Christine Valters Paintner's Blog, page 19

A Prayer of Encircling with the Love of Thousands

Thank you again for all the kindness on my health post the other day. I was really touched and there is something so healing about being seen and loved in the midst of vulnerability. I’ve had more health struggles even in the days since I posted, so am grateful to be lifted up by your prayers and blessings.

We are starting our Love of Thousands companion retreat on Monday (a 14 week journey and deep dive through my book) so I was pondering the many ways I call upon the invisible ones and sacred presences for healing.

Certainly there is God the Great Healer and Jesus facilitated many healing journeys and feels especially near.

But I also call upon Mary, Untier of Knots who helps me ease the places that feel tight and tangled, especially when I get overwhelmed.

There is Archangel Raphael whose special gift is healing and who is said to have stirred the waters at the pool in Bethesda.

So many Saints offer the gift of healing, but Brigid and Hildegard are two special presences and companions for me. Both would have been intimately involved in working with herbs and healing medicine. I can also call on Hildegard to help open the way for viriditas – or the sacred greening power – to flow more freely through me.

The ancestors offer their healing gifts too. Certainly the ancient mothers and fathers, whose genetic code flows in my blood and bone, are present to me to help me remember who I am and whose I am.

My own mother, who passed across the veil over 20 years ago, and also had rheumatoid arthritis which ravaged her body – I have no doubt she holds me as a mother can in the healing light of the otherworld. Her sister, my aunt Nancy, is another ancestor who struggled with multiple illnesses as well and joins my mother in holding space for ease and grace to enter.

Each morning I do a prayer of encircling. Sometimes it is for healing and I invite these powerful beings to surround me. Sometimes it is for overwhelm or other needs and I might invite a different circle of protection and prayer.

Ultimately, the effect is feeling less alone in my struggles. It is absolutely essential to have humans and animals and other living beings who support and nurture us on this earthly realm (from friends to medical practitioners to spiritual directors and therapists of various kinds to forests and mountains we love) but how beautiful it is to know of this added dimension. By cultivating these connections I feel held in their loving embrace.

We will be exploring these various ways of being in intimate communion with the love of thousands and great cloud of witnesses in our online journey.

You are invited to join us if this calls to you. It begins so simply, by bringing our presence and attention to the veil and all those who dance beyond it, which is really just below the surface of this world here and now. See them reaching toward you, celebrating you, and showering you in love.

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Give Me a Word Prize Drawing Winners!

I am delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Give Me a Word prize drawing. We had over 230 responses and winners were chosen at random.

Please email Melinda at dancingmonk@abbeyofthearts.com to claim your prize.

One space in our Love of Thousands online companion retreat to the book – Mary Lee Downey –HearthOne space in our online Lent retreat on A Different Kind of Fast – Elaine Tannesen – EdgesTwo winners of the self-study retreat of their choice – Noreen – Blessed Stillness | Peter Gunther – PeaceThree winners of the digital album of their choice – Ailsa Tudhope – Rest | Kelly Sollinger – Bold | Jhazzy Joiner – SlowThree winners of a Dancing Monk Medallion – Sr. Anelie G. Arao, r.c. – Celebrating | Dale – Dwell | Elisa – Identity

May your words ripen within and guide you in the year ahead.

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Theresa Walker

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Theresa Walker’s reflection on love, letting go, and letting be.

As a single, never-married woman there were times of loneliness in my life, especially as a young woman when I felt out of step with my peers. Yet the gifts of my beautiful life were always before me for the taking. Sometimes I had to dig deep with a spiritual director, pray, study, and read to find consolation and direction. I had freedom of movement. Where should I make my home? What education to pursue? How much time and commitment was fair to my faith community, and was my giving truly from the heart? 

There were, as for everyone, limits such as financial concerns and responsibilities to my parents. What might be selfish? What might require the courage to let go of others’ expectations as I discerned a path forward? It was not easy to let go of a hard-won independence that in time, almost imperceptibly, led to emotional isolation. As young adulthood became mid-life, self-awareness grew. So did humility. I realized I had to accept help from others when I was down with the flu, reach out to friends in deeper conversations, acknowledge my dreams, and step up by sharing joy and pain, skills and needs within an expanding community.

