God is closed for lunch. I went to four separate churches just now in an attempt to find a quiet space to read and pray. No luck. I think they open back up at three, so I might try again. I just finished reading about the Christian contemplative tradition in my Foster book. He offers three sugestions for incorporating the wisdom of the mystics into modern devotional life. The first is to experiment with varied venues for solitude. That's what I was attempting to do this morning.

The second suggestion is to pray through Scriptures. I'm 6.5 hours into this practice and finding a treasure I never imagined. As I have been studying the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), I have been memorizing 5 verses related to each: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness (still to come: faithfulness, humility, and self-control). This morning I got out my knitting and stitch by stitch prayed those verses. For example, from Colossians 3:12-13, Lord, thank you for chosing me for a life I could never make for myself. By your Spirit, clothe me in your character. Grow in me the patience, goodness, and humility to forgive those who offend me as you forgave and continue forgiving me: completely. Oh, how good He is! Those prayers that so encouraged me this morning carried me through my time this morning with a person I am struggling to tolerate, love, respect (don't worry, not Tim). Every time I bristled at his words, I came back to those prayers.

The third suggestion is to take some time out of our hectic days for "holy leisure": a nap, time with a friend discussing nothing important, a walk not for exercise or to get somewhere but for the pleasure of it, a bath instead of a shower.... "Waste time for God," says Foster. I'm looking forward to trying that one.

On a totally different topic, I think you should know that there are alpacas grazing in the yard of the university. They have been there for a while, and the rumor is that they are part of some biology or agriculture study. Regardless, I enjoy watching them on my morning bus ride. They remind me of how fun Peru is.

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