The Home Altar

The grounds of St. Clare House are a messy mix of leftover snow, ice, and newly formed mud, as the late winter sunshine begins the transformation of the ground. It’s far too early for other signs of impending spring like snow blossoming flowers or buds on trees and shrubs. Rather it’s a squishy, slippery work in progress. Early today a couple of us cleared the mound of snow and ice from the back porch. There was chopping, scraping, and heaving. It was a pretty good workout.

This landscape makes for a pretty powerful Lentscape. We are most definitely not in Spring. At the same time, the warmer air tells me we’re not precisely in Winter either. We’re somewhere in between. The preparatory and penitential seasons of the liturgical calendar tend to work this way. Definitely not the festival or season we’ve left behind, certainly not the upcoming feast either.

Rather, we experience the melt, the sogginess, the mush, and the necessity of getting rid of what needs to go, and the reality that only patient presence will get us through this transition. This can be hard, especially with the last of the roof-bound ice and snow crashing down, the large, lazy puddles, the mind’s desire to race ahead and begin projects and preparations on a ground that is nowhere close to ready.

To say nothing of the longing to escape into the gardens or the earth-keeping as the news of war, rumors of bigger war, and calamities of growing proportion keep crashing down like that stubborn ice. Even so, we remain caught up in the present moment, with all of the very real and uncertain things that are swirling about. If a part of Lent is preparing to bear witness to the suffering and violence of the crucifixion, and in contrast God’s enduring love, then we have plenty of crucified neighbors, neighborhoods, and far-flung members of the human family who are giving us the opportunity to prepare our hearts and hands for both witness and loving action.

Let us attend during this season of change, some slower than we want, some faster than we can keep up with, to the unique gift of each moment. As we discern what is ours to do in the midst of mud and ice, seeking the well-being of our neighbors and the earth, we have an amazing opportunity to still be mindfully and heartfully attentive when the next sign of new life emerges.

Be gentle with yourself, you are worth it.

Peace and Everything Good,

The Rev. JM Longworth, OEF Spiritual Direction and Trauma Care

https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/GreenMtFriarOEF/ To book an appointment: https://calendly.com/greenmtfriaroef

The ordained ministries in Christian communities tend to fall along one of three structures. There is the historic threefold office of ministry which holds that deacons, priests, and bishops are three orders of interrelated ministry. Within this system, ordination is successive, which means that to be a bishop, one must already be a priest, and to be a priest, one must already be a deacon. It was only in the latter part of the 20th century that many traditions fully recovered the permanent diaconate as a full formed and lifelong form of ministry. There were distinct one-way rituals that marked the movement from one order to another.

 

Some Mainline Protestant denominations embraced a simpler two-fold definition of ordained ministry, with one option being the Ministry of Word & Service, which is roughly equivalent to the permanent diaconate, and the other being the Ministry of Word & Sacrament, which is most analogous to the priesthood, though some of these ministers serve in institutional roles as executive presbyters/bishops/presidents. The office of adjudicatory leader is a different form of Word & Sacrament, not a distinct order of ministry. The formation track is parallel for the two groups, and one does not lead to the other. Though it might be fair to address that there is often pressure for candidates for ministry to choose Word & Sacrament because of a perceived or actual clergy shortage.

 

Finally, other Christian denominations and associations hold to a single order of ordained ministry, effectively an authorization to preach and preside within the community. The diaconate is understood to be a form of lay ministry, with deacons serving as the mission and service leaders in a congregation, while Trustees (or a similar title) handles the fiduciary and management responsibilities. Sometimes this onefold ministry is understood as further specialized using the five-fold ministries of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, which include a mix of ordained and lay roles, but all of which are meant for building up the people of God. These include apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Each of these roles is grounded primarily in a Ministry of the Word, but with different emphasis like planting/founding, radical truth telling, reaching new people outside the faith, spiritually caring for people in a congregation, and offering both initial and lifelong formation.

 

While I was ordained into the two-fold ministry structure and followed the path of the Ministry of Word and Sacrament, I have been exploring new language to articulate where I find myself at this moment in my life and spiritual journey. I find myself drawn to the idea of a ministry like one of the fivefold roles, because it can be done by a layperson or by someone ordained. My working title is Ministry of Word and Wonder. In some of my professional spaces I use the idea of a worker-priest or a chaplain because I am ordained, but I do not have a congregation in my care now. Rather, I have circles of community, like my unhoused neighbors, other social workers I serve with, the people of my home city, the siblings of the order, my colleagues at Bethany House of Prayer, and my colleagues at SDI. The Ministry of Word and Wonder includes a deep grounding in sacred story (scripture, history, the stories of each person I meet, my own unfolding experience of the divine, and the wondrous insights I have gained through life in community). It involves bringing contemplative curiosity to those stories and to the present moment, without clinging to easy explanations or anxiously desired futures.

