the summer spacemakers series with Debbie Horrocks
rhythms of work and rest, accepting your belovedness, and a blessing for your summer
Here at spacemaking I’ve shared a lot of the spiritual practices and rhythms that work for me as I turn towards God. I hope that they have given you ideas that you’ve been able to try on and try out in your own rhythms with God.
But I’m only one person with unique wiring and ways of relating to God. What works for me may not always work for you. This summer I’m introducing the summer spacemakers series. I’m inviting others to share about themselves, the practices they turn to regularly, and how they have experienced God through those rhythms.
If you are interested in sharing your own rhythms with God, feel free to reach out by replying to this email!
I’m excited to introduce this week’s spacemaker: Debbie Horrocks
She is a spiritual director and mother, seeking presence and connection in the chaos. Debbie lives in Glasgow with her husband and four children, and works as a community link worker. She’s a fan of books, making things, tea and trees. She has a Substack where she explores and offers gentle invitations to share a moment with your soul. You can read and subscribe to her publication, a host of soul spaces here.
Meet Debbie:
As a Spiritual Director, I love to host Soul Spaces for others: individual or collective chances to pause and pay attention to our own lives. As a mother of four, I live my days deeply connected to the experiences of those around me, and I know how much I need these pauses too.
My days are an ebb and flow between caring responsibilities, work and rest. My children are in school and nursery, I work two days a week for a charity, and fit my Spiritual Direction work into one day plus evenings. Due to both internal and external factors, rest does not come easily to me. The spiritual practices I most treasure currently are those that lead me to a restful part in myself.
We are all early risers in my house, when I get up before the kids I like to light a candle and lean into the peace. I hold the content of this time loosely, giving myself freedom to choose my own quiet with different practices and books. There is my wee yellow book of tiny prayers that I regularly pick up and pause with. Recently a favourite practice has been to plug my ear buds in and dance. I make regular playlists of the music that is connecting with me in this season, I’ll close my eyes and dance along with the words. I’ve only once opened my eyes to discover a bemused small person watching me. Embodiment has been on my mind recently and this time allows my body to respond to the music, giving my brain and my heart a break. Closing my eyes blocks out the visual noise of the room and helps me feel less self-conscious!
Thursday is my day working from home, with no children around. A while back I made a pact with Lomond, our Cockapoo dog, that we’d go for a walk in our woods in the middle of the day. This forces me to take a break, to get into my body again and to allow whatever else has been going on to settle. I didn’t plan this as a spiritual discipline, but I’m learning that choosing to rest is a form of trust and prayer for me.
Other significant rhythms for me are spiritual direction and retreats. I try to get away for a day or overnight each year. As a people person, having time for solitude is significant for me, but not something that I’m good at choosing.
Over the past few years I’ve been learning to be with God in quiet friendship rather than productivity. I want to lean into simple rituals of tending to myself as a gentle form of prayer and accepting my belovedness. This can look like choosing earrings for the day, stopping to drink a hot cup of tea and listening to my body when she’s tired.
My rhythms shift in the summer because my family are all home (my husband is a teacher). I always hold an unrealistic expectation that somehow I’ll have more time, but it never quite works out that way! My husband and I have both learned the benefit of maintaining quiet morning rhythms for ourselves.
A couple of years ago, while praying with my feelings on holiday I noticed how weary and edgy I was feeling and wrote myself a ‘Blessing for my Summer Holidays’ which I’d love to leave you with:
God, bless this stretched-thin summer.
Between the planning and the pressures;
May I unfold the picnic blanket and find presence.
Between the squabbles and the sandwiches;
Will your compassion sit by me?
Between the weariness and the weather forecasts;
Can I linger in the laughter and the love?
Nourish me with moments of joy and of quiet,
And let’s sit here together for just a minute longer.
Some quick links:
Get the Good Question guide here.
If you are interested in spiritual direction you can check out some FAQ here.
If you’re ready to schedule a meeting, you can do so here. (Remember, first sessions are free for subscribers of spacemaking!)
If you’re interested in retreats, you can get more info here.
And may you encounter the God who loves you as you make space in your schedule and your soul!