My teachers and companions in centering prayer during the past thirty years, the many fellow students and practitioners of writing and painting that I have known over that same time, my beloved close friends and family members, the beloved friends and family I have lost and grieve over are the ones who bless me in all my mental reflections and bodily practices. Those practices, since mid-life, are centering prayer, walking, creative work, reiki, listening to others, and attending to the small, clear voice within. Those practices are informed by a quote I read recently (unfortunately, I’ve lost the source). The research, it was said, advised, “Let it go” is good advice, but “Let it be,” is better.

A line from “For Everyone Who Tried on a Slipper before Cinderalla,” a poem by Arian Brown, inspires me. Brown writes, “Love is coming. It’s on the way.”

Yes, I believe it. Love is coming when I open the gift and don’t understand why it was chosen for me. Love is coming when I need a little more sleep, a conversation with a friend, an honest response that shakes me up. A better mood is evolving. Companionship is healing. Forgiveness puts me at ease.

I found love when I placed my hands on my heart and became as quiet as I could be. I don’t know for sure if I “let go” of worry and heartbreak over a loved one or if I “let it be” because I couldn’t find the papers I needed or the help I thought I needed or the answer to a problem that seemed too big for me to solve. Besides that, it was a hot day that exhausted me. When I  became silent, I sensed myself as a part in something that seemed like a puzzle, and I felt a pervasive, gentle, internal support. Love was on the way. And when I accepted love, let it be, I found my way.

As I enter the final phase of my life, my heart skips a beat now and then, sometimes in awe and sometimes in fear. What story remains to be written? What healing, learning, or invitation to give will fall to me to accept? I will remember my part in the mysterious puzzle and how other parts surrounded and held me. I will place my hands on my heart and listen. My heart says, “You belong.”

Theresa Walker writes and paints in Washington, D.C. She is a registered SoulCollage(r) facilitator.

Painting: The Heart Takes a Leap, acrylic on canvas, 30 in. high, 24 in length.

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Gratitude for Dancing Monks, Earth-Bound Angels, Self-Care, and the Contemplative Path

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,

Every four weeks I go to the hospital to receive an infusion of a biologic medication to keep my rheumatoid arthritis under control. Each time I go I am full of gratitude at the way modern medicine has allowed me to mostly keep my mobility 32 years after being first diagnosed. My mother, who also had RA, didn’t even live this long into her illness and was in a wheelchair the last several years of her life after several joint replacement surgeries. 

As many of you know, autoimmune illness is challenging. I have several chronic pain conditions in addition, as well as a lot of fatigue. My conditions flare at various times and in those seasons I have to pare back even more on what I am doing so I can spend more time being and resting. In a world that prizes productivity, this act of stopping without apology is a form of resistance, in addition to necessary self-preservation and radical loving care for my body. 

Because my immune system is compromised I have to be very careful about being in shared spaces with others which is why we no longer offer in-person programs. A cold easily turns into a chest infection. I wear masks diligently these days as respiratory illness numbers rise and I do feel quite disheartened when I am in a medical setting or on public transit with people coughing and sniffling all around, almost no one is taking simple steps to protect others. 

I am grateful that the hermit life calls to me, and I am very content spending my days at home with sweet Sourney by my side. What I call my horizontal perspective from the long hours of rest, helps me to see things differently and I know those of us who have to live more slowly and discern more carefully what to take on have a gift to offer the world. 

For so many years I prayed for healing, and while I do continue to hold a version of that desire in my heart, I know it looks like something different than what I first imagined. I am acutely aware that this ebbing and flowing of energy and pain is my ongoing reality. It is unlikely that will ever change. It can be exhausting to keep wishing for it when acceptance and compassion toward myself as I am helps to sustain me better, while also doing all that is necessary to keep me as healthy as I can be. This includes medication, but also herbs, baths, naps, massage, walks, swims, yoga, physio, and other treatments as needed. I have found that the things which help me take pleasure in my body are some of the greatest medicine I receive.  

