Tag: Contemplative Life
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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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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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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…
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how to sustain work rooted in love
For our work in the world to be grounded, sustainable, & rooted in love, we must continually attend to our inner work. Inner work includes healing from white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, homophobia, etc (systems of oppression harm oppressed & oppressors in different ways). Examples of inner work:
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using the enneagram in discernment
The Enneagram is a helpful tool that can point to specific red and green flags for discernment. While there is endless diversity among people of the same Enneagram type, sometimes groupings around commonalities are helpful, especially regarding the three centers of intelligence: thinking (logic/objectivity), feeling (feelings and motives of self and others), and doing (purposeful,…
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books for women’s history month
Happy Women’s History Month!🎉 These are some amazing books by/for/about women. We #ReadWomen all year long, but we celebrate extra in March🙌🏻 1. Pushout by Monique W. Morris 2. All About Love by bell hooks 3. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 4. Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith 5. The Body is Not an Apology…
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Ash Wednesday Valentine
Some days Some days Some days… I go for a walk Just to listen for the poetry that surrounds me. If I listen closely, I hear the poetry that you’re speaking. I talked to a stranger as we beheld together a perfect cloudless blue sky— even saw two butterflies, though it’s winter. Tell that to…
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savior complex
O God, Be to my loved one what I have been trying to be but cannot. This is the prayer that surfaced while I had a precious 30 minutes alone for a walk this morning. Particularly for those of us who have more porous boundaries (empaths, HSPs, Enneagram numbers in the dependent stance, folks who…
Lindsay L. O'Connor 