Take Down a "Keep Out" Sign

Practice of the Week
Take Down a "Keep Out" Sign

Which of your “Keep Out!” signs need to come down?

What is currently on the “outside” of your life but needs to be welcomed in? What have you been avoiding or holding at bay that now needs attention? Or care? Or confrontation?

Maybe your “Keep Out” sign isn’t about avoidance, but difference. Maybe your task is to invite “otherness” or “the stranger” into your life. Maybe it’s not a big thing; maybe what you need to welcome in is not some deep existential quest, but something simpler, some small thing of beauty or rest or fun — a small thing that is not really small at all.

“Letting in” is a grace – it brings a gift we didn’t expect, earn, or deserve. This week's practice is to witness to the gift that comes when we dare to live “hospitable lives.”

Identify a gift you received from letting in, and select an object symbolic of that gift. OR: If you have identified the “Keep Out” sign that needs to come down, but have not yet made your way to actually taking it down, select a symbol of the grace/gift you hope to encounter once you’ve welcomed in what you need to.

With the object sitting next to you, write in your journal:

1. Describe what was let in.
2. Describe the gift that came to you as a result.
3. Describe the symbolic item you selected and explain why you chose it as a symbol of the gift you received.

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Previous Practice of the Week: "Have Faith"
For list of all weekly practices: "Practices of the Week Index"