Christine Valters Paintner's Blog, page 100

Monk in the World Guest Post: Sibyl Reynolds

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sibyl Reynolds' reflection Gifts from Mary and Martha: Sacred Practices for a Recollected Life.

Many people today are experiencing a call to live a contemplative life. The human spirit longs for peace, serenity, connection with the Holy One, and a return to the Self. In the midst of the tsunami of countless daily demands and the immediacy of email, social media, and information overwhelm, the contemplative heart awaits nourishment and intimacy with the Divine.

Myriad responsibilities and life’s frenetic pace, fragment the psyche and soul. Meanwhile, the spirit gravitates to the blessed moments of pause and exhale, the space that connects one action with the next. These illuminated instances of “in-between” hold the potential for spiritual and creative refreshment.

The contemplative heart and spirit may take comfort through the revisiting of ancient wisdom stories that hold guidance for our contemporary challenges. The spiritual guidebook, The Way of Belle Coeur: A Woman’s Vade Mecum, offers a valuable teaching for today through the exploration of Luke’s story of sisters, Mary and Martha, and their archetypal qualities.

The story of Jesus’s visit with the sisters of Bethany, provides direction for contemplative and active living. Mary and Martha are two sides of the same coin. Their conflict and contrast between the reflective needs of contemplative Mary, with her sister, Martha the doer, illustrate a timeless dilemma applicable for the here and now. The following passage from Scripture recounts the sisters’ story.

Luke 10:38-42

As they traveled, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed him to her home. She had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at Jesus’ feet and listened to his words.

Martha who was busy with all the details of hospitality, came to Jesus and said, “Rabbi, don’t you care that my sister has left me all alone to do the household tasks? Tell her to help me!”

Jesus replied, “Martha, Martha! You’re anxious and upset about so many things, but only a few things are necessary—really only one. Mary has chosen the better part, and she won’t be deprived of it.”

Mary and Martha’s story reflects the inner struggle that many today seek to resolve. Their archetypal spirits live within us. However, it’s often easier to identify with inner Martha’s frenetic busyness and management of the endless details and tasks of daily life, rather than inner Mary’s peaceful and reflective countenance.

In their story, Mary is perceived by Martha to be somewhat lazy and unconcerned regarding what she “should be doing.” Mary, unlike her busy sister, chooses prayerful awareness through her practices of contemplation and her ministry of “presence.”

When Mary and Martha are considered as personal archetypes, a question arises: How is it possible to maintain spiritual and creative balance while multi-tasking in today’s fast paced, technological, and demanding world?

Daily responsibilities definitely call for Martha’s sense of duty, organizational skills, and intentional action in the outer world. Meanwhile, the soul yearns to join Mary for prayer and contemplation, to experience the still and grace-filled terrain of the inner world.

Perhaps the way to lasting inner and outer harmony is through the conscious, sacred, indwelling partnership of Mary and Martha. Inner Mary and Martha must make peace with one another and honor and respect their two distinct charisms: Mary, the introverted, reflective, and prayerful, contemplative, and Martha, the extroverted, diligent, and active, taskmaster.

Through sacred awareness and the commitment to daily sacred practices, it’s possible to encourage the archetypal presence of Mary and Martha to work together. Their collaboration increases the potential to bring balance to life’s aspects of being and doing.

The weave of Mary’s prayerful and reflective focus with Martha’s task mastery, creates a harmonious tapestry of seeming disparate pieces. The fragmented spirit becomes recollected as Mary’s grounded and contemplative nature supports Martha’s energetic response to situations as they arise. The two aspects of the Self, the contemplative and the doer, join together to complete the unending and diverse array of tasks that comprise contemporary life through prayerful commitment and sacred intention.

You’re invited to explore the following prompts in your journal:

How does your contemplative nature receive sustenance and nourishment?
What are the sacred practices you observe to honor your inner Martha and Mary?
How would it feel to begin to live your “recollected life,” in balance and cadence with your contemplative nature?