A deep bow of gratitude especially to the many people who share the marvelous work of running an online monastery – my beloved John, our gifted program coordinator Melinda, our wonderful Wisdom Council members, and our other guest teachers. Also our web person Garrett and our accountant Bernadette. So many hands necessary. As someone with early patterns of over-responsibility, having a team of amazing and wise souls to support this work, and me in the process, is nothing short of amazing. It brings me to awe every time I ponder it and keeps me from depleting myself. 

And thank you to all of our dancing monks, you offer me so much grace in accepting me as I am, with all my gifts and all my significant limitations. Your kindness and care for one another moves me deeply. Abbey of the Arts is such a vibrant creation because of your participation. I pray in gratitude for you every morning and imagine your luminous presences scattered across the globe. 

This life of anchoress by necessity offers me such meaningful ways to stay connected to the world far beyond my walls, through the miracle of online connections, through prayer, poetry, writing, and simply being witness to the beauty around me that erupts each moment. 

So days like today, when I go to the hospital to receive the gift of my infusion that allows me to continue on as best I can, I know it to be a sacrament. The wonderful nurses who minister to me each month are earth-bound angels. And my illness calls me again and again to hold the beauty and sorrow of life together. To know this as ongoing revelation. To know this as its own kind of grace. 

*~*~*~*~*
(Please no health advice, I have tried many different healing modalities over the years and work with my team of healthcare practitioners to discern what is best for me right now. It can be exhausting to be given advice, rather than simply being witnessed in the complexity of my situation. Thank you in advance for honoring that boundary.)

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

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The Heart of Mysticism ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

“The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or [s]he will not exist at all.”

—Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations

Dearest monks and artists,

In a week we begin our 14-week online companion journey through my book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk With Us Toward Holiness. When we speak of the saints, we do not refer to people inaccessible to us and our lives, but to friends of the heart who dwell beyond the veil between worlds. They call us to our own paths of holiness. 

This is an adapted excerpted from the book: 

At the heart of mysticism—no matter which tradition we are speaking of—is a profound sense of God’s intimate and transforming presence in our lives, which always expands our capacity for love. I am often asked how a person knows whether they have had a genuine encounter with God, and my response is that if the experience leads to greater love for other, for self, or for God, then we can know that we have met the Holy One in some way. We experience these moments of connection through our own practice and through opening our hearts to listen. But equally as important is through divine grace, which always extends out toward us, always seeking to be in communion with us. Sometimes mystical connection is not what we are seeking, but it is visited upon us regardless.

Fourth-century Orthodox mystic Gregory of Nyssa talked about epektasis, which is a Greek word meaning “stretching forth always,” based on Philippians 3:13, where Paul talks about always stretching forward toward God. It refers to the continual yearning, which is never satisfied in this life. We all have this core desire to reach toward God, but we often mistake it for something else and try to fill it with things like drinking, shopping, drug use, or any other addictive behavior.

While some have sudden moments of grace or epiphanies into the divine nature and call, like St. Paul at Damascus, those tend to be the exception in the mystical life. Mystics commit themselves to extensive practice in prayer and meditation, spiritual reading, and meeting with a mentor or soul friend in an ongoing way. As theologian Bernard McGinn says, 

“Mysticism is a process. It requires preparation. It also involves a moment of some kind of direct consciousness of God. And then it involves the effects of all the elements of the process on that person’s life. It’s meant to be transformative—to make people different, both in themselves and in how they relate to other people. I prefer the word ‘consciousness’ to ‘experience’ because consciousness involves thinking and loving and decision-making, as well as experience and feeling.”

The paradox of the mystical experience is that it requires preparation and the discipline of showing up for an encounter with the Divine, but ultimately, the experience is grace and freely given. We do not earn it or work hard enough to achieve it. We open our hearts to it, and grace explodes.

Join us for this online journey with the angels, saints, and ancestors, where together we will engage in practices to see the invisible ones more clearly and to cultivate our loving presence in the world. I will be hosting weekly live Zoom sessions with guided meditations, there are weekly bonus guest teacher interviews, scripture reflections, visio divina practice, and songs with gesture prayers to embody our journey! 

