We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us. MARCEL PROUST
I am settling into 2021 with a selection of books I am so excited to read that I am having trouble choosing where to start. Lucky me! This afternoon I am in my study, sorting things out, doing a little work, browsing through my shelves, reflecting on the past year and what lies ahead - … Continue reading New. Now.
Photo by Meg Jerrard on Unsplash The resources As you read through the descriptions of the types, you may have found a few that sounded like they might be you. Many people take a while to figure out which type is really their home style, so if you aren't yet convinced that the descriptors have … Continue reading Following the clues
Photo by Elisabeth Wales on Unsplash The Resources The nine type descriptions function as archetypes, giving us broad brush stroke icons of the styles. You can find a good resource to read up on each of the types at the enneagram institute. It is helpful if you have narrowed down which number you think you … Continue reading More clues for finding your type
image from wikimedia commons The resources Personality- the mask and the method One of the themes that arose for me from our slow engagement with the Grace in Aging book was this whole idea of getting behind and underneath the stories we tell about others, about ourselves and to ourselves. Again and again author Suzanne … Continue reading Exploring the Enneagram
The resources The more or less final chapter of the Grace in Aging is about commitment. If you are like me, you'll have memories of youth camps with 'commitment talk' nights where the speaker told a story that ended in a stark and crucial choice. The choice made that night meant the difference between eternal … Continue reading Commit to the sit
Image by esther1721 from Pixabay The Resources "If we look even a tiny bit below the surface of our robotic habits of body, speech and mind, most of us would have to admit that we feel lost much of the time". So begins the chapter on presence. I wonder what brings you into awareness of … Continue reading Coming home to Presence
The Resources Having recognised the desire and intention to live awake and wholehearted, we also recognise the need to commit to the practice of attending to the places where we fall asleep in habits and patterns of thinking and reacting that limit how authentically we can show up to ourselves and to others. The spiritual … Continue reading Humility: embracing ordinary
The Resources This week I listened to Brene Brown's two part conversation with Harriet Lerner on the art of apologising. You can listen to it here. I found it very insightful and also thought provoking in light of the next chapter in Kathleen Dowling Singh's The Grace in Aging, which focusses on forgiveness as liberation … Continue reading Forgiveness – freedom from judgement
Resources part 1 I have definitely paused before beginning this exploration of solitude because of all the difficulties raised by lockdown. Some of us locked in with more contact than we can sustain without nurturing 'alone time'; some of us locked in without the company we need to energise us; some of us experiencing real … Continue reading Solitude: loneliness and aloneness
Photo by DuĊĦan Smetana on Unsplash The Resources A lectio on lockdown The lockdown here in New Zealand has forced most of us - except essential workers - to move to a different rhythm and at a different pace from our usual (whatever that may have been). We have been limited to a bubble of relationships and pushed … Continue reading Silence and the art of discerning
