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portable silence: tethering to goodness
“…silence is above all a quality of the heart that can stay with us even in our conversations with others. It is a portable cell that we carry with us wherever we go. From it we speak to those in need and to it we return after our words have borne fruit.”—The Way of the…
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the wisdom of midlife fatigue
“Lindsay, when you run, you FLY!” The memory of my father’s words to me, 35 years ago or more, makes me smile. It also seems a little laughable now to think that my young, fit dad would have complimented the athletic prowess of his least athletic child. Even now, while he is in his 70s,…
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this is why it hurts
on belonging, fragmentation, and integration: a pondering, a poem, & a practice “If contemplation is about penetrating illusion and touching reality, why do we commiserate with others when they tell us about an experience that’s ‘disillusioned’ them? ‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ we’ll say. ‘Please, let me comfort you.’ Surely it would be better to say,…
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living the questions
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot now be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the…
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mallard in the middle [depression in the group chat]
/ mallard in the middle [depression in the group chat] The mallard in the middlegets all the good sleep.Seven ducks slept in a rowa few yards from the creek near our house,conspicuous as a red balloonfloating in a blue sky.They looked so vulnerableuntil I learnedthey can allow half their brain to sleepwhile the other half…
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for the women
Happy Women’s History Month and happy International Women’s Day! This is a poem I wrote a few years ago. Ladies, this is for you, for me, for us: for the womenA social media post that went viralasked women what they would doif there were no men on the planetfor 24 hours.The answers would make you…
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lessons from a cormorant
Lessons from a CormorantI’ve been taking lessonsfrom a cormorantat the creek near my house.Driven by her hunger,she dives deep, deep,below the surface.Today I saw her standingfor a long, long time,wings outstretched,and I wondered why she would dothis vulnerable thing.She seemed to be drying her wings,but that seemed absurd to me—a waterfowl whose wingsget waterlogged?I learned…
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2024 in books!
2024 was another year of beautiful, brilliant books! As always, many that I read were library books and/or audiobooks and/or Kindle books, but I rounded up some that I own as physical copies for the book stack pictures in this post. Below are my favorite nonfiction, fiction, and poetry books for the year with brief…
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contemplative book recommendations
Over and over, people I meet with in spiritual direction have said how much they love the readings I share in our sessions. The words of these gifted writers and prophets help us begin with a centering moment as we transition to a more contemplative space. They give me words of blessing to speak over…
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How to Prepare for the End of the World
How to Prepare for the End of the WorldListen.Come close.This is what we must do:Listen to the wind in the leaves,swaying Here and Thereas the trunk remains rooted.Come close enough to identify the spotted orbweaver.Observe her working steadilyat her silent task,which you may only see this time of year.Watch her drop down a barely visible…
Lindsay L. O'Connor
Spiritual Director | Enneagram Professional | Writer | Speaker
Lindsay L. O'Connor 