Singing Along the Journey

spiritual direction

Telling the Sacred Story, Part 2

This is part 2 of my personal exercise with sacred story, using the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis.  To read part 1, click here. I have one more way that my life resonates with the story of Jacob, one that tells the story of something that is not yet for me complete. And that story is in Gen 32:22-32, the famous overnight wrestling match. Interpreters disagree – was Jacob wrestling with God, or an Angel, or with himself or...? The text is not specific, leaving those of us reading the story some 2000 years later plenty of room for creative interpretation. That is not really the part…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
Read More

Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
Read More

Telling the sacred story, Part 1

This is the first of a series that began as an exercise -- a training exercise for those pursuing a call to spiritual companioning (or, as it is often called, spiritual direction).  Living into the charism of a listening ministry requires of all of us that we pursue, each and every day, the continued path of our own spiritual formation.  My telling of my own sacred story is a result of just that formation project and the kind of ongoing work that I do.  I heard wise words this morning, from the Rev. Michele H. Morgan at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  She was talking about the Gospel text of the…
Read More

Me and contemplative prayer — a love-hate relationship

I begin with this title because it is my truth.  As a spiritual director, I am often asked about contemplative prayer as a practice.  And, if I tell the truth about it, most of my own seeking life, I have danced a couple of different dances with these ideas, contemplation and contemplative prayer.  One dance looks like an angry Tarantella, with contemplation in the role of the spider.  The other dance looks a lot more like the pas de deux from a grand ballet.  In some situations, the idea of what it means to live in contemplation as expressed by teachers or groups has made me feel excluded, an outsider, because…
Read More

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More

Telling the Sacred Story, Part 2

This is part 2 of my personal exercise with sacred story, using the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis.  To read part 1, click here. I have one more way that my life resonates with the story of Jacob, one that tells the story of something that is not yet for me complete. And that story is in Gen 32:22-32, the famous overnight wrestling match. Interpreters disagree – was Jacob wrestling with God, or an Angel, or with himself or...? The text is not specific, leaving those of us reading the story some 2000 years later plenty of room for creative interpretation. That is not really the part…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
Read More

Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
Read More

Telling the sacred story, Part 1

This is the first of a series that began as an exercise -- a training exercise for those pursuing a call to spiritual companioning (or, as it is often called, spiritual direction).  Living into the charism of a listening ministry requires of all of us that we pursue, each and every day, the continued path of our own spiritual formation.  My telling of my own sacred story is a result of just that formation project and the kind of ongoing work that I do.  I heard wise words this morning, from the Rev. Michele H. Morgan at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  She was talking about the Gospel text of the…
Read More

Me and contemplative prayer — a love-hate relationship

I begin with this title because it is my truth.  As a spiritual director, I am often asked about contemplative prayer as a practice.  And, if I tell the truth about it, most of my own seeking life, I have danced a couple of different dances with these ideas, contemplation and contemplative prayer.  One dance looks like an angry Tarantella, with contemplation in the role of the spider.  The other dance looks a lot more like the pas de deux from a grand ballet.  In some situations, the idea of what it means to live in contemplation as expressed by teachers or groups has made me feel excluded, an outsider, because…
Read More

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More

Telling the Sacred Story, Part 2

This is part 2 of my personal exercise with sacred story, using the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis.  To read part 1, click here. I have one more way that my life resonates with the story of Jacob, one that tells the story of something that is not yet for me complete. And that story is in Gen 32:22-32, the famous overnight wrestling match. Interpreters disagree – was Jacob wrestling with God, or an Angel, or with himself or...? The text is not specific, leaving those of us reading the story some 2000 years later plenty of room for creative interpretation. That is not really the part…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
Read More

Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
Read More

Telling the sacred story, Part 1

This is the first of a series that began as an exercise -- a training exercise for those pursuing a call to spiritual companioning (or, as it is often called, spiritual direction).  Living into the charism of a listening ministry requires of all of us that we pursue, each and every day, the continued path of our own spiritual formation.  My telling of my own sacred story is a result of just that formation project and the kind of ongoing work that I do.  I heard wise words this morning, from the Rev. Michele H. Morgan at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  She was talking about the Gospel text of the…
Read More