 

The Ministry of Word and Wonder is the focus of my rule of life. When I help others construct a rule, I try to help them focus much less on “What do I do? What should I do? What do I wish I would do?”, and much more on “Who am I meant to be?” and “How do I want to be?” An embodied approach of identity, principle, and values can be applied to a nearly infinite number of practices. This working title embodies those questions for me. I am a storyteller, story-keeper, and affirming witness. I am a gentle nurturer who listens for the sacred in what is present. I am anchored in a dialectical relationship that goes from Gospel to Life, and Life to Gospel. I move towards my favorite self (seeing in me what delights God), when I am curious, open, asking open ended questions, exploring, and searching for new ways to love the world and all creatures.

 

So, yes, I write and ponder, I listen and reflect, I mirror and challenge, I mentor, I sometimes preach, I often teach, I try to tell the truth in love. I preside at the table or in other ways when invited, and I offer myself in service to my many circles of community. All held deeply in the sacredness of the Word and the joy of Wondering.

 

Practice

• What words would you use to describe your ministry in daily life?
• How do these words interact with your other senses of calling (work, relationships, family life, community life, etc.)?
• Spend some time journaling with “Who am I meant to be?” and “How do I want to be?”
• Give thanks for the many kinds of ministers and servants in your life!

Be gentle with yourself, you are worth it.

Peace and Everything Good,

The Rev. JM Longworth, OEF Spiritual Direction and Trauma Care

https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/GreenMtFriarOEF/ To book an appointment: https://calendly.com/greenmtfriaroef

I’m trying to take a slower path through Lent, which means I’ve adjusted my prayer resources to prize spaciousness and reflection over verbiage and repetition. I still have my various prayer beads and breath prayers if I want to spend time in a meditative rhythm, but the extended silence, journaling, and wonder have felt just right thus far.

In place of my usual daily office resources, I’m using the book pictured above (Wondrous Encounters: Scipture for Lent by Richard Rohr) for a daily reading that anchors me in a theme and question from the day’s lectionary and the book pictured below ( The Methodist Book of Daily Prayer edited by Matt Miofsky) to provide pillars of morning and evening prayer. I especially like the focus each day of thinking about intercessions and petitions as the day begins, and closing out the day’s work with prayers of gratitude. This pattern encourages me to pick up the necessary, the possible, and perhaps even the impossible each day and see what unfolds in addressing these needs. At the end of the day, I feel a corresponding encouragement to give thanks for what God has done in me, through me, around me, and beyond me!

Alongside these readings, I continue to benefit from the Ignatian audio meditations found at Pray as You Go, and my practice of centering prayer. The great paradox of Lent is that we make room for bearing witness to suffering, rejection, pain, and loss, things we frequently try to avoid or tamp down. It is in and through this space holding that we find the passion and compassion of God making space for life, promise, resurrection, and transformation. Unless we are prepared to hold these opposing energies together and bear witness to what emerges, the season can pass us by without really cracking us open.

I hope that if you’re embracing this penitential season or another like it, that you are finding ways to go more slowly and really be present to what is unfolding.

Practice

• How fast am I going right now?
• What would it look like to go 3% slower?
• What might emerge in that space?
• Where do I notice myself becoming more aware of the moment and setting down my preoccupation with the past and the future?
• What does it feel like to hold two (or more) things at once in my body?
• How can pray alongside paradox and mystery?

Be gentle with yourself, you are worth it.

Peace and Everything Good,

The Rev. JM Longworth, OEF Spiritual Direction and Trauma Care

https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/GreenMtFriarOEF/ To book an appointment: https://calendly.com/greenmtfriaroef

Last week I wrote encountering music, singing along, and even quiet reflection while listening as a form of prayer and practice. This week I want to continue that thread with the idea of using headphones to listen to guided meditations through an app or website. There are many of these tools available, some specifically religious in tone, others more secular, and some a mix of those two modes. I have found both for myself and for many of the people I work with, finding deep silence and stillness in the midst of a busy day is hard.

On vacation, or on retreat, or even while we are traveling long distance often creates enough distance from the noise of our daily environment to pause and be reflective. There can even be moments of genuine presence and simply consenting to the power of that moment. At home, at work, in the throes of our daily obligations, it can be hard to create that moment of pause and just be.

There are a lot of sites and tools, some of which only really function with a paid subscription, others of which are free, and still others that offer a pay-what-you-can donation model. I haven’t tried or vetted every one of these tools, but I will offer a starting list for you to explore, and then I’ll speak about three that I do use with some regularity.

