When Your Faith Feels Far Away
For a stretch when the practice feels empty and you are not sure what is left. It asks for the smallest version rather than the whole thing, the honest words rather than the right ones, and treats dryness as part of a long tradition.
Faith · Values · Loneliness · 8 items · once a week
The checklist
- Go once without waiting to feel like it — showing up is a practice, not a performance.
- Keep the smallest version of the practice — a minute of it beats an abandoned hour.
- Say the honest thing rather than the right one — a flat prayer is still a prayer.
- Read something old you used to love — your own notes in the margin still carry.
- Tell one person in the community — most of them have had this stretch and said nothing.
- Do one thing for someone quietly — the hands often get there before the heart does.
- Let the doubt be part of it, not the end — dryness has a long history in every tradition.
- Ask what else is tired — grief, work and short sleep all look like this from the inside.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it once a week, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.