It must have been 2016 or so when I started bullet Journaling. I was working long weeks. Miles was a newborn. Philip had just been diagnosed with autism. Andrew was a terror. And at work we were finishing FDA clearance and preparing for product launch. Life was so full and I had zero disposable time. Zero. No community. No hobbies. Nothing. And i found bullet journaling as a productive, tiny outlet for my joy and creativity. I took notes in meetings that looked like info-graphics, lettering dotted with doodles.
Bullet journaling was something I had always kind of done but when I stumbled upon it as a practice that I could learn from and add to, it took on a whole new level.
I had a similar moment with prayer a year or two ago. I had taken time during Lent to explore various prayer practices. I tried them out. It was interesting but not world changing.
A few months later, I was reading a book called "A life worth living" which I highly recommend. It's half way between a course on world religion and philosophy and a workshop on re-orienting your life to live in step with your deepest held beliefs. Part one - what do you believe? Part two - what does that belief compel you to do or be to live life well?
Somewhere tucked near the end I learned about a practice of St Ignatius and the Jesuits that tickled my heart. Like bullet journaling, this ancient practice sounded a lot like a prayer practice that I had developed on my own but I didn't have fully figured out. Like...i kind of did something that sounded sort of similar.
I was intrigued. The author explained that Jesuits were a monastic order that did not stay within the walls of the monastery, rather they went out into the world and built schools and hospitals and helped the poor. These seemed like my people. So I read up on the prayer practice.
It is called The Examen and is a prayer that helps you to continually discern the next right thing. To look where God is moving in your life and to respond by drawing towards God.
Here is a brief overview from the Jesuit website on how to pray the Examen:
How to Pray the Examen1. Place yourself in God’s presence. Give thanks for God’s great love for you.
2. Pray for the grace to understand how God is acting in your life.
3. Review your day — recall specific moments and your feelings at the time.
4. Reflect on what you did, said, or thought in those instances. Were you drawing closer to God, or further away?
5. Look toward tomorrow — think of how you might collaborate more effectively with God’s plan. Be specific, and conclude with the “Our Father.”
When life is quiet enough to allow me space to do this well, I have found this slow purposeful reflection, confession, and planning to help me find where God is at work, where I might be called to lean in further and where I need to guard myself.
And sometimes, when I really have time to let my heart sit with God, I can bullet journal my Examen allowing space for images to come to mind and doodle them while I look at my calendar and really consider my priorities - how do I plan my day, my week, my month - to live out my faith and to lean in to the work God is already doing in the world around me.
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