Posts in Reflections
We Are Not Alone

We also made space to wonder about the pain and fear of those who had made choices different from our own. All the work we had done the previous day to practice compassion and deep holy listening, it showed.

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Better Together

As political, religious, and social landscapes continue to shift, our directees will bring all of it, especially an oppressive normative culture and all of the places that the system intersects, e.g., classism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and most profoundly, systemic racism. In all they bring to us our spiritual companions implicitly want to know we can hold space and provide a container to explore these oppressive conditions. Are we doing enough?

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Another Way to Listen: Engaging in Contemplative Creativity

Perhaps as you read the word “creativity” you shy away or shut down. Maybe your first thought is “I am not an artist, or creative” and therefore you fail to entertain the possibility, nay your ability, to engage in contemplative creativity. What if we omitted “art” or “being an artist” from the concept of creativity? What if we broadened the sense of what being creative means...

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ReflectionsApril HuntComment
A Spiritual Plumb Line: Naming the Depth

A plumb line, in case you did not know, is a device used to determine verticality or to measure the depth of something. It has some kind of weight attached at the end of the line which is lowered to measure the depth. When I learned about it, I pictured in my mind a plumb line being lowered into the ocean depth, through the choppy waves and lukewarm water close to the surface, down further into the stillness of the deep.

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Pathways to Wholeness

The Divine Spirit always seems to be palpably present as we light a candle together in person or on Zoom and share compassion and acceptance with each other. Regardless of background, creed, racial identity, sexual preference, or any other perceived difference, nothing is ever allowed to impede our joining hands as we co-create meaning and value with each other.

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Becoming, Belonging, and Beloved Community

“Empires rise and fall. Sometimes the center does not hold - a job, a marriage, an economy or a nation and still people love each other and go out of their way for a stranger. Hospitality to yourself preserves your inner freedom and strengthens your agency, so you are never cowed or bowed by the behavior of others. Hospitality calls us to put one foot in front of the other, lifting each other up all along the way.” -Judith Favor

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The Art of Listening

That inner world is a great place for us listening artists to go to practice, to rehearse, our precious art form. After all, how can I truly listen to another if I’m unable to listen to myself? That inner world is a great place for us listening artists to go to practice, to rehearse, our precious art form. After all, how can I truly listen to another if I’m unable to listen to myself?

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Practicing Community

Being in community does take skills, skills that can only be learned in community. I’ve come to believe that compassion is one of those skills: compassion for ourselves as well as compassion others. Sharing, listening, and discernment also. These are all communal practices, and integral to the art of spiritual direction.

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