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
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 Dušan 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
This is one of my favourite poems.... Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.Ideas, language, even the phrase each otherdoesn't make any sense.Rumi Photo by Jed Villejo on Unsplash A Guided Meditation You'll need about … Continue reading Since we are stuck at home, why not take a walk on the inside?
Withdrawal For those who are still part of the working world, the structures of workday and weekend, of alarm clocks and meeting schedules, of performance reviews and annual whatnots give the impression that we are very busy and possibly also quite important. The fast pace of life, the expectations and restrictions, the challenges and successes … Continue reading Making space and changing pace
So, there is a holy play post simmering on the back burner and it may slip in at some point when I have a quiet week (!), but for now we are launching into term one of 2020. Over the summer I finally got around to reading The Grace in Aging by Kathleen Dowling Singh, … Continue reading New year, new post, new look at the same old path…
an unusual book club 