This Monday January 8th, Simon and I are leading our monthly Contemplative Prayer Service. We be joined by special guest Jamie Marich who will share their gifts with us. Join us!

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Image © Christine Valters Paintner – Donegal, Ireland

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Adrianne Dyer

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Adrianne Dyer’s reflection Creator God As Artist.

God has many names.  Often when I look upon nature and my surroundings, I think or find myself saying, “Wow! Look at what God has created.”  The name of God as Creator is true.  All around are things that God has created and brought into existence, including myself.  Yet God is much more than just a Creator. Creator God is also an Artist. 

So who is this Artist God?  In contemplating this question, I have found that this question has been extended to myself, “Who is the artist within me?”  If a Creator God, Artistic God created and formed me, then there is also an artist’s hand-print within me.  Me, an artist?  How can that be?  If I can contemplate God being artistic, then I must try to consider this name and expression being true within myself.  A created image and likeness, one mirroring the other.

I like to imagine myself sitting across from the Artistic God having tea or coffee. Getting to know and exploring this artistic layer and depth about God and myself. However, the Artistic God doesn’t want to only be understood through conversation and dialogue. Instead, Artistic God invites me for a walk.  It is in walking that my understanding of Artist God starts to take on a new image and meaning.

While walking with Artist God, I am encouraged to slow down, look more closely, and be more attuned to new ways of holding my surroundings. It isn’t easy at first.  I still want to say to Creator God, “this is beautiful and lovely.”  God acknowledges this declaration but gently whispers, “Yes, but can you also see my artistry passionately present in all that I have created?”  With love God says, “Look closer, tell me what you see?”  As I look, I  find myself noticing details, layers, colors, images, shapes, and depth.  Hidden expressions. Artistic God stokes this small flame and revelation, constantly encouraging me to utilize all my senses and imagination. To examine and affirm that nothing in creation is one dimensional, not in nature, not in myself. 

One day while walking in God’s artistic creation, I became curious about a plant I walk by routinely.  I do not know this plant’s name, or species.  Each time I have walked past this plant I have seen it only as a green plant or non-descript bush. Nothing more nothing less.  Yet on this day, I “noticed” this plant for the first time. The leaves on this plant have red coloring.  Red coloring bleeding into the base of each green leaf.  The red pronouncing its relevance and importance. Not hidden or separate from the plant. Fully present and integrated. A dimension I had not observed or attuned myself to see. This plant metaphorically was bringing forth a new perspective and awareness developing within me. I was not just viewing this plant as a created organism but also seeing its artistic beauty.  

God created and formed this plant into existence.  It has a purpose and place.  Although it is predominantly green, the artistry of God has given this plant a unique detail, expression.  As it grows and moves through its season, the crimson tones declare their presence.  Red is vibrant, attractive, energetic, mysterious, courageous, and strong.  I am lured by the red contribution in this otherwise green plant. This plant is distinctive. Whispering a song of surprise and an expression of emergent identity. 

While looking upon this plant in its fullness, God’s Artist voice and Created presence engages me with these words: 

Querida, Dear one, you are like this plant.  Beautifully created from the beginning. With a Word you were breathed into existence.  Not just with purpose and place, but with passionate love and artistry.  You are deeply rooted in your awareness of being created and beloved. However, for too long, you have beheld yourself as simply a green plant.  Nothing more nothing less.  Others, including yourself have walked by and have only seen dynamics and aspects that are easy to perceive. Yet, like the plant, there is more to behold and “notice.”  An Artistic expression deeply integrated and woven; formed from creative and artistic hands.  You are vibrant, warm, inviting, intuitive, ethnic, compassionate, playful, a wealth of experience and story.  Allow the fullness of who you are to emerge and be seen.”

Can I dare to see myself as Created Artistry? Purposefully made, not just another planted soul along the path.  I will lean into this invitation and dare to share in the image and likeness given to me as gift.  Creator and Artistic God, thank you for drawing me into a more fuller understanding and awareness of who you have made me to be.  

