“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?
For one exhausted…
Wild things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.” Wendell Berry
When are you free?
Into the storm
“Each one of us has lived through some devastation, some loneliness, some weather superstorm or spiritual superstorm, when we look at each other we must say, I understand. I understand how you feel because I have been there myself. We must support each other and empathize with each other because each of us is more alike than we are unalike” Maya Angelou
What are you facing into?
The growing edge
“Look well to the growing edge! … It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. … Look well to the growing edge!” Howard Thurman
Where is your growing edge?
Soul work
“Grief work is soul work. It requires courage to face the world as it is and not turn away, to not burrow into a hole of comfort and anesthetization. Grief deepens our connection with soul, taking us into territories of vulnerability, exposing the truth of our need for others in times of loss and suffering.” Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow
Borderland
Borderlands are
spaces where two cultures and narratives meet,
continuously changing landscapes,
places of disorientation and reorientation.
Encountering the other
with potential for unimaginable violence
or creative mutual transformation.
How do we navigate spaces that threaten to take our breath while also promising new life beyond our imagination?
With the Eyes of the Heart 