Dear friends, 
I hope your Christmas was filled with the celebration of the birth of Christ in your homes and in your hearts. I want to thank all of you who have given your time and talent to make our Advent season at our church so alive this year! The Children’s Christmas pageant is such a highlight of the season and I am grateful to all who gave so much time to share the story of Christs birth with us once again. Our Joy to the Earth sessions were both a time of fellowship and a time to begin to practice in some of the go green areas we can by forming a Mug Club and become more serious about recycling in our church. (see the Going Green article further in this issue.)
I was listening to a radio show in my car recently and I heard a new term that peeked my interest. Normally, we talk about attention span , but this psychologist/researcher introduced a new term to me. It was attention scope . He was talking specifically about children and studying the results of children doing multiple things and having multiple thoughts at the same time. He was just reporting the study, but I began asking myself if we are we losing the value of concentrating on only one thing at a time? Are we asking too much of children to keep track of too many activities, too many interests, too much scheduling? Are we allowing them enough time to just breathe, to play with their imaginations, to discover the art of balancing silence and conversation, activity and stillness?
Attention span is the measurement of concentration on one thing for a length of time; attention scope is how many different things we can mentally hold onto simultaneously in our mind. One of my seminary professors gave an example of being able to hold five thoughts in his mind at the same time. I’m not sure I am wired that way, are you? I find that when I have too much on my mind, too much activity competing for space in my mind, I have to sort it out, organize and prioritize where to spend my energy. Creating order out of this mental chaos is soothing to me and allows me to accomplish the things I’ve prioritized one at a time. In this way, I can feel satisfied in that one thing and breathe a little before moving on to the next item on my list.
If you are like me, then you need to empty your heads of thoughts some times as well. If you resonate with I’m saying, perhaps you would like to begin practicing that stillness with me in meditation or a prayer practice, to allow ourselves to hear that still small voice within , that still speaking God, saying, Be still and know that I am God. If a few of you speak with me about this stillness, sharing my need for quiet space, we could sit and meditate together. The world is noisy. Let’s become quiet together and hear what God is saying to us. Let me know if you are interested.
Peace and stillness to you, Rev. Dr. Mary Louise Gifford