Adrianne Dyer is a Spiritual Care Provider and a Spiritual Director for SEEL Puget Sound. Three years ago she and her family moved to Okinawa, Japan to serve military families overseas. Okinawa has proven to be a wonderful cross-cultural experience of life, faith, community and creativity. 

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Adrianne Dryer

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Adrianne Dryer’s reflection Creator God As Artist.

God has many names.  Often when I look upon nature and my surroundings, I think or find myself saying, “Wow! Look at what God has created.”  The name of God as Creator is true.  All around are things that God has created and brought into existence, including myself.  Yet God is much more than just a Creator. Creator God is also an Artist. 

So who is this Artist God?  In contemplating this question, I have found that this question has been extended to myself, “Who is the artist within me?”  If a Creator God, Artistic God created and formed me, then there is also an artist’s hand-print within me.  Me, an artist?  How can that be?  If I can contemplate God being artistic, then I must try to consider this name and expression being true within myself.  A created image and likeness, one mirroring the other.

I like to imagine myself sitting across from the Artistic God having tea or coffee. Getting to know and exploring this artistic layer and depth about God and myself. However, the Artistic God doesn’t want to only be understood through conversation and dialogue. Instead, Artistic God invites me for a walk.  It is in walking that my understanding of Artist God starts to take on a new image and meaning.

While walking with Artist God, I am encouraged to slow down, look more closely, and be more attuned to new ways of holding my surroundings. It isn’t easy at first.  I still want to say to Creator God, “this is beautiful and lovely.”  God acknowledges this declaration but gently whispers, “Yes, but can you also see my artistry passionately present in all that I have created?”  With love God says, “Look closer, tell me what you see?”  As I look, I  find myself noticing details, layers, colors, images, shapes, and depth.  Hidden expressions. Artistic God stokes this small flame and revelation, constantly encouraging me to utilize all my senses and imagination. To examine and affirm that nothing in creation is one dimensional, not in nature, not in myself. 

One day while walking in God’s artistic creation, I became curious about a plant I walk by routinely.  I do not know this plant’s name, or species.  Each time I have walked past this plant I have seen it only as a green plant or non-descript bush. Nothing more nothing less.  Yet on this day, I “noticed” this plant for the first time. The leaves on this plant have red coloring.  Red coloring bleeding into the base of each green leaf.  The red pronouncing its relevance and importance. Not hidden or separate from the plant. Fully present and integrated. A dimension I had not observed or attuned myself to see. This plant metaphorically was bringing forth a new perspective and awareness developing within me. I was not just viewing this plant as a created organism but also seeing its artistic beauty.  

God created and formed this plant into existence.  It has a purpose and place.  Although it is predominantly green, the artistry of God has given this plant a unique detail, expression.  As it grows and moves through its season, the crimson tones declare their presence.  Red is vibrant, attractive, energetic, mysterious, courageous, and strong.  I am lured by the red contribution in this otherwise green plant. This plant is distinctive. Whispering a song of surprise and an expression of emergent identity. 

While looking upon this plant in its fullness, God’s Artist voice and Created presence engages me with these words: 

Querida, Dear one, you are like this plant.  Beautifully created from the beginning. With a Word you were breathed into existence.  Not just with purpose and place, but with passionate love and artistry.  You are deeply rooted in your awareness of being created and beloved. However, for too long, you have beheld yourself as simply a green plant.  Nothing more nothing less.  Others, including yourself have walked by and have only seen dynamics and aspects that are easy to perceive. Yet, like the plant, there is more to behold and “notice.”  An Artistic expression deeply integrated and woven; formed from creative and artistic hands.  You are vibrant, warm, inviting, intuitive, ethnic, compassionate, playful, a wealth of experience and story.  Allow the fullness of who you are to emerge and be seen.”

Can I dare to see myself as Created Artistry? Purposefully made, not just another planted soul along the path.  I will lean into this invitation and dare to share in the image and likeness given to me as gift.  Creator and Artistic God, thank you for drawing me into a more fuller understanding and awareness of who you have made me to be.  