Sacred practices such as: silence and contemplation, prayer and devotion, study and reflection, etc. inspire, nourish, and recollect the fragmented body, mind, and spirit. Additionally, the incorporation of (active and contemplative) sacred practices incorporated throughout each day, offer pathways to wholeness and renewed ways of living and being. In this way, the inner Mary and Martha unite to experience a blessed and recollected life.

In my heart of hearts, I'm a monastic and contemplative. Nostalgia and melancholia feed my writer's spirit. I put pen to paper and await the story. Prayer is a river running through each day. I dwell in the Mystery while I ache to inhabit and know the ancient time and place that lives within a memory, hidden deep inside my bones.

As the founder of the Sisters of Belle Coeur, I am inspired by the sacred wisdom within women's stories and the blessings of sisterhood. Christ, the Beloved, is at the center of my life, my compass, and True North. I draw sustenance from the writings of the early feminine saints and mystics such as; St. Hildegard of Bingen, St. Teresa of Avila, and the Beguine, Mechtild of Magdeburg. My intention through my work is to serve as a midwife for our planet's rebirthing. I can imagine no greater privilege.

Sibyl is the author of the award-winning novel, Ink and Honey, and the companion guidebook, The Way of Belle Coeur: A Woman’s Vade Mecum. She is a spiritual director. For thirty years Sibyl has been a facilitator for the feminine spiritual/creative process. She lives in California with her husband.   

sibyldanareynolds.com     bellecoeur.com     sibyl@bellecoeur.com

Soul's Slow Ripening Pilgrimage – Participant Poems (Maureen Winters Perry)

This past March/April we led one of our Soul's Slow Ripening Pilgrimages based out of Galway City. We have been sharing some of the poems from the writing retreat which participants gave us permission to share over the last several weeks. But poems emerge on the pilgrimage as well. Here are a series of short poems by Maureen Perry.

 

*I cannot sit still now

Guide my feet on this journey Lord

Let my mind, heart rest.

 

*The smell of the sea

The company of a dear friend

And friends I don't know…Yet.

 

*Breathe on me breath of God

Let my inhalation and exhalation

All be as praise to you.

 

*Search out the thin place

Join my soul with those others

Find peace in this place.

 

*I have set my coracle adrift with you, fellow pilgrims

Looking forward to the journey

And seeing where we land together.

 

*Sunrise walking round

The well casts its magic spell

Shall I just dive in?

 

*The ferry, the wind!

Breathe on me breath of God

Your light shine on me.

 

*Walking in a line

Not worrying about time

Humming, sing your praise.

 

*Connecting, new friends!

Sharing with my dear. Annam Cara

Washing away tears .

 

*Considering our way,

Watching and waiting for signs

Burying our ghosts.

 

*Wait, is this her path?

Shouting, go the other way!

Praying her alive!

 

*I feel like a turtle

Drawn to the sea full of life

Washing away cares.

 

*Like a sharp pebble

Surfaces warn smooth by currents

Repeating age old rhythms

 

*Barnacle on rocks

Help me find my mooring place

Not get lost at sea.

 

*Promenade and prayer

Knowing God is always there

Life and tea and cake!

 

*To the lighthouse go

Waves crash and the wind will blow

Hang on; God hold me.

 

*Goat cheese and fresh greens

Blessed everyday to be fed

Hunger satisfied.

 

*Look east, quick! God is there!

Circle sun wise, thrice repeat

West, we move out of life.

 

*Sing the Caim, move 90 degrees

Stop each direction, just breathe

Keeping peace within.

 

*Shall we hold onto ghosts?

Or leave them behind, pilgrims?

Risk memories lost?

 

*Water and loose rocks

Slow me down on the way

Patrick's church, holy well!

 

*Step by step I go

To the center with my God

Bringing his peace home.

 

—Maureen Winters Perry

Celebrating the Summer Solstice + Self-Study Sale ends tomorrow ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

In the northern hemisphere we approach the celebration of the summer solstice, the longest day.

