The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on December 20, 2024 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
A former roommate was unfamiliar with the word “putzy.” I had used the term to describe the activity of housework that was marked by a slow yet spontaneous meandering around the house, tending to whatever caught my attention in the moment, which often meant starting one task and letting it be while another task got taken up. The overall effect was a compilation of many fits and starts, a number of things partially in process, yet not necessarily complete. We agreed that the activities of putzing were not all that productive, in an efficient sense, but that they were restorative.
In a similar way, we might say that the life of prayer is also putzy. There are fits and starts in the forms and methods that we try out. We tend to some of the forms for longer or less time, without necessarily assessing them for efficiency or productivity. Some of the fruits of our putzing in prayer linger around, hanging within our inner reality, waiting to get picked up and tended to again someday, while other inner fruits nourish us quickly, like a snack between meals, and then move on.
It would be difficult to map out the path of puzting in prayer over a lifetime. The steps are not always necessarily efficient or productive, but for the most part, the activities are restorative, and even if only in hindsight, we are able to see eventually some meaning in the meandering. Therefore, may we each be blessed as we meander along the paths of putzyness in our lives of prayer!
