When you avoid sin’s highway,
when judgment and sarcasm beckon you, but you refuse.
For you, the Eternal’s Word is your happiness.
It is your focus—from dusk to dawn.
You are like a tree,
planted by flowing, cool streams of water that never run dry.
Your fruit ripens in its time;
your leaves never fade or curl in the summer sun.
No matter what you do, you prosper.
For those who focus on sin, the story is different.
They are like the fallen husk of wheat, tossed by an open wind, left deserted and alone.
In the end, the wicked will fall in judgment;
the guilty will be separated from the innocent.
Their road suddenly will end in death,
yet the journey of the righteous has been charted by the Eternal.

For Reflection and Prayer:
Was there a word, phrase or image which caught your attention you as you listened to or slowly read the text? Quietly savor this with Jesus.
Notice any felt sense that seems to emerge as you linger with this passage. It might come as a bodily feeling, emotion, metaphor, picture, gesture or sound. See if you can describe it and simply be with it with patient curiosity. Be open to whatever more might emerge.
Perhaps you might want to draw, color or journal your conversation.
As the time of prayer comes to a close, share some quiet moments with Jesus, simply resting safely in his presence.

Psalm 1 (RSV)
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water,
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

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