The seasons are connected to the different cardinal directions, as well as the four elements. Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century Benedictine Abbess, allied the direction of the south and the season of summer with the element of fire. We find a similar connection in the Native American Cherokee tradition and in the Irish Celtic tradition.

We might think of summer as the season of fire and stoking our passions. It is the season of coming to fullness connected to the Hour of noon and midday, when the sun reaches its peak in the sky. It is the time of fruitfulness, when blossom gives way to sweet abundance of berries and peaches, delicate lettuces and gorgeous tomatoes.

While Beltane on May 1st invited us to tend to the very first fruits of summer’s arrival, the Summer Solstice announces the time for full fruits and an extravagance of color and sweetness in the world around us.

To honor the coming of summer in ritual, consider facing the direction of the south and taking some deep breaths. Let your breath draw your awareness down to your heart center, the place where the mystics tell us the living flame of love dwells within us. You might place a candle on your altar to remember the fire alive within you and the world.

Spend some time in meditation on what your own passions are. What would you like to kindle? Where have been the sparks of joy in your life? What is coming to full fruitfulness? How might you welcome in your own growing fullness?

To enter more deeply into the gifts of the Summer Solstice and the Feast of John the Baptist, consider registering for our yearlong Sacred Seasons program with a mini-retreat for each of the eight turning points of the Celtic wheel of the year.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner

Monk in the World Guest Post: Anne Buck

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Anne Buck's reflection on "In Between Light and Dark."

It was the middle of the night and I was asleep. But maybe, just possibly I was awake. Maybe it was the pain medication or the muscle relaxant. It could have been exhaustion or chemotherapy or my imagination. In the fuzzy dark, I heard a trapped and caught animal, screeching for life and I could not open my eyes, I couldn't move, even though I felt the life draining out of my bones with every scream.

I have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.  One day I was fine, the next day I was planning my funeral.  As the New Year began, my doctor checked out an ongoing ache in my back. Following a Sunday afternoon MRI, back surgery was scheduled for early March followed by rounds of chemotherapy. A mass was found in my spine on my low back and the medical team was hopeful that chemotherapy and radiation would address it.  Surgery, placement of a port, PET scans, MRIs, days of chemotherapy, nights buried under covers, and no one ever used the word cancer. Only my own mind reeled with the possibility.

Lent was unsettling and intense as I considered death and loss in a new way. Darkness has been a constant container. Fistfulls of hair began to fall out and I lost it all on Easter Sunday. This season has been a deeply solitary time. I haven't wanted to interact much. I'm tired of telling people I'm tired and something is wonky with my brain and I know it just isn't easy for others to sit with a sick person. I am not used to being "weak" and/or unable to function.

This is not something I ever imagined going through and sometimes struggle with feeling hopeless.

So, in the hopelessness and darkness, in the moments of sickness and aching, I have to ask myself the questions that bring meaning. “What is it like to be in the dark?” “Can hopelessness be part of the journey?” “Is it possible to rest without struggle in the darkness, trusting that all will be well?”

Over the last months I am learning to welcome the hopelessness and darkness. I welcome myself. I am leaning to offer myself gentleness in a new way. It is in this place that I am beginning to understand what healing means. My story is in the now. Not how I was before my illness and not looking forward to a year from now when this is over. Now is the time to be present. Now is the struggle. And yet, now is the time to rest. The time to be still and breathe, the time to allow my body to follow what is next.

I am not sad or depressed yet there are times I cry without ceasing. In the midst, I take comfort from so many around me that write and pray and connect.  A friend made a meal train for us – I couldn't imagine anyone would sign up. Yet, this is how people show their care. Friends from high school, from work, from The Dougy Center, from a previous church, from people I don't know, from the Abbey of the Arts though a woman I connected with in one of the very first online classes, Monk in the World, Melinda, who lives in England and has a friend in Portland. She signed up for a meal and cared for me. How wide the net of love and care spreads!

I am releasing and carrying.

Healing and dying.

Awake and asleep.

Settled and anxious.