Adrianne Dryer is a Spiritual Care Provider and a Spiritual Director for SEEL Puget Sound. Three years ago she and her family moved to Okinawa, Japan to serve military families overseas. Okinawa has proven to be a wonderful cross-cultural experience of life, faith, community and creativity. 

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New Year Blessings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

I pray this note finds you well and thriving as we move through the season of Christmas and this turning point of the calendar to a new year. 

I have had a time of mini-sabbatical these last few weeks as my health continues to be a challenge. Rest is such a gift and I am grateful for the space to ease my fatigue and pain. As I sit in quiet moments, my heart always turns to this beautiful work I am privileged to do and to you, our beloved dancing monks, who make this work such a joy. 

I know many of you have heavy hearts for all that is happening in our world. So much war, so much destruction, so much hatred, so little care for life and love and the thriving of all beings. These are things I pray about each day as well.

It can certainly be overwhelming at times, and our nervous systems weren’t designed to handle the onslaught of terrible news from all corners of the globe. 

What do we do as monks and artists committed to a way of contemplative practice and creative expression? 

I ask myself this question often and do not have easy answers. I sit in the mess and struggle with you. What I do know is how vital it is to live a way of peace and compassion as a witness to another reality. How important it is to have space to dream and create new worlds. 

It is necessary to live with a profound attunement to our own hearts which comes through time spent in silence, time with our loved ones, time among the trees and rivers, time with the saints and ancestors, time writing and dancing and painting. All of these relationships – to silence and friendship, to nature and the invisible ones, to our creative longings – help to steep us in a deeper wisdom than the one that operates in a world where destruction has become the primary impulse. 

I know the contemplative and creative ways can seem perhaps superfluous in a world so drenched in need. But when we lose these practices and commitments, we become mired in cynicism and despair. We lose a connection to the voices that can truly help to guide us to a better way. 

The call of hospitality, which is core to the monastic tradition, is such an essential practice in these times. To meet the wounded strangers within ourselves with love and compassion and to bring that profound care to others we meet is a powerful way of showing up in the world. Hospitality means making room for the lament, the weeping, the terrible grief at witnessing so much violence and loss of life. 

After time each day with all of these wisdom guides, we can then listen for what is ours to do. How are we to respond? Is it to donate money? To write letters? To join a protest? To reach out to a local community who is experiencing hostility? Maybe it is reading some of the books from our Lift Every Voice book club to expand your awareness. Co-facilitating that is an act of loving service and a source of ongoing transformation in my life. There are a thousand small, quiet ways we can put our prayers into action. It is up to each of us to discern how we are being called. Sometimes I find myself needing to craft prayers and blessings as one way to respond. Here is a blessing for peace. Pray with it, feel free to change or adapt it, or perhaps be inspired to create your own prayer of peace. 

Blessing for PeaceWondrous Peacemaker,guide us in a world filled with war,hatred, and division,to create a place where everyonecan live free from fear of violence.Care for the soldiers, the victims, the refugees.Be a balm for their woundsand guide them to alignment with your holy desires.Transform the tools of destructioninto vessels of cultivation.Where bombs rain down,let the tiny seeds sprout among the rubble.Where the stranger has fled to safety,let them be welcomed with open arms.Where the desire for vengeance consumeslet a new way crack open.Infuse us with the courage neededto speak words of care,to be the presence of peacein all of our words and actions.Let the light of your love pulse within us,so we become bearers of shalom.May the radiance of our dreamingbe a sign of hope, so all might dream togetherthis more beautiful world.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

PS – Celebrate my new Lenten book with me – A Different Kind of Fast – details at this post and a book launch online Friday. 

Image © Christine Valters Paintner, Clare Abbey, Ireland

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A Different Kind of Fast – new book for Lent!

It might be early to think about Lent, but Christine’s new book A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent will be published by Broadleaf Books on Tuesday and we are celebrating by hosting a virtual book launch on Friday. This is a free event that will include some reflections from Christine, a guided meditation, and we are delighted wisdom council member Richard Bruxvoort Colligan will be there to share music with us too. It will also be recorded if you can’t join us live. Please join us for a soulful time of sacred listening.

