any of these look familiar?

 

 

Move In Day



It's move in day.  David and I are starting to put our "stuff" into our 5th wheel which is parked in our daughter's sideyard.  We've been living in her spare bedroom since October so now we're feeling like we are taking up an extravagant amount of space.  And I've brought the wise guys over.  I took them out of their box and placed them in front of the kitchen window to ease them into their new digs.  So far they haven't said anything.  Can't tell if they are mad or in shock.  Plus I haven't quite figured out how to break the news that they missed the Feast of the Epiphany.  But they are the wise men.  They probably already know that.  Which explains the silence.

So I'll leave you with a quote from their Thomas Merton book - the only reading material they've had in their box for the last 3 months:


"When I am liberated by silence,
when I am no longer involved in the measurement of life,
but in the living of it,
I can discover a form of prayer in which there is effectively, no distraction.
My whole life becomes a prayer.
My whole silence is full of prayer.
The world of silence in which I am immersed contributes to my prayer."

-Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude, p.103

Happy New Year

I receive this email everyday from Inward/Outward: Church of the Savior....

and yesterday's’s is perfect in an “examen” sort of way:

Meaning, what were the consolations of your year? 

What were the desolations of your year?

I encourage each of us to set aside some time in the next couple of days

to ponder some (or all ) of these questions.

Share your thoughts with a friend. I am going to encourage my spiritual directees to do this too!


Year-ending, Year-beginning Elizabeth O'Connor Use New Year's Eve or New Year's Day as a time of reflection on the year gone and the year to come: What took place in your home relations? Your work relations? Your church relations? What events in the larger community of city, country and world most captured your attention?   Who were the significant people in your life? What books and art instructed your mind and heart?   Did you create anything this year? Did you make any new discoveries about yourself? How were you gift last year to a person, a community or an institution?   What was your greatest joy in this year gone? What was your greatest sorrow? What caused you the most disappointment? What caused you the most sadness?   In what areas of your life did you grow? Were these areas related to your joy or your pain?   What are your regrets? How would you do things differently, if you could live the year again? What did you learn?   Did you have a recurring dream? What theme or themes ran through your year?   Did you grow in your capacity to be a person in community--to bear your own burdens, to let others bear theirs? Did you have sufficient time apart with yourself?   Did you root your life more firmly in Scripture? Did you grow in your understanding of yourself? What was your most important insight? Did God seem near or far off?   How do you want to create the new year? What kind of commitment do you want to make to yourself? Your community? To the oppressed people of the world? How do the questions about commitment make you feel? Angry? Challenged? Hopeful?   Who are the people with whom you would like to deepen your relationships in the year to come? Do you have relationships that need to be healed? What can you do to heal your own heart? What can others do to assist in your healing?   Is there a special piece of inward work that you would like to accomplish? Is there a special outward work? What are the goals that seem important to you? What are your hopes? What are your fears? What are the immediate first steps that you can take toward the goals that seem important to you?   We might have a time of prayer in which to give thanks for all the events of the year gone, and to ask that the God through whose fingers they were filtered will continue to bless them to our use. They are now the bread of our life--part of all that we have to share with another when we share what is ours to give away. loan payday online 4 web 6payday 41 loan linkloans only 1 arm 5 interestcash loan 5 advance illinois5 loan consolidators best studentloan equity home 5.5loan fax no guaranteed 500with loan 9 payday no 6 Map Source: Letters to Scattered Pilgrims Add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up.

Growth means Change

 

People have asked, “Whatever happened to Roberta?” Well, I am still here! I find lots of wonderful things to post but never quite get around to actually putting them on my blog. This in part is due to my scattered sense of self as I continue to grasp all the changes my husband and I have recently gone through with our business, our family and our dreams.

Last Thanksgiving we were struggling with the idea of closing our business, dissolving a partnership, familial estrangement and the panic that comes with drowning in debt. That was one year ago. What looked hopeless in our eyes was not. So during this Thanksgiving meal we expressed our gratitude for all that has happened since that last Thanksgiving:

In January we closed the statuary, and the world did not end. It was actually a relief. Then we sold our house after 5 years on and off the market. This was a relief, both emotionally and financially. And because we are not quite sure how we want to live (i.e. move into a house, buy a 5^th wheel, etc.) we chose to accept our daughter Faith’s invitation to move in with her family. Talk about downsizing! We are now in the process of paying down debt, and waiting for whatever is next…..