Surrounded and isolated.

Resting and waiting.

Light and Dark.

Winter. Summer.

And in the midst, all is well.

Anne intuitively uses her compassion and creativity to midwife people through life experiences and transitions. As a chaplain, a massage therapist, a certified labyrinth facilitator and a spiritual director, she is able to be with others as they deal with end of life decisions, relationships and the meaning of faith through body awareness, walking journeys and creative expression.

Writing on the Wild Edges – Participant Poems (Christine Davis)

This past April we led one of our Writing on the Wild Edges retreats on the beautiful island of Inismor off the coast of Galway. We will be sharing some of the writing which participants gave us permission to share here in the next few weeks. Up next are poems by Christine Davis.

(If you'd like to join us, we have our dates open for 2018 – August 26-September 1)

Focail do a Chara (Words for a Friend)

Liturgy of Stillness and Rock

Liturgy of stillness and rock,

Tell me your stories.

I am from a people who dream dreams of places they have never been;

open the gates of my soul and let it run!

Tell me your stories.

I am but a whisper in the passage of time.

Open the gates of my soul and let it run.

Space and time cannot be separated.

I am but a whisper in the passage of time.

I am from a people who dream dreams of places they have never been.

Space and time cannot be separated.

Liturgy of stillness and rock.

 

Upon Returning Home

I sit surrounded by the remnants of my half-unpacked suitcase,

sending gratitude as I load the wash.

I savor each memory:

the clothes that covered my vulnerability:

the ones that kept me warm in fierce winds,

and kept me dry in hail and storm;

this one gave me comfort to sit and write;

this other eased my walk in contemplation and stillness;

this sweater, lovingly knitted by hands that never knew me,

brought me home to my body day after day;

my favorite shirt lulled me to sleep;

and my new knit slippers padded the way to coffee and companionship.

My gloves, my hat, my hiking shoes, went with me in silence to monastic ruins and holy places;

and my yoga pants danced with me in embodied prayers.

These clothes hold secret longings and discoveries,

poems written and yet to write.

They hold the love felt deep within my body.

They hold the sky, the sea, the wind, and the earth.

I wash them clean but hold on to the holy memories.

 

My Holy Place

I found where sea, sky, and earth meet,

a holy place.

I found where saints and sinners come together,

a holy place.

I discovered a world of long forgotten dreams and

new hopes and death stones so old they are worn new.

I discovered the new emerging from the ancient.

I discovered my joy.

 

Haiku

Tiny buttercup,

hiding at the foot of stalks.

Accepts where it is.

In ancient lands still

alive, ruins and homes are

one and the same thing.

Long layers of soil,

homes with thatched roofs dot the earth,

clouds bridge to the sky.

I wonder if my

ancestors walked here; it feels

much like home to me.

—All photos and poems © Christine Salkin Davis, 2017 (click here to visit her website)

Call for Submissions: Monk in the World Guest Post

We welcome you to submit your reflection for possible publication in our Monk in the World guest post series. It is a gift to read how ordinary people are living lives of depth and meaning in the midst of the challenges of real life.

There are so many talented writers and artists in this Abbey community, so this is a chance to share your perspective. The link to the reflection will be included in our weekly newsletter which goes out to more than 11,000 subscribers.

Please follow these instructions carefully:

Please click this link to read a selection of the posts and get a feel for the tone and quality.
Submit your own post of 700-900 words on the general theme of "How do I live as a monk in the world? How do I bring contemplative presence to my work and/or family?" It works best if you focus your reflection on one aspect of your life or a practice you have, or you might reflect on how someone from the monastic tradition has inspired you. We invite reflections on the  practice  of living contemplatively.
Please include a head shot and brief bio written in the third person (50 words max). You are welcome to include 1-2 additional images if they help to illustrate your reflection in meaningful ways.  All images should be your own.  Please make sure the file size of each the images is smaller than 1MB. You can resize your image for free here.
We will be accepting submissions between now and August 31st for publication sometime in the late summer/fall 2017.  We reserve the right to make edits to the content as needed (or to request you to make edits) and submitting your reflection does not guarantee publication on the Abbey blog, but we will do our best to include as many of you as possible.
Email your submission by August 31st and include the reflection pasted into the body of your email and attach your photo(s).

