A Lighter Way Week One: Dancing Leaves
May 24, 2026Reflection:
From the moment the swim instructor asked us to turn our two-year-olds onto their backs so they could practice floating, he protested with loud cries. No way was he going to let me lay him back in the water. It was too scary, even with me there beside him.
No amount of convincing was going to help. His little body was tense with fear, and fear rarely listens to reason.
Frustrated and beginning to tense myself, I looked around at the other toddlers happily floating in the pool. Then it seemed Something whispered in my ear: Look up.
In that moment, some simple wisdom returned to me—something that had calmed my own nervous system since childhood:
Look at the tops of the trees.
So I stopped trying to force him to float and leaned close to his red little face, still tight with anger and fear, and whispered, “Look up at those trees.”
As he watched the branches behind the pool moving in the breeze, there was a break in the crying.
“Keep watching,” I said softly as I eased him onto his back. There was a little whimper when his ears touched the water.
“Keep looking.”
And slowly, his body relaxed enough to let me hold him as he floated there, gazing at the dancing leaves above him.
Today I’m sitting on my front porch writing about this memory while my son—now a high school freshman, anxious about tomorrow’s AP exam—brings his Chromebook outside to study. He sits down, looks up at the trees for a while, and gets to work.
Practice:
Pause sometime this week to look at the tops of the trees.
Notice what happens in your body as your attention rests on their movement for a moment or two—whether seated or standing still, walking or jogging.
Blessing:
May the trees become instruments of the Holy Breeze.
May their swaying remind your body that it does not have to hold everything so tightly.
May what feels clenched soften a little.
May you discover, even briefly, what it is to be held.
Kasey Hitt, WTC Co-Founder
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Perhaps this is one small way the Spirit still comes to us—not always removing fear, but helping us soften enough to stay present within it. This reflection arrives on the day many Christians around the world celebrate Pentecost. It's the story of frightened and overwhelmed disciples gathered behind closed doors when the Holy arrives like wind and fire, enabling them to do the impossible.
Throughout Ordinary Time, the period between Pentecost and Advent, we’ll be sharing weekly reflections from various members in our Collective for "A Lighter Way"—small invitations to hold what is heavy with greater gentleness, wisdom, and compassion. As one saying goes, "Lightness is not the opposite of seriousness. Lightness is the opposite of heaviness.”
This first reflection comes from Kasey Hitt, co-founder of WTC and Director of the School of Spiritual Direction
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