But as often happens, life happens as you wait….and a fine life it is! David is working less and spending more weekends at home (which is a very good thing) and I am working more. I’m enjoying the C.N.A. life skill classes I teach at the college, and the sacred time I spend with my Spiritual Directees. I’m slowly edging away from my role as Director of Spiritual Formation at St. Paul’s as I have recently taken on the position of part-time Chaplain for Assured Hospice here in Sequim! I was not expecting this. But then again, one never expects the gifts God brings. I have so much to learn and look forward to more growth…and we especially give thanks for our recent reconnection with our estranged family members.

As for the blog, I will be posting Advent reflections (which start next week) and of course the Wise Men will be making their annual appearance. They have been with me through all the changes and they too have had to deal with changes – like losing their home on their shelf…you know what whiners they can be!

In the meantime, know that I think of all of you….every day….and am grateful for such wonderful people in my life….May we all be at peace with our own souls….and with one another….

Roberta

even the wise fear change

My wise guys are feeling some anxiety these days.

You see, we are in the process of moving and their window ledge, their home, is bare. 

 

Gone are the wee books of wisdom that they read together,

 

gone is the waving cat that they once mistook as Divine until they learned his secret,

 

 

and gone is the annoyingly arrogant leprechaun.

 

 This has created a mood of fear as you can see from the picture.

They remain huddled in the corner and no amount of coaxing will move them.

I feel their distress. Packing and purging are painful.

But, they will have to overcome their fear of the future, as will I.

For change involves risk, stepping out into the unknown.

But I will not let the wisemen step off their shelf unassisted.

I will carry them carefully to their new home,

wherever that may be.

change happens by love

"When you love something you wish it goodness;

when you hate something, you wish to annihilate it.

Change happens not by hatred but by love.

Change happens when you understand what you want to change so deeply

 that there is no reason to do anything but act in your own best interest.

When you begin to inhabit your body from the inside...

any other option except taking care of it is unthinkable."

Geneen Roth - Women, Food, and God, p. 121

fear is good

“Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign.

Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator.

Fear tells us what we have to do.

Remember our rule of thumb:

The more scared we are of a work or calling,

the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

Resistance is experienced as fear;

the degree of fear equates the strength of Resistance.

Therefore, the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise,

the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul.”

-Steven Pressfield – The War of Art

my first response to reading this quote was “ah shit!”

how about you?

practice

 

“You may wish to change your life,

you may be in therapy or religion,

but your new vision remains merely talk

until it enters the practice of your day.”

-John O’Donohue, Anam Cara

photo of beachfront in Kona,

where I pondered new visions

and the changes needed

for them to come to fruition

autumn change

"Change is a measure of time and,

in the autumn, time seems speeded up. 

What was is not and never again will be;

what is is change."-  Edwin Teale

Art - 'Seasons of Change - Autumn' by Sally Van Driest from here

anticipatory silence

"There are many kinds of silence to encounter in life,

but there is a particular and delicious terror

to the anticipatory silence that we create

from actually following our heart's desire."

- David Whyte

church as pilgrimage

"If the Church really sees itself as the people of God,

it is obvious that it can never be a static and supra-historical phenomenon,

which exists undisturbed by earthly space and historical time.

The Church is always and everywhere a living people,

gathered together from the peoples of this world

and journeying through the midst of time.

The Church is essentially en route, on a journey, a pilgrimage.

A Church which pitches its tents without looking out constantly for new horizons,

which does not continually strike camp, is being untrue to its calling."

-Hans Kung

from Inward/Outward

stuck in a rut?

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur

when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled.

For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort,

that we are likely to step out of our ruts

and start searching for different ways or truer answers."

~~Scott Peck

This man is going to need some help getting out of this rut!

I wonder what he will do?

roadblocks

Luke 9:51-62

In today's Gospel reading Luke tells us that "Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem." Talk about steadfast determination! Nothing was going to get in his way, neither villages that refused to welcome him, nor people with excuses as to why they could not set their faces toward their own Jerusalems. Of course Jesus didn't travel in a straight line toward his destiny, and neither do we, but he did get there and with God's help, so can we. So where and what is your Jerusalem? Are you distracted from it because of your other obligations, or like me, have you just been avoiding it?

the need for new glasses

"The key to our deepest happiness
lies in changing our vision

of where to find it."
- Sharon Salzberg

changing perspectives

Once in a while
it really hits people
that they don’t have to experience the world
in the way they have been told to.
– Alan Keightley

living or dead faith

"Tradition is the living faith

of dead people
to which we must add our chapter
while we have the gift of life.
Traditionalism is the dead faith

of living people
who fear that if anything changes,
the whole enterprise will crumble."

--Jaroslav Pelikan

Pilfered from here.