Month: October 2020

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Compassion

“…going down into the deep pain of another is like jumping into a bottomless abyss – not knowing if or where one will land. To grasp another’s pain means letting go of our own safety limb and falling down to an unknown place. In this place we maybe won’t have the answers that will help alleviate the pain or explain it. We have to be willing to admit, then and there, down in the pit, that we too are helpless and weak and powerless. And who wants to do that, or be there?” Henri Nouwen

How are you called to presence with?

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Setting sail

“It takes courage to set sail in a new direction of life. Our minds to venture in catching winds of time and change. And the sun rising with a fresh perspective.” Linda J. Wolff

What new direction asks for your courage?

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Slowing down

Do not hurry. as you walk with grief; it does not help the journey.

Walk slowly. pausing often: do not hurry as you walk with grief. …

Take time, be gentle as you walk with grief. From Northumbria Prayerbook

In these months of covid the big and small losses add up. What are you grieving?

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Dazzling

Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled —
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing —
that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do. Mary Oliver

What does it take to be dazzled?

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For one exhausted…

“Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.” John O’Donahue

How do you open the well of color?

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Open spaces

In this digital world of ours, as we move from one meeting to another without leaving the room, we have lost the spaciousness of travel, the in-between spaces that open up to reflection and deep breath, of noticing the leaves on the trees and watching the sun rise through the morning fog…the spaces where we are held by God, the creator and sustainer.

How do you create moments to catch your breath?