Kidd: Spiritual Whittling
“There’s an old Carolina story I like about a country boy who had a great talent for carving beautiful dogs out of wood. Every day he sat on his porch whittling, letting the shavings fall around him. One day a visitor, greatly impressed, asked him the secret of his art. “I just take a block of wood and whittle off the parts that don’t look like a dog,” he replied…. In spiritual whittling, though, we don’t discard the shavings. Transformation happens not by rejecting these parts of ourselves but by gathering them up and integrating them. Through this process we reach a new wholeness. Spiritual whittling is an encounter with Mystery, waiting, the silence of inner places—all those things most folks no longer have time for.”
Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits. HarperSanFrancisco 1992.
This is my experience of transformation as well. I constantly realize that parts of my life that keep me “together” or keep me connected to God that are so useful at one time of my life or keep me safe may be tired and worn and need to rest. These gifts are still a part of me, but what I have to offer, my ministry changes. One of the hardest of course was giving up my medical practice that had been my identity, but I was learning that there were so many other things I wanted to do, and it was more and more difficult to keep up with the constantly changing technical medical world.
I also came to learn that just because we are good at one ministry doesn’t mean we should keep doing it. We may be keeping others from the joy of that ministry, and actually they may be able to do it better! What we learn in one part of our life also can be helpful in another ministry, so we do not discard it. In medicine I learned a great deal about suffering, especially about the suffering of children and their parents. I learned about looking deep inside for hidden clues as to what is causing a disease or difficulty. This ability is now helpful in spiritual direction. I also learned how to work with people with a multitude of different personalities. This has helped me to be a little less judgmental and perhaps appreciate differences.
I am slowly learning to be more vigilant about habits that kept me safe during some parts of my life which have later become destructive.
What am I trying to say?
Life is about constantly giving up control or the allusion that we are in control. It is also about being open to change, letting doors shut, but being open to entering new doors or not being afraid to sit in the hallway for a while, waiting to hear the squeak of another door opening. It is about trusting, avoiding being stuck and stagnating or thinking we are out of options.
Joanna joannaseibert.com