Weekly Reflections
How we come together as a Pantheist family
Before we converted to Pantheism, we went to a local Catholic church on most Sundays. Although our Christian faith wasn’t very strong, we found some comfort in the ritual of the service, and I enjoyed the quiet time for prayer. We also went for the sense of community we found there. My wife went to the same church as a kid, and there were folks there she’d known there a long time.
Once our daughter was born, we thought these things were important enough to keep going to church, even though we’d admitted to each other that we didn’t really feel Christian anymore. But the pandemic changed this. (What didn’t it change? 🙃) I go into a lot more detail about this in my first post, but we found Pantheism and have practiced it almost 9 months now.
There’s no manual for Pantheism, but we wanted to keep some sense of a spiritual routine. We didn’t want our faith to be something we never talked about or practiced. So, we came up with “weekly reflections”. We tend to do them on Sunday, mostly because Saturdays are usually busier around our small farm, but we’ve also done them during the week.
Our reflections typically go like this:
🧘🏼♂️ Silent reflection and meditation
For about 15-20 minutes, (as much as our 4-year-old can tolerate!) we meditate. I’m no meditation expert, but we try to do deep breaths and clear the mind. There’s lots of great meditation resources out there, I’ll link a few at the end.
If it’s nice enough to go outside, we’ll do this too! As pantheists, being out in nature really is what it’s all about. Our first reflection was outside, and the sounds of nature make it easy to loose yourself.
🙏 Prayers of thanks, and hope
After we reflect, we say our prayers together for the week. Pantheists believe that God is the sum of all creation around, and including, us. This means we see the universe and the natural world as divine. But, we don’t believe in a conscious, higher power that watches over us.
So, why pray if no one is listening? We pray to jointly acknowledge our hopes, fears, and gratitude for the world. These prayers take two forms. First, we pray about what we are thankful for, either in our own lives, or in the world. Second, we pray about what we’re hopeful for. This feels like an important part of “reflecting” on ourselves, and prayer has real mental health benefits as well.
🥳 The cheer
This is our daughter’s contribution to our reflections and it’s a great addition. At the end of each session, we’ll throw one of her stuffed animals (usually stegosaurus) into the air to each other for a couple of minutes. She loves it, and it lightens up the mood.
What’s next?
This approach to spiritual mindfulness has worked really well for our family. But, I’ll admit, we do miss the sense of community that the church we went offered. Long-term, I’d like to think of some ways to foster a sense of community around Pantheism, or just around meditation generally (being an hour from the closest big city does complicate things a bit there).
Reflection & Meditation Resources
As promised, here’s some of our favorite reflection resources/links!
If we reflect indoors, we’ll usually have some sort of low music or time marker playing. Here’s a few liked before:
20-minute silent meditation with bells
The bells chime every few minutes and are great way to bring back your focus if it’s wandered. Also a great way to help a kiddo make it through (when they hear 3 sets of the bells, you’re over halfway!)
Nature sounds playlist by Spotify
Any nature sounds playlist works here really, but Spotify has some good playlists for it, including this main one they feature.
Peaceful meditation playlist
This is the latest one we’ve tried, and it’s a nice option as well!
Aside from music, there’s a few other things I’ll share as well.
Meditation tips & best practices
There’s a lot of guidance out there, but this article from Headspace does a good job of summarizing some of the key things.
Peace Yoga Pillow Cushion
Finally, can’t forget the pillows we use (from the picture above)! My wife found these for us — they have buckwheat hulls inside which is neat, and they are really comfortable to sit on (plus, the purple was a big winner with our girl).