We will be back in touch with you at the latest by the beginning of September to let you know if your post is accepted, if edits are needed, and/or when we have scheduled your post to appear.

Feast of St. Columcille + Self-Study Sale ~ A love note from your online abbess

Delightful to me to be on an island hill,

on the crest of a rock,

that I might often watch the quiet sea.

That I might watch the heavy waves

above the bright water, as they chant

music to their Father everlastingly.

That I might watch it's smooth, bright-bordered shore,

no gloomy pastime, that I might hear the cry

of the strange birds, a pleasing sound.

That I might hear the murmur of the long waves

against the rocks, that I might hear

the sound of the sea, like mourning beside a grave.

That I might watch the splendid flocks of birds

over the well-watered sea, that I might see

its mighty whales, the greatest wonder.

That I might watch its ebb and flood in their course,

that my name should be–it is a secret that I tell–

"he who turned his back upon Ireland."

—Poem attributed to St. Columcille

Dearest monks and artists,

The feast of St. Columcille was two days ago on June 9th. He is also known as Columba (which means “dove” in Latin), and is one of the three patron saints of Ireland (in addition to St Patrick and St Brigid) and was born in Co Donegal. His birth was foretold in his mother’s dream of a youth receiving a radiant cloak which spread over Ireland and Scotland.

He came from a family of Kings, but at an early age was given over to a monastery where he surrendered any royal claims he might have had, and founded many monasteries across Ireland, including Derry, Durrow, and likely Kells, and as far west as the Burren in Co Clare where there is still a holy well dedicated to him. He was also a poet and loved manuscripts.

Columcille experienced a call to leave Ireland and become an exile. He found it very painful and spent the night before his departure on what is now known as the “flagstone of loneliness.” For many of the Irish monks, this call to exile was an integral part of the peregrinatio journey, to release all that is familiar and make oneself reliant on the hospitality of strangers, to feel your radical dependency on God.

In the year 563, he travels with twelve other monks to cross the sea in a coracle and landed on a small island off the coast of Scotland, now known as Iona. It was here that he began his new work and Iona became a heart center for Celtic Christianity.

From Iona, many other monastic settlements were founded across Scotland, out to the Hebrides, while also maintaining his influence on his monasteries back home in Ireland. He was a poet and an artist who did illumination, including perhaps even some of those in the Book of Kells itself.

There is a beautiful story about his encounter with a crane. Birds were considered to be divine messengers in the Celtic world. The crane was said to be one of the first birds to greet the sunrise, the threshold time, connecting it with the direction of the east, and is associated with knowledge and wisdom. As the Druidic tradition gave way to Christianity, sometimes the term “Crane Cleric” was used to indicate great wisdom in certain priests, such as St. Columcille.

One day a crane arrived to Iona after much travel and exhaustion. It landed on the shore quite exhausted and hungry. Columcille told one of his monks that the crane had come from Ireland and to nurse it back to strength and health for three days until it was well enough to return on its own again. The bird was lovingly tended as an honored guest in the great tradition of monastic hospitality.

I love this story for its many layers. The bird is a stranger seeking refuge and hospitality, given to it freely by the monks. The crane is a symbol of thresholds and wisdom, as it lives in the border spaces between land and sea. Three days it took to be restored links it to Christ and to the sacred number of three held dear by the Celtic imagination.

Sometimes in our own journeys, we need to recognize when we are called to land for a while and seek solace and nourishment in a strange place.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Dancing monk icon © Marcy Hall (prints available in her Etsy shop)

Monk in the World Guest Post: Jane Tomaine

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jane Tomaine's reflection on Little Dresses for Africa.

