☀️ Unhurried Summer: Breathe and be.

Letting your soul exhale in the space between seasons.

Summer offers us a chance to slow down, forcing us to answer the uncomfortable question: What will we do with our days when they grow longer and lighter?

I wrote this in Every Season Sacred:

Summer invites us to notice—to be outside in the fresh air and feel the prickle of sweat on our skin, the sweetness of a strawberry melting on our tongue. We can take notice of the stubborn lilies that sprout among the weeds in the back alley. We can be like children, lost in the wonder of a butterfly’s wings, charmed by a melted sorbet sunset.

What ordinary beauty might be nestled in the contours of our families this season, if we’re able to slow down enough to notice? What might our children remember years down the road—not about what you did but about how they felt?

The summer months are swathed in what the church calendar calls Ordinary Time. In spring, we observe Lent and Easter. In winter, we celebrate Advent and Christmas. But summer invites us to slow down and relish the reality that God is with us in the slow moments. The sprawl of summer beckons us to see the sacred in the sticky sunscreen, the dripping popsicles, and the stretches of summer boredom.

Perhaps, if we allow it to, the slower rhythm of summer can remind us that we are not the sum of what we do or the magical memories we can conjure up for our children. These moments of Ordinary Time invite us to reflect on the glorious truth that God calls us beloved children, desiring our presence.

As you enter this slower stretch of time, may you be open to how the God of all seasons is reminding you that your family needs rhythms throughout the year to simply be.

An object in motion stays in motion—so we all need to stop sometimes. As the psalmist writes, we need to be still and know that God is God (see Psalm 46:10). We need to be bored sometimes because maybe that’s when we hear the still, small voice of God. There are times we need to sit. To wrestle in the waiting. To quiet our physical lives so the spiritual part of us may rest. (And our children need to see us doing this too.)

As you spend time in inner reflection and then shared conversation with your family this season, maybe you’ll find ways to take a break from screens and brainstorm how to spend time in nature together. Maybe you’ll eat from paper plates or hunker down on the couch with a family movie as raindrops punctuate your afternoon. Perhaps you’ll find new ways to extend hospitality and work toward rhythms of family life that make space for the flourishing and the freedom of all people.

Whatever God might speak into your soul and the soul of your family, may this summer bring with it glimmers of growth and glimpses of glory in the seemingly ordinary moments of your life together.

June Reading Guide

Looking for a gentle way to center your soul in the summer months? The June 2025 Reading Guide offers prayers, reflections, and simple soul practices from Every Season Sacred and To Light Their Way (both on sale right now!) to help you slow down, savor the season, and discover the sacred in the everyday rhythms of family life.

Download this free PDF to print or keep on your phone.

June 2025 Reading Guide

203KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Huge thank-you once again to Kara for putting this together for us!

Photo by BĀBI on Unsplash

A Prayer for Letting Go

from To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayers & Liturgies for Parents

O God, in whom all creation exists
And who exists in all creation,
Give us the strength
To loosen our parental grip
And let go
Of what
And of who
Were never truly ours in the first place.

The days felt so long,
And now it’s time to step back
So the one
Who will always be so little to us
Can move forward
To take their wobbly first steps
Into adulthood.

In the places we cannot be,
Help us trust You are there
With the mothering spirit of an eagle,
Rousing her chicks and hovering over her young,
Spreading her wings to take them up
And carry them to safety.

In the places we cannot be,
Help us know You are there
With the fathering spirit of a shepherd,
Protecting Your lambs and caring for the young,
Leaving the ninety-nine
to protect the one
And carry that one to safety.

As our child makes their place in the world,
Be the fresh air that fills their lungs.
Lead them to places of rest,
And propel them to keep going
When they’re road- weary
And not sure if they can go on.
Build hope into their hearts
So they know they’re never alone—
Not for one minute, O Lord,
Not even for one moment.

Let every act of parenting’s past
And parenting’s future
Be an act of love,
O Lord.

Help us remember
That even in this dance
Of stepping back
And letting go,
You’ll hold them
As they journey on.
And You’ll hold us, too,
As we watch them soar.
And You’ll never,
Not once,
Let us down.

Let Yourself Exhale

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Breath Prayer

Monday:
INHALE: Spirit, I am here.