Don’t have to be so different.

A thin place is a way of describing somewhere that is not far from heaven. I have been to a number of settings where you feel you’re just a whisper away from perfection. But can that feeling be recreated without the blue seas, steadfast rocky mountains or golden shores? Can we take the peace we find in those beautiful places and carry it inside of ourselves? I have spent time with people who are miles away from the sea but still exude an amazing sense of stillness.

I have noticed that with the inability to travel or move anywhere far (all of us right now I’m guessing), life starts to feel stripped back. A shadow of the way things used to be. There still has to be something more. We just have to search harder for it. Some days I don’t have the energy to do that, but other times, the goodness takes me by surprise and I remember that life is richer than I give it credit for.

Right now I’m looking out at blue skies and hearing the jangle of my dog’s lead as she waits to be taken on a walk. Life goes on, no matter how good we are at living it, no matter how uninspiring the place.

A thin life can be a full one too. Most people do the same things everyday. But if we can infuse thankfulness or kindness into the mundane, even doing the dishes can become a rewarding act. Thinking over the things done in the gospels, I see many unremarkable and simultaneously significant things that we still speak of today: washing feet, breaking bread and touching the ‘unclean’ to name but a few.

What can you do today that someone else will treasure as significant? How can you turn your thin life into one full of intended blessing?