Sometimes it is just hard for me to get going.  Tasks mill around my head like my cats before meal times, walking between my legs, mewing impatiently, rubbing on my ankles to make sure that I don’t forget them.   But unlike the cats, there are tasks that I just can’t seem to get to.  Have you experienced this dilemma?  What is it that we cannot seem to begin?   Is it a phone call that promises to be difficult or a long, needed repair or task at home that we dread tackling; is it a project we really want to do, but that’s languishing on the back burner because we aren’t sure how it will fit into an already stuffed day?

In the monastery the bell calls the monastics to prayer.  Is it possible that our neglected and avoided tasks are really bells that ring of opportunities to connect us more deeply with God and others?  Do these tasks mew like Charlotte, Ricky, Espy and Nikki (my cats) until we take them up and find in them the prayer of our heart?

Until the early 1990’s I was an avid seamstress, sewing nearly everything that I wore.  Seminary and then fulltime parish ministry left no time for this once delightful and productive creative work.  For years the cabinet that housed my sewing machine was never opened, becoming instead another flat receptacle for books, papers, and a variety of sundry items.  A couple years ago I decided to give away both machine and cabinet.  Wanting to make sure all was in good shape, I gave both a good dusting, applied oil, and ran a scrap of fabric through to make sure that machine worked.   That was the surprise!  It was like putting on an old shoe – I realized how much I really liked to sew.  There is something immensely satisfying about finding beautiful fabric, choosing a pattern, smoothing out the fabric, cutting it carefully, following the pattern directions to create a lovely and useful garment.   Add to this where my machine was placed – right in front of a window with view of sky and trees.  Once I ran that scrap of fabric through the machine I was hooked.  I wanted to sew again for it brought joy, but I didn’t want to sew for myself.  The hought came to me, “Why not sew for others?”  But who?  An internet search uncovered a project to sew simple dresses for little girls in Africa.

Little Dresses for Africa was created in 2008 by founder and director Rachel O’Neill and is a registered non-profit 501c3 Christian organization.  Beginning as a grass roots effort, with a goal to take 1000 dresses to a single village, Little Dresses for Africa has grown to numbers well over 6 million, with little dresses for girls and “britches for boys” currently being sent to 83 countries in and around Africa.  The road is especially difficult for little girls and young women in Africa.  These simple little dresses plant the seed that they are worthy.  The dresses are also like little ambassadors that pave the way for people in the organization to offer needed help in the villages.  As relationships are formed, the focus is on projects for clean water, education and community.

Knowing all this, I still dragged my feet on getting started.   There always seemed to be something “more important” to do.  But the bell to take action kept ringing insistently in my head.  In truth, sharing our skills and our time, that most precious and guarded commodity, must be the criteria for how we use this life that each of us has been given.  Yet, sometimes we need a community to help us get started and stay the course.

One Wednesday morning this winter at the Eucharist that I offer, I asked the parishioners who attend to hold me accountable to make these dresses.  I told them that I needed their help to help me respond to the bell that had been ringing in my head and fulfill what was the desire of my heart – to sew for little girls I would never meet.  I vowed to make one dress a week, a promise that I have kept with only a couple of misses.

Sewing for these little girls is a joy, not only because I am giving to someone else, but also because the project has become a way of prayer and of connection with girls who need to know someone cares.  As I cut the fabric I pray, as I stitch and press I ask God to protect them, as I hang the finished dress up to take to my church friends the next Wednesday morning I give thanks for the opportunity to help in a small way.

Is there a task or project that finds you looking the other way?  Is there a bell ringing in your head that is calling for attention?  I encourage you to take a step towards what you have been setting aside.  Get others to gently hold you accountable.  Then, dive in with an intention to use this task as a way to connect with God and with others.  Infuse it with prayer.  Any task that we do can become a way of prayer.

Interested in Making a Little Dress?

The dresses are simple to make.  They are basically a rectangle of fabric sized to small, medium, large, etc., with a back seam sewn in, hemmed, elastic put in the neckline and armholes cut and covered with bias tape (sewing folk will know what this all means.)  If you are interested in making little dresses (they are really fun to make and a wonderful opportunity for prayer), click here for the pattern.

