Paced to Hold Space
by Krystle Hart
Stillpoint Acting Executive Director
There I stood, feet on the sacred ground of Ghost Ranch – red dirt, ancient rock, and desert shrubs. For four years, I heard story after story about this land and the imprint it left on those who visited. It is often described as a thin place, and our Stillpoint Ghost Ranch faculty even speak of the land itself as a significant teacher to those drawn to our programs. I have sorted through many pictures of this land, yet it is true, you can’t fully grasp its beauty until you stand among the 130-million-year-old mesas beneath the breathtaking vastness of the sky.
Finally, I touched the earth of Ghost Ranch along with our Spiritual Journey cohort in May of 2024. We had just finished dinner in the dining hall, and walked together to the labyrinth to pray through movement with Spirit as our guide. As our long-time faculty member and Stillpoint’s former Interim Executive Director, Christine Ng, introduced the practice, she invited me to go first.
With hesitation, I suggested that perhaps we should invite someone else, as I intended to walk quite slowly. Too slowly! “Good,” she responded with laughter.
I trusted her inclination, and approached the entrance to the labyrinth with a deep breath trying to let go of my concern for all who would enter behind me, constrained by my painfully slow pace. Hesitantly, I took my first step, then another and another. Resisting the urge to look back, I followed the pace of my heart and listened deeply as we were held by the Divine. Though we walked individually, we held the slow pace together, trusting the path to lead us where we needed to go.
When I was offered the opportunity to step in as Acting Executive Director during this in-between time at Stillpoint, I recalled this moment at the labyrinth on the sacred ground of Ghost Ranch. If you’ve never walked a labyrinth before, the journey can feel disorienting. You enter knowing the destination is the center, yet the path twists and turns, often carrying you farther away before a sudden turn guides you directly to the center.
In-between seasons can be uncomfortable, even unsettling. In spiritual direction we refer to this as liminal space as it defines the feeling of being in this time. There can be disorientation, too, during the waiting for what is unknown.
Sarah B. Drummond, Dean of Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School, said in her book Intentional Leadership In-Between Seasons, “When a community knows where it’s going, we make plans. When a community doesn’t, or can’t, we make space. Something new needs to happen in that space.”
Her words invite us to remember that seasons like this are not empty, but full – full of Spirit’s quiet, active work. We are not waiting idly. We are holding space together, a space where Spirit is already moving, shaping, and preparing us for what is to come.
If there is something spiritual companions are really good at, it is holding space. This is our work in the world. And we know that this holding of space isn’t empty nor devoid. So much is happening here. It is here that we listen and wait, invited to pay attention, notice, and reflect. You don’t always know when you’ll stumble upon the threshold, welcoming you into whatever is before you… that unknown soon becoming known.
Drummond offers an image of collective bridge building, piecing together the path before us, plank by plank, even as we walk upon it. It is not the work of one person, and there is no map to follow. It is the work of us all, moving together, guided by trust, until what is being built carries us through to the other side.
For more than 40 years, Stillpoint has been forming spiritual directors and holding sacred space for spiritual formation and contemplative practice. There is a rich history here of steadily following Spirit through seasons of change and inevitable discomfort. Through all of these seasons, our mission to offer opportunities for those seeking more meaningful connection to Divine Mystery has remained, strengthened by each step along the way.
In this in-between season, may we continue to build the bridge together, plank by plank, step by step, paced to hold space. And in this sacred work, may we remember that transformation is already unfolding among us, inviting each of us to walk, notice, and participate in what is to come.
With hope and joy,
Krystle
Krystle Hart is a spiritual director, co-pastor of Parish Long Beach, and Acting Executive Director at Stillpoint. Drawn early to the art of holy listening through her Pentecostal roots, she now finds her home in contemplative spirituality, where she discovered a deep calling to the sacred work of spiritual companionship.
“There is no greater gift than being invited to listen for the holy as someone unfolds their sacred story.”
Since 2020, Krystle has been part of Stillpoint, completing the Art of Spiritual Direction program, training in group spiritual direction, and formation in spiritual accompaniment with children. She lives in Long Beach, CA, with her partner and their two tender, spirited boys.