Me and contemplative prayer — a love-hate relationship

I begin with this title because it is my truth.  As a spiritual director, I am often asked about contemplative prayer as a practice.  And, if I tell the truth about it, most of my own seeking life, I have danced a couple of different dances with these ideas, contemplation and contemplative prayer.  One dance looks like an angry Tarantella, with contemplation in the role of the spider.  The other dance looks a lot more like the pas de deux from a grand ballet.  In some situations, the idea of what it means to live in contemplation as expressed by teachers or groups has made me feel excluded, an outsider, because…
Read More

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More

Telling the Sacred Story, Part 2

This is part 2 of my personal exercise with sacred story, using the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis.  To read part 1, click here. I have one more way that my life resonates with the story of Jacob, one that tells the story of something that is not yet for me complete. And that story is in Gen 32:22-32, the famous overnight wrestling match. Interpreters disagree – was Jacob wrestling with God, or an Angel, or with himself or...? The text is not specific, leaving those of us reading the story some 2000 years later plenty of room for creative interpretation. That is not really the part…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
Read More

Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
Read More

Telling the sacred story, Part 1

This is the first of a series that began as an exercise -- a training exercise for those pursuing a call to spiritual companioning (or, as it is often called, spiritual direction).  Living into the charism of a listening ministry requires of all of us that we pursue, each and every day, the continued path of our own spiritual formation.  My telling of my own sacred story is a result of just that formation project and the kind of ongoing work that I do.  I heard wise words this morning, from the Rev. Michele H. Morgan at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  She was talking about the Gospel text of the…
Read More

Me and contemplative prayer — a love-hate relationship

I begin with this title because it is my truth.  As a spiritual director, I am often asked about contemplative prayer as a practice.  And, if I tell the truth about it, most of my own seeking life, I have danced a couple of different dances with these ideas, contemplation and contemplative prayer.  One dance looks like an angry Tarantella, with contemplation in the role of the spider.  The other dance looks a lot more like the pas de deux from a grand ballet.  In some situations, the idea of what it means to live in contemplation as expressed by teachers or groups has made me feel excluded, an outsider, because…
Read More

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More

Telling the Sacred Story, Part 2

This is part 2 of my personal exercise with sacred story, using the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis.  To read part 1, click here. I have one more way that my life resonates with the story of Jacob, one that tells the story of something that is not yet for me complete. And that story is in Gen 32:22-32, the famous overnight wrestling match. Interpreters disagree – was Jacob wrestling with God, or an Angel, or with himself or...? The text is not specific, leaving those of us reading the story some 2000 years later plenty of room for creative interpretation. That is not really the part…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
Read More

Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
Read More

Telling the sacred story, Part 1

This is the first of a series that began as an exercise -- a training exercise for those pursuing a call to spiritual companioning (or, as it is often called, spiritual direction).  Living into the charism of a listening ministry requires of all of us that we pursue, each and every day, the continued path of our own spiritual formation.  My telling of my own sacred story is a result of just that formation project and the kind of ongoing work that I do.  I heard wise words this morning, from the Rev. Michele H. Morgan at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  She was talking about the Gospel text of the…
Read More

Me and contemplative prayer — a love-hate relationship

I begin with this title because it is my truth.  As a spiritual director, I am often asked about contemplative prayer as a practice.  And, if I tell the truth about it, most of my own seeking life, I have danced a couple of different dances with these ideas, contemplation and contemplative prayer.  One dance looks like an angry Tarantella, with contemplation in the role of the spider.  The other dance looks a lot more like the pas de deux from a grand ballet.  In some situations, the idea of what it means to live in contemplation as expressed by teachers or groups has made me feel excluded, an outsider, because…
Read More

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More

Telling the Sacred Story, Part 2

This is part 2 of my personal exercise with sacred story, using the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis.  To read part 1, click here. I have one more way that my life resonates with the story of Jacob, one that tells the story of something that is not yet for me complete. And that story is in Gen 32:22-32, the famous overnight wrestling match. Interpreters disagree – was Jacob wrestling with God, or an Angel, or with himself or...? The text is not specific, leaving those of us reading the story some 2000 years later plenty of room for creative interpretation. That is not really the part…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
Read More

Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
Read More

Telling the sacred story, Part 1

This is the first of a series that began as an exercise -- a training exercise for those pursuing a call to spiritual companioning (or, as it is often called, spiritual direction).  Living into the charism of a listening ministry requires of all of us that we pursue, each and every day, the continued path of our own spiritual formation.  My telling of my own sacred story is a result of just that formation project and the kind of ongoing work that I do.  I heard wise words this morning, from the Rev. Michele H. Morgan at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  She was talking about the Gospel text of the…
Read More

Me and contemplative prayer — a love-hate relationship

I begin with this title because it is my truth.  As a spiritual director, I am often asked about contemplative prayer as a practice.  And, if I tell the truth about it, most of my own seeking life, I have danced a couple of different dances with these ideas, contemplation and contemplative prayer.  One dance looks like an angry Tarantella, with contemplation in the role of the spider.  The other dance looks a lot more like the pas de deux from a grand ballet.  In some situations, the idea of what it means to live in contemplation as expressed by teachers or groups has made me feel excluded, an outsider, because…
Read More

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More

Telling the Sacred Story, Part 2

This is part 2 of my personal exercise with sacred story, using the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis.  To read part 1, click here. I have one more way that my life resonates with the story of Jacob, one that tells the story of something that is not yet for me complete. And that story is in Gen 32:22-32, the famous overnight wrestling match. Interpreters disagree – was Jacob wrestling with God, or an Angel, or with himself or...? The text is not specific, leaving those of us reading the story some 2000 years later plenty of room for creative interpretation. That is not really the part…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
Read More

Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
Read More

Telling the sacred story, Part 1

This is the first of a series that began as an exercise -- a training exercise for those pursuing a call to spiritual companioning (or, as it is often called, spiritual direction).  Living into the charism of a listening ministry requires of all of us that we pursue, each and every day, the continued path of our own spiritual formation.  My telling of my own sacred story is a result of just that formation project and the kind of ongoing work that I do.  I heard wise words this morning, from the Rev. Michele H. Morgan at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  She was talking about the Gospel text of the…
Read More

Me and contemplative prayer — a love-hate relationship

I begin with this title because it is my truth.  As a spiritual director, I am often asked about contemplative prayer as a practice.  And, if I tell the truth about it, most of my own seeking life, I have danced a couple of different dances with these ideas, contemplation and contemplative prayer.  One dance looks like an angry Tarantella, with contemplation in the role of the spider.  The other dance looks a lot more like the pas de deux from a grand ballet.  In some situations, the idea of what it means to live in contemplation as expressed by teachers or groups has made me feel excluded, an outsider, because…
Read More

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More

Telling the Sacred Story, Part 2

This is part 2 of my personal exercise with sacred story, using the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis.  To read part 1, click here. I have one more way that my life resonates with the story of Jacob, one that tells the story of something that is not yet for me complete. And that story is in Gen 32:22-32, the famous overnight wrestling match. Interpreters disagree – was Jacob wrestling with God, or an Angel, or with himself or...? The text is not specific, leaving those of us reading the story some 2000 years later plenty of room for creative interpretation. That is not really the part…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
Read More

Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
Read More

Telling the sacred story, Part 1

This is the first of a series that began as an exercise -- a training exercise for those pursuing a call to spiritual companioning (or, as it is often called, spiritual direction).  Living into the charism of a listening ministry requires of all of us that we pursue, each and every day, the continued path of our own spiritual formation.  My telling of my own sacred story is a result of just that formation project and the kind of ongoing work that I do.  I heard wise words this morning, from the Rev. Michele H. Morgan at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  She was talking about the Gospel text of the…
Read More

Me and contemplative prayer — a love-hate relationship

I begin with this title because it is my truth.  As a spiritual director, I am often asked about contemplative prayer as a practice.  And, if I tell the truth about it, most of my own seeking life, I have danced a couple of different dances with these ideas, contemplation and contemplative prayer.  One dance looks like an angry Tarantella, with contemplation in the role of the spider.  The other dance looks a lot more like the pas de deux from a grand ballet.  In some situations, the idea of what it means to live in contemplation as expressed by teachers or groups has made me feel excluded, an outsider, because…
Read More

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More

Telling the Sacred Story, Part 2

This is part 2 of my personal exercise with sacred story, using the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis.  To read part 1, click here. I have one more way that my life resonates with the story of Jacob, one that tells the story of something that is not yet for me complete. And that story is in Gen 32:22-32, the famous overnight wrestling match. Interpreters disagree – was Jacob wrestling with God, or an Angel, or with himself or...? The text is not specific, leaving those of us reading the story some 2000 years later plenty of room for creative interpretation. That is not really the part…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
Read More

Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
Read More

Telling the sacred story, Part 1

This is the first of a series that began as an exercise -- a training exercise for those pursuing a call to spiritual companioning (or, as it is often called, spiritual direction).  Living into the charism of a listening ministry requires of all of us that we pursue, each and every day, the continued path of our own spiritual formation.  My telling of my own sacred story is a result of just that formation project and the kind of ongoing work that I do.  I heard wise words this morning, from the Rev. Michele H. Morgan at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  She was talking about the Gospel text of the…
Read More

Me and contemplative prayer — a love-hate relationship

I begin with this title because it is my truth.  As a spiritual director, I am often asked about contemplative prayer as a practice.  And, if I tell the truth about it, most of my own seeking life, I have danced a couple of different dances with these ideas, contemplation and contemplative prayer.  One dance looks like an angry Tarantella, with contemplation in the role of the spider.  The other dance looks a lot more like the pas de deux from a grand ballet.  In some situations, the idea of what it means to live in contemplation as expressed by teachers or groups has made me feel excluded, an outsider, because…
Read More

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More

Telling the Sacred Story, Part 2

This is part 2 of my personal exercise with sacred story, using the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis.  To read part 1, click here. I have one more way that my life resonates with the story of Jacob, one that tells the story of something that is not yet for me complete. And that story is in Gen 32:22-32, the famous overnight wrestling match. Interpreters disagree – was Jacob wrestling with God, or an Angel, or with himself or...? The text is not specific, leaving those of us reading the story some 2000 years later plenty of room for creative interpretation. That is not really the part…
Read More

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
Read More

Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
Read More

Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
Read More

Telling the sacred story, Part 1

This is the first of a series that began as an exercise -- a training exercise for those pursuing a call to spiritual companioning (or, as it is often called, spiritual direction).  Living into the charism of a listening ministry requires of all of us that we pursue, each and every day, the continued path of our own spiritual formation.  My telling of my own sacred story is a result of just that formation project and the kind of ongoing work that I do.  I heard wise words this morning, from the Rev. Michele H. Morgan at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  She was talking about the Gospel text of the…
Read More

Me and contemplative prayer — a love-hate relationship

I begin with this title because it is my truth.  As a spiritual director, I am often asked about contemplative prayer as a practice.  And, if I tell the truth about it, most of my own seeking life, I have danced a couple of different dances with these ideas, contemplation and contemplative prayer.  One dance looks like an angry Tarantella, with contemplation in the role of the spider.  The other dance looks a lot more like the pas de deux from a grand ballet.  In some situations, the idea of what it means to live in contemplation as expressed by teachers or groups has made me feel excluded, an outsider, because…
Read More

Your brain is social…

As Paul Costello, President and Founder of the New Story Leadership project, looked out at the crowd last night in Baxter Hall, he said to all of us assembled there, “Stories can imprison, or stories can empower.” And for the next two hours, we sat and listened to the 2017 fellows of NLS, five 20-somethings from Palestine, 5 from Israel, as they told us their stories – what brought them there, their struggles, their triumphs, their memories, their hopes and dreams for the future.  They told us about a world and a life that we only read about; they were brave and confident and, dare I say, filled with just…
Read More

Maybe this is the explanation…

If you meet me at a party and ask me the great American question, you know the "what do you do with yourself" question, you could get a variety of answers, depending on my mood, the phase of the moon, the day of the week...you get the idea.   Someone who has accepted that her life is a tapestry of things has a few choices when she responds to that question. However, if you find me in a particularly brave state, you might get this answer:  I am busy living into a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. This is the answer that is closest to my heart, and…
Read More

Primary questions…

In these past years of living into my call as someone who walks alongside others on their spiritual journey, I’ll admit that I have struggled with the idea of where to begin.  Not where to begin with my training, which is fruitful and ongoing, but about where to begin when someone actually finds you and takes the trouble to come to you and sit in the chair across from you.  Yes, training courses teach you all about conducting an initial interview, creating a working covenant, outlining the ways in which you approach spiritual direction, and so forth, but there always comes that moment when your new friend's face looks at you…
Read More