Life Practices
I am currently engaged in a sort of practice retirement as I exist in a liminal space between full-time teaching and full-time retirement so I am considering the sorts of life practices/priorities or “rules of life” that I will use to guide me during this next season of life. I often engage in this sort of reflection in December/January (see my one little word for 2026 (Fixing) and various manifesto projects so I am always interested in how others engage in this practice of reflection and resetting (see Rule of Life).
I have long been interested and inspired by podcaster and writer Elizabeth Oldfield and have been an occasional listener of her podcast The Sacred for some time but it was an episode of Pantsuit Politics The Federal Government is Broken. Our Communities Don’t Have to Be. that led me to do something I do not usually do — read a nonfiction book. I feel compelled to state up front that Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times is much more than a book for those on a faith journey. I was drawn to the book by that Pantsuit Politics episode because Oldfield repeatedly argues that community is the answer to so many of the problems challenging us personally and collectively and in our fractured and divided world often the most accessible communities are those based in practices of faith.
Maybe this is just confirmation bias on my part, but I agree with Oldfield’s basic premise that community is almost always the answer to our struggles in life. That is why I was inspired to read Fully Alive (full disclosure I borrowed it from my public library) and why I recommend you either read the book yourself or at least explore it. This week’s writing invitation encourages you to consider for yourself what rule (or rules) of life you want to shape your life and what community do you need to support that rule of life? While Oldfield makes her case for adopting a Christian-based rule and community, she will be the first to stress that there are other forms of rule and community that offer practices that might work better for other folks (see her podcast The Sacred for some of those alternative practices).
Personally, I am leaning into community practices as I near my retirement date: Reading in Community, Watching in Community, and Writing in Community because I know that I will acutely feel the loss of my professional communities. I do not want to become a crabby hermit because these things I love (reading, watching, and writing) could totally allow me to become an unwashed recluse whose only human contact is via social media (shudder). This danger will only increase when I am fully untethered from a work community and schedule. I know that sharing stories with others is powerful and healing and my belief is that we all need more of that in our lives and that will be my focus for 2026 finding, forming, and joining those communities.
What rules of living and what community practices will be your focus for 2026? What makes you feel more fully alive?
Update: I completed this post only yesterday but today I woke up with the urge to write a mantra to guide me through this liminal moment and into my new season of life. When I cast about for guides on this mission Lucille Clifton immediately came to mind because her poetry inspires me in so many ways. So I reached for won’t you celebrate with me as I have so many times before, but then YouTube gave me the gift of rolling directly into Lucille Clifton: A Poet’s Life and Legacy and I found further inspiration in turning and blessing the boats before returning to won’t you celebrate with me. Three quickwrites later and I have the seeds for three poems and a solid mantra! May you also find inspiration in these Lucille Clifton poems.
