prefer truth

It's ironic that my last post from August says "be here now" and yet I've been everywhere but here! 

As life unfolds I'm willing to go where Spirit leads. 

Today she led me to the blog and this photo of Morse Creek in Port Angeles, WA. 

I discovered the quote in Richard Rohr's Immortal Diamond.

May your path lead you to truth. 

 

 

 

 

"Christ likes us to prefer truth to himself,

because before being Christ, he is truth.

If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth,

one will not go far before falling into his arms.

 

- Simone Weil, Waiting for God

offer a space

"We cannot change the world by a new plan, project or idea.

We cannot even change other people

by our convictions, stories, advice & proposals,

but we can offer a space where people are encouraged to disarm themselves,

lay aside their occupations and preoccupations and listen with attention & care

to the voices speaking in their own center." - Henry Nouwen

This is an excellent definition of spiritual direction,

and it's true, we can all offer a space to listen to one another.

photo of the fountain in my backyard

Prayer for My Enemies

The following prayer is from the end of the sermon I preached yesterday. 

The prayer is based on Matthew 5:43-45 in which Jesus expands 

"love your neighbor" into "love your enemies"

and oh yes, pray for them too! 

"Thank you for enemies Lord, for they drive me back to you in prayer.

Thank you God for your sun that rises on everyone.

May it bring warmth and comfort to my enemies today.

Bless them Lord.  Heal the hurts in their lives just as you heal mine.

Give me the grace to show your love to them today.

Thank you God for this rain that you have sent to quench your earth.

May it quench the thirst of my enemies today.

Bless them Lord.  And as you have forgiven me,

May your Spirit give me the grace I need to forgive my enemies today.

Thank you for these tangible reminders that your grace is bestowed on all.

And when the pain of hurt and hatred begin to overwhelm me,

and I consider seeking solace in resentment and revenge,

may your Holy Spirit direct me to the only place I can receive true comfort

and healing - in your loving embrace.  Amen"

Roberta Hiday, Spiritual Director

Sequim, Washington

Haiku - The Sacred Art

Yesterday I had the joy of joining my friend Margaret McGee at Seattle University's 3rd Annual "Search for Meaning Book Festival." Margaret provided a workshop on her book, "Haiku, A Spiritual Practice in Three Lines," and I spoke briefly on the use of Haiku in Spiritual Direction.  There's something about spending the night in the big city where people are actually eating dinner after 9pm that does a rural woman's soul some good.

There were 2 keynote speakers: Anne Lamott, author of fiction and non-fiction was excellent and funny, and Tariq Ramadan, professor of Islamic studies at Oxford, was intriguing to say the least.  It's also great to run into people you haven't seen in a few years, and to end the day engaged in great conversation with a dear friend during the 2 hour drive home.  Did I mention that this Book Festival is FREE.  Yep...So mark your calendars for next February. 

So I leave you with a couple of quotes from Margaret's book and several Haikus:  "A haiku expresses the heart of a moment in a few brief lines.  Using images and senses, a haiku brings feeling to life... A haiku is a form of instant communion.  A haiku involves an exchange of sensory experience: taste and touch, bread and wine.  In haiku, the experince is shared in a few brief words, offering both the feeling of the moment and the insight that we are not alone." (p.9 Haiku-the sacred art by Margaret McGee)  And here is one of my favorites: "Haiku is a way to let God know we are paying attention."

shown a flower

a small baby

opens its mouth

         -Seifu-ni (1731-1814

a bitter morning:

sparrows sitting together

without any necks

         -James W. Hackett

WiseMen @ SDI

For those who have wondered what the Wise Men

were up to during the Spiritual Direction Conference,

they were quite studious during the day,

politely listening to speakers & taking it all in...

And while the first evening started out well enough,

with their guarding the Guinness,

just the way they did in Dublin...

by the time Saturday night rolled around,

things started to unravel...

BIG TIME!

Blame it on the Alcohol....

blowing the dust away

There is an old African proverb that states that Antelope walk together in pairs in order to blow the dust from one another's eyes.  

I was listening to a CD from the SDI seminar in which a speaker mentioned that this was a perfect metaphor for what Spiritual Directors do. We don't direct anyone. Instead, we journey beside a person helping them remove the dust, in order to see more clearly what was already there. And we are all Spiritual Directors for one another.

God's Wild Generosity

As I head out tomorrow for the Spiritual Directors International Conference in Dublin, Ireland, I thought it appropriate to leave you with a wonderful quote from Alan Jones on the art of Spiritual Direction...

