Blessed are the inconsistent

Inspired by a new collection of blessings by Kim Knowle-Zeller

Around the time I started my plunge / paint / poem project two winters ago, my writer friend, Kimberly Knowle - Zeller began her own daily challenge: write a blessing a day for 100 days.

She wrote a blessing for when the world is on fire, a blessing for baseball season, and a blessing for parenting in the summer. Now these blessings—and many more!—are compiled in one beautiful book, Small Steps: Blessings to Lift Your Soul on the Pilgrimage of Life that releases today!

Kim’s words are practical, lyrical, encouraging, and life-giving. They make readers feel seen and held in the good, the hard, the lonely, and the mundane.

In honor of Kim’s upcoming book, I thought I’d try my hand at writing a blessing. I started a blessing for cold plunging, and after scribbling down some phrases, I realized Kim had said it best in her own blessing.

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A Blessing for Going to the Water

by Kim Knowle-Zeller

If you need a reminder
of who you are
and whose you are,
go to a beach
and listen to the waves
lap over and over and over on the shore,
or go to a pond
or lake.

Simply sit yourself beside some water
close your eyes and breathe the air
tip your face to the sky
extend your hands
and reach forward.

Feel the pull of the water
rock your body to its rhythm
trust you are held
and made of this water
that first formed this world
and pulses through your body,
water that nourishes and creates
renews and remakes
and lives inside of you
calling you home
to yourself,
wholly known
wholly beloved.

I painted this—my favorite water!— on one of my plunge/paint/poem days.

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The Blessing I Need Right Now (and maybe you do, too.)

I love the title of Kim’s book: Small Steps. I am a slow, consistent progress kinda girl. I love a daily challenge and establishing replicable rhythms in my own life. My Substack algorithm pushes the magic of the mundane, encourages slow living, and exalts the unseen, repetitive work of motherhood. I think back to the messages of the church in my childhood. They warned against one-night stands and encouraged us to make all decisions with eternity in mind. We celebrate best friends FOREVER, not best friends for sometimes.

I hadn’t realized how much I’d internalized this elevation of daily rhythms and lasting significance until I tried to replicate my plunge / paint / poem challenge last February to only moderate success¹. Out of 28 days, I completed 12. I found myself wrestling with how to feel about it.

What is the value of something you only do sometimes?

It certainly felt less worthy of celebration than if I had completed all 28 days. I am trying my best to move away from all-or-nothing thinking, but what happens when the culture around you celebrates it? Wants you to go all-in? Poo-poos the special events or uncharacteristic progress?

I’ve been reevaluating the role of discipline in my writing life. How can I employ discipline without making it king?

Do I really believe you don’t have to do something every day (or on any consistent basis) for it to be valuable? I want to, but I’m not there yet².

I wrote this blessing for myself, as a response to these questions. Of course, I believe the consistent are also blessed. The small steps are blessed. I’m just wondering if giant leaps and one-off activities can be blessed, too.

I wrote this blessing for you if you have a differently wired brain or chronic illness or, regardless of circumstances, life continues to get in the way of your ideal plans and rhythms. I wrote this blessing for the moments that “interrupt” our plans and for those us who can’t seem to stick to a consistent routine.

We may be inconsistent. But God isn’t. The verse says, “great is Thy faithfulness,” not ours. This blessing rests in that truth.

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Blessed are the inconsistent

For a culture obsessed with quick fixes,
we also worship at the altar of slow, sustained progress
Only consistency counts
Is it sustainable?
Scalable?
Replicable?

We want to build something lasting,
Important
Can it be important if it fades?

They warn against temporary highs
Grate against instant gratification
Belittle mountaintop experiences
Instruct us to set our hearts on eternity

Is it any wonder we distrust the good? The ease? The present moment?

Jesus wept over Lazarus knowing full well his death wouldn’t last
Fed the 5,000 knowing bellies would rumble again
His mercies are new every morning
Yes–every
But also–new

Consistency makes a certain kind of magic, true
Produces growth and gains and goodness

And also–

What do we make of the unexpected? 
The endeavors we can’t manage to fold into our plans and rhythms and routines?
What do we make of our own haphazard attempts? 

The anomalies and sometimes
The scattered and episodic
Are those moments, those efforts worth less?

Can we dare to call them blessed?

Because life happens
Hormones cycle
Dishes and laundry and sickness and school projects interrupt
Rinse and repeat
Rinse and repeat

Breathe in these words: 

Blessed is the energy you have today
Blessed is your current capacity
Blessed are your efforts and abilities and interests, though they may change, 
and change again
Blessed are your eyes, open to the here and now
Blessed is the day you had, not the day you hoped for

Blessed are the tasks and habits, dates and duties
Carried out
Once in awhile
Infrequently
Dashes of blue moon energy
Punctuated with pleasure

Because God meets us in any moment
Scalable or not
God the rock and also the wind, the fire, the breath,
In and out
In and out
Not always in
Not always out

God of movement
God of stillness
God with us in our movement
God with us in our stillness
God with us in our inconsistencies
God with us in our efforts
God the sustainer and God the unexpected joy giver

Blessed are the blips of worship
The sporadic songs
The scattered prayers
Let them be good
Let them wash over our thirsty spirits

Blessed are the projects now abandoned
Let them be good
Let them be over

Blessed are friends for now
Let them be good
Let them move over when a new season comes

Blessed are the one-off date nights
Let them be good
Let the connection carry over

Blessed are the small acts of creativity
Let them be good
Let them spark ideas to mull over

Blessed are our atypical days
Let them be good
Let us give them over when our heads hit the pillow

Blessed are you who acknowledge your limits
Who follow the energy
Who live in the messy middle
Blessed are you who believe that something is 
Better than nothing
Who show up, just as you are

Blessed are the inconsistent
The scattered and scrambling
Held by a steadfast God

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This post is a part of the blog tour for Small Steps: Blessings to Lift Your Soul on the Pilgrimage of Life. Small Steps is a book of blessings meant to meet us in our daily lives, in all of the challenges and joys, struggles and triumphs. A few of the blessings include: For a Rough Morning, Listening to a Dream, Learning to Pray Again, and For an Ordinary Tuesday. Order your copy wherever books are sold. Small Steps releases May 5th! (today!)

1. I struggled through more of these questions in my post here: Celebrating Some?

2. I find this post very ironic because I just started a daily challenge for the month of May to write, see the water, and watercolor every day. Or maybe it’s proof I need this blessing, this permission to deviate from the plan—my desire to point to something consistent is so strong!