This is an adapted excerpt from the book A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent: 

What are the things you hunger for?

I don’t mean cravings like your favorite meal or drink, or the obsessive scrolling through our social media accounts we can sometimes get caught up in, which often fuels our anxiety over the world or our sense of the inadequacy of our lives.

These things are not ultimately nourishing. What is nourishing are the things that are life-giving, joy-bringing, peace-arising, purpose-revealing.

We live in a culture that depends on distracting us from our true hungers, because when we identify with these surface hungers we will consume more and more in the search for satisfaction.

I want to invite you into a different kind of fast, one which helps you identify those patterns and habits that distract you from the fullness of life and open up space for the feast that awaits each of us.

What are the things you are holding onto? What are the patterns and ways of being, the habits and compulsions that are life-depleting? Which things divert your attention again and again from the radiant creation that you are? Are there resentments? Overwork? Grief denied? Are you a member of a marginalized group repeatedly hearing on the news how your life is less valuable? 

And what are the true hungers you experience in quiet moments when you have a chance to pause and listen?

As we begin a new year, what commitments do you want to make for simplicity, clarity, and more space for living out your calling in the world? As dancing monks, one of the practices that calls to us is simply to bring ourselves as fully present to the world as we can. Here is a blessing from the book to honor this holy longing: 

Holy Presence,
guide our gaze back to here and now
and reveal to us that you are with us always.
Awaken us to see each shimmering moment,
each loving gesture, each face full of yearning,
and the ways you dance through Creation.
Sustain us in releasing our need to distract
ourselves with things which do not nourish,
or numb us to the aliveness that is possible.
Help us to savor this world
through the gift of our senses,
so that each day we look for beauty,
we listen for the music of the world,
we relish our meals,
we inhale the fragrance of flowers
we feel the embrace of life.
When our attention wanders
to that which depletes us,
gently direct us again to your sacred banquet.

Join our book launch on Friday and our online companion retreat for Lent!

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Andrea Potos

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for Andrea Potos’ reflection and poems on the contemplative process of poetry.

My contemplative practice begins at my writing table each morning.  Spiral notebook spread open and pen nearby, I don’t start writing immediately. I read a few poems of other writers that I love, or look at art books with images that compel and inspire me. Then I close my eyes, wait for a feeling of stillness that makes space for quiet to unfold and deepen. I may also make a list of individual words that hold a resonance for me in that moment.  Always there is a pause before the actual writing happens.  As in my poem below, I am waiting, for that “doe” to find its way to the core where poetry is discovered.  I write to hear what I know, and what I may need to know and remember.   

As I move into the rest of my day, I try to bring this space of stillness and attention with me into the world. I believe poetry and beauty can be found everywhere when we are present and receptive enough to notice. And so often, poems contain such holy wisdom.  

Daily PracticeSome mornings all I dois write down words–cistern,tribal, cached–copying themfrom sprawled pages of booksacross my desk, words that call out–glimmerings, cursive, saffron,heartwood–holding me in placeas if to say listen, you may need mesomeday, I might offer you another waytoward beauty, or even beyond. (appeared in Potomac Review)When Beginning the Poemmay there be a listeningrather than a makingcuriosity over expectation,lightness and ease,no straining toward some glut of air.May you step aside like a watcher at the meadow’s edgeas the doefinds her way to the center. (this poem first appeared in Marrow of Summer from Kelsay Books.)

Andrea Potos is the author of seven full-length collections of poetry, most recently Her Joy Becomes (Fernwood Press), Marrow of Summer (Kelsay Books), and Mothershell (Kelsay Books).  Her poems can be found widely in print and online, most recently in The Sun, Braided Way, How to Love the World:  Poems of Gratitude and Hope (Storey Publishing), and The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy,  also from Storey Publishing.  She was a longtime bookseller in independent bookshops in Madison, Wisconsin where she lives, and still needs to live surrounded by books. 

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