To Act on Their Behalf

Almighty One, we praise you and give you thanks for life, and for all children who start life in innocence, laughter and play.  Make us mindful of the world’s children in the name of your beloved Son, who took them into his arms and blessed them.  Grant us grace to embrace these little ones with nurturing love, to promote their strong physical growth, so that they may develop keen minds and lively hearts.  Awaken our consciences and lead us, we pray, to recognize, acknowledge and repent of our collusion that has cause their suffering – their hunger, thirst, sickness, and early death.  Give us holy anger and stir our wills and hearts to act on their behalf, for the sake of your love.  Amen.

– Jessica Hatch, Salt Lake City, from Lifting Women’s Voices – Prayers to Change the World

Jane Tomaine is an Episcopal priest, nationally-known retreat leader, avid fan of The Rule of Benedict and author of St. Benedict’s Toolbox: The Nuts and Bolts of Everyday Benedictine Living and the recently published The Rule of Benedict: Christian Monastic Wisdom for Daily Living.  She is a priest associate at Calvary Church in Summit, New Jersey.  Jane’s website is www.stbenedictstoolbox.org.

Writing on the Wild Edges – Poems from Participants (Michelle Winter)

This past April we led one of our Writing on the Wild Edges retreats on the beautiful island of Inismor off the coast of Galway. We will be sharing some of the writing which participants gave us permission to share here in the next few weeks. Up next is are two poems by Michelle Winter.

(If you'd like to join us, we have our dates open for 2018 – August 26-September 1)

Orienteering

Orienteering

For getting our bearings:

A compass is useful

and a map

to identify

our latitude

longitude

our altitude

and depth

A poem, or two

and, perhaps,

Courage

to help us measure

Proximity to

our Creation

Desolation

or Resurrection

to name our distance

from Grief

Joy

or Fear

And to mark our journeys from

Hidden Places

To Shared Locations

And back again.

The Journey

There is a grief in beauty

for the pilgrim soul

I grasp this liquid moment

Clutch at healing I can't hold

There is mourning in desire

that drives the pilgrim heart

to search for home while barefoot

toes feeling for the marks

Hope and joy born of defiance

We toss our kites into the wind

They bob and soar against the currents

Tethered only by their strings

—Both poems are by Michelle Winter

Summer Self-Study Discount + Bonus Offer (expires June 19th)

We are offering a Summer Special on our self-study programs! If you would like to move at your own pace this summer through one of our online retreats, this is a great opportunity.

Use code SS10 for 10% off the program fee of our self-study retreats, plus receive the following gifts:

Register for 1 retreat and receive a free creative mini-retreat*
Register for 2 retreats and receive the mini-retreat plus a $25 discount coupon for any future online retreat (including community programs)
Register for 3 retreats and receive the above two gifts plus a free self-study of your choice

*last year Jennifer Louden offered a Creative Radiance package and this mini-retreat I created was a part of that.

PLEASE NOTE: Women on the Threshold and Sacred Seasons each count as the purchase of two self-study retreats, but they cannot be awarded as the free self-study program option.

Choose from the following 10 programs:

Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year**
Women on the Threshold: The Wild Heart of Longing**
Sacred Time: Claiming Holy Rhythms for Our Lives
Earth as Original Monastery: Retrieving Our Lost Intimacy with Creation
A Midwinter God: Making a Conscious Underworld Journey
Exile & Coming Home: An Archetypal Journey through the Scriptures
Practicing Resurrection through Creativity and Archetypes
Water, Wind, Earth, & Fire: Praying with the Elements
Lectio Divina: Sacred Art of Reading the World
Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Contemplative Practice

Important: Once you register for your desired self-study retreats, send us an email indicating which retreats you have registered for and request your free gift(s). They will not be sent automatically.

**These two programs count as the purchase of two retreats each, they cannot be your free gift.

Offer ends on Monday, June 19th.