God's Wild Generosity

"The ancient art of spiritual direction is a way of affirming the simple truth of God's wild generosity. The spiritual director or friend of the soul is someone who listens to us lovingly and accurately and, by the gift of caring attention, reveals to us God's open heart. As such, spiritual direction has political and social implications of tremendous importance because it is, of its very essence, an antidote to violence. It is a strategy of inner disarmament — the dismantling of the arsenal of destruction we amass inside ourselves." Alan Jones— Exploring Spiritual Direction (photo by Brian Bragdon, who attended MHGS at the same time I did and who traveled to Ireland in 2003.)

Make it Work!

I'm a huge fan of Project Runway. I especially enjoy Tim Gunn's famous line "Make it Work" which he uses to encourage the designers as they frantically race the clock to complete their next design projects. This may be just the incentive an aspiring designer needs to hear - however, in the practice of Spiritual Direction the directive to "make it work" can only spell "disaster".

Sometimes people seek Spiritual Direction because they are stuck in their relationship with God. They want new tools, new prayers, and new insights that will somehow get them back on track or "make their relationship with God work". I suppose this comes from our consumerist-oriented society. We can buy just about anything we want & we want what's easy and what works for us. (i.e. Did you know that most people choose a church based on the accessibility of parking?) So why not apply those principles to our spiritual lives?

Because spiritual growth can be long, slow, and at times tedious. The Holy Spirit cannot be manipulated. There will be times of delight where the presence of God is palatable and times of darkness, where one feels as though they've drifted off alone to sea. These will be times of waiting. I'm in one at the moment. And I'm hearing a great amount of silence. This brings up feelings of anxiousness as my ego demands that I not only make a choice, but the RIGHT choice. And yet, these feelings of fear are a reminder that I'm living in my head again. Life is not found there but in the letting go of what I believe brings life (that would be control). I can't make my life "work" yet I have difficulty letting this idea go.

Spiritual growth is in no way linear. It's fluid, circular, and always in motion. Spiritual Direction is about relaxing into that way of thinking and being. It's a call into deeper relationship with the Divine and with one another. So if your spiritual life is not "working" for you perhaps it's time to let go of what you thought would bring you life and engage in the rich and nuanced adventure of what we are all called to - which is to love and love and love and love.

waiting for that next bar to appear

"It is as if we are all on a trapeze, swinging. Just as we become comfortable on one bar we have to let go, and wait, our feet firmly planted in mid-air, for the other bar to come into our grasp.
We can only let go, wait, and recover, because someone on the ground is shouting encouragement to us: "You can do it." God is the source of that encouragement, but the director is often the means for that encouragement to be heard and heeded."

Katherine M. Dyckman, SNJM

Meditate

Sometimes when I suggest meditation to my clients as a way to become more fully present there is at least a smigden of resistance :) Many believe that if they can't do it perfectly then why bother? Listen to what Francis de Sales has to say about that and be encouraged. I know he mentions a "meditation hour" but just one minute is a worthy goal. You can always add another minute tomorrow.

"Even if you do nothing in your meditation hour but bring your heart back gently a thousand times, though it went away each time again, your meditation is a success." St. Francis de Sales

photo found at: http://www.meditation.ac.nz/

Spiritual Direction vs. Counseling

People often ask me what the difference is between spiritual direction and counseling.
There are so many answers to that question. Here is just one of them....

"Spiritual directors [as opposed to counselors] make their empathic focus not primarily the other person
but the Spirit. This means that
the spiritual director's goal
is not primarily to understand
how the person seeking direction feels. Nor is it to enter the person's experience and see the world as he or she does. Rather, it is to help the person come more closely in touch with the Spirit of God…. the empathic focus of the director is not primarily the other person but the Spirit of God."

(Sacred Companions, David G. Benner, p. 93)

Spiritual Direction

This poem came from my dear Celtic Christianity instructor, Tom Cashman. It was written by Carol K. Everson, who dedicated it to Lin Cashman, her Spiritual Director. If you are curious as to what can occur in a Spiritual Direction session, then this is for you...

Spiritual Direction

She traces the sign of the cross
with oil on my forehead.
She blesses me in the name
of all the God names that we share,
a triple trinity born of past analogies,
metaphors, and hard-won truths.

Then she listens,
deeply, completely, thoroughly,
as I ramble on about the things
that God has done and shown
and not done and hidden,
saying things I didn't know I knew
about things I didn't know mattered.

She asks a a question: "What is God trying to tell you?"

Yet again, I have forgotten to ask the obvious.
And the simple questions are the hardest to answer.
I glance at the small altar with the picture of Jesus.
I look out the window at a varied thrush
drinking from a terracotta bowl.
What is God trying to tell me?

She waits as silence spreads ever outward
engulfing the whole world.

Absentmindedly, I wipe my brow,
surprised to feel the fragrant oil-slick.
Now I know!
God is trying to tell me that,
even if I never know the answer,
even if I never remember to ask the question,

I am blessed.

Carol K. Everson