I'm Emily P. Freeman and welcome to the next right thing.

You're listening to episode 327.

I'm an author, a spiritual director, and an occasional workshop leader.

I live in the Piedmont of North Carolina with my family,

and through my work I've helped thousands of spiritually thoughtful people

overcome decision fatigue so that they can discern their next right thing in faith, work, and life.

So this is a podcast about making decisions, but it's also about making a life.

If you struggle with decision fatigue, chronic hesitation, or if you just need a few minutes

away from the constant stream of information and the sometimes delightful but also distracting hum of entertainment, well you're in the right

place for discerning your next right thing.

Today I'll be sharing a beloved spiritual practice and a bit of a personal update as well as what to expect

here on the next right thing in the coming months.

Listen in. In. Sometimes the most difficult part of

a book is not discerning what to say, but deciding what to leave out. It's why I am and will remain in awe of children's book writers and songwriters.

How can you say so much with so little words? It's an art and a mystery, and I admire

the skill. If you haven't read how to walk into a room, you just need to know that I wrote a whole section about a time in late summer of 2020

where my felt sense of God disappeared and my formally relied upon ways to connect with God weren't doing the thing they had previously

done.

In years past, sticking with my relied upon routines, that was a good practice for me, even when I

wasn't feeling it, even when things seemed different or strange in my life

But this time in particular in the summer of 2020. I had a strong sense that that wasn't the move for me at that time. Instead, a tiny ritual emerged. I started to write haiku.

These were not in the traditional form of Japanese haiku that's meant to be a one-breath poem connecting

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