When our world turns upside down and spins so fast that we can’t give our attention to the present moment, it’s time to pause. When we notice we’re grasping and living as functional atheists thinking everything is up to us—our vocations, our creative endeavors, our ministries, our movement toward health and wholeness—it’s time to pause.

And breathe.

And linger in the silence and stillness.

And pray.

And be.

I’ve been flinging things off my plate for the past few months and God is calling me to keep at it. I’m trying to determine what that means. I’m going to keep releasing and relinquishing until God tells me we’re good. And maybe later it will be time for more.

Maybe.

What seems right for now from a writing standpoint is to focus on my weekly newsletter, maybe additional posts on Substack and charlottedonlon.com, some book review essays for Mockingbird, and let go of pitching new pieces to other publications.

What seems right for now is to step away from social media for a bit and let go of grasping for whatever I’m grasping for that I think will calm the angst and assure me I’m doing all I can to connect with as many Instagram followers as possible and ensure my book’s success. I might start posting the sorts of posts on Substack that I’ve been posting on Facebook and Instagram. I’m still so torn about Facebook and Instagram from a Jeff Bezos (I mean Mark Zuckerberg) standpoint. (They’re all the same to me.) And I’m calmer over here, away from what Mark Zuckerberg is getting away with.

What seems right for now is to re-center and seek God’s guidance with my work and writing. Maybe my work and writing will appear to be the same later as they have appeared in the past several months, but I want my work and writing to be rooted in prayer. I want to trust that God has me, my work, and my book.

What seems right for now is to respond to God’s invitation to allocate more space and time to resting and grieving and listening and healing.

I don’t want to keep grasping for whatever I’ve been grasping for.

I want to believe I’m held by God. I want to believe God’s divine power has given me everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called me by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:3)

Photo by Kyndall Ramirez on Unsplash

Charlotte Donlon is a writer, a spiritual director for writers, and the founder and host of the Our Faith in Writing podcast and website. Charlotte’s writing and work are rooted in noticing how art helps us belong to ourselves, others, God, and the world. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. Her first book is The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. You can subscribe to her newsletter and connect with her onTwitter and Instagram.