I offer these tools with the caveat of my learning from David A Treleaven, author of Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, that meditation is not a substitute for comprehensive mental health care,and that for people with histories of trauma and complex trauma, silent meditation can actually exacerbate symptoms of traumatic recall. There are a lot of wonderful adaptations in the book, and I’d recommend you review them with your therapist or psychiatrist as well as any meditation instructor you work with.

Headspace

Anchored for the most part in a Buddhist mindfulness framework, Headspace is a great tool for beginners learning how to meditate. There are so many exercises to try, from brief reflections for particular times of day, to breathing practices, and semi-guided periods of silent meditation as well. I have been using headspace off and on for about four years now thanks to a subscription that my employer has provided. I enjoy the short form recordings and videos, the breath-work, and even some of the guided meditations, though I have found things like topical webinars, multi-week courses, and the mood trackers less useful for my own practice.

Pray as You Go

This tool is offered by the Jesuit outreach ministry (cue religious order trope joke here) in the United Kingdom. Pray as You Go offers daily audio meditations that include sacred music, lectio divina or sacred reading where we listen to scripture in a prayerful and heartful way, and Ignatian imagination exercises where we are invited to use silent pauses to enter the story, relate to various characters and settings, and explore the passage “from the inside”. After a period of such reflection, the passage is read again, now illumined with our wondering, followed by a time of prayer and intercession for what has arisen during the meditation. The content changes daily, with the addition of an examination of consciousness on Saturday to shift to mode of practice reflection on the week’s prayers.

Centering Prayer

Offered by the good folks at Contemplative Outreach, the Centering Prayer app offers a simple way to engage in this very old practice that dates back to The Cloud of Unknowing, and was revived in the 1970’s and taught by Christian monastics like Thomas Keating and M. Basil Pennington.

The app provides the guidelines, an opening prayer to read, a gentle sound to help us relax into the silence, a timer for the silence, and a gentle sound to welcome us back. Afterwards there is a spot for a short closing prayer. This is minimally guided meditation, as the majority of the time is spent in silence, being heartfully open to what arises, while clinging to none of it. The mind and any thoughts are put compassionately to rest with the soft recall of a single sacred word that is an expression of consent to be in the presence of God. the cadence recommended for this particular practice is a morning and an evening session.

These three are a small but mighty sampling of the tools available for ways to pray with your headphones on. I appreciate the way that they help to muffle the sound of the environment for a moment or two, giving me the gracious pause that helps my practice to really breathe deep.

Be gentle with yourself, you are worth it.

Peace and Everything Good,

The Rev. JM Longworth, OEF Spiritual Direction and Trauma Care

https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/GreenMtFriarOEF/ To book an appointment: https://calendly.com/greenmtfriaroef

The prayerful and meditative quality of music is hard to miss. Over the course of my life I’ve had the joy of hearing some incredible sacred music. The college where I finished my undergraduate degree had both a phenomenal choir and a real mechanical carillon that two of the music directors would play for concerts in the summer. In addition, during my time there, a community of Tibetan Buddhist nuns helped introduce my ears to their method of chant.

I’ve served in a regional cathedral church which had a glorious tracker organ and a very proficient choir, not to mention choristers and junior choristers learning the arts of sacred music as children. This existed side by side with a preschool, and summer camps where cheerful praise songs were belted out a cappella or to the strumming of a guitar.

In my previous congregation and in the street mission where I served, we experimented with audio meditations on Saturday and Thursday nights. We were constantly seeking the songs and sounds that would invite the partcipants into a state of sacred awareness, presence, and attunement with awe. To say nothing of the amazing efforts of the annual community chorus to perform portions of Handel’s Messiah during Advent. What’s more, the dulcet tones of the folk chant of the monks of Weston Priory are a mere 45 minutes from my front door.

I feel blessed to enjoy the worship support and choral offerings of the music team at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church each Sunday and Holy Day. Music definitely glues the liturgies together with mystic weavings.

Finally, I love singing together with my siblings whenever the Order gathers together, whether in regional fellowships or in Chapter. We are blessed by the presence of several accomplished musicians.

Even with all of these opportunities, I still find that there are significant gaps in my week and year between them. I believe that listening and even singing along can be a powerful experience of grounded presence and meditative awareness.

One time, during a dry spell in my daily office, my own director at the time encouraged me to listen to the daily office being sung by the monks from Spencer Abbey in Massachusetts (another monastery I once lived quite close to!). Giving myself that time to listen with deep intention and absorb the sound and feel it in my body was transformative. It did not replace my practice of the Office, but it absolutely saved it.

I frequently sit with folks who include listening to deeply moving and anchoring sacred music from across the centuries as one of their key practices. Indeed, I am listening to a seasonal playlist for the Time After Epiphany on Spotify curated by Sacred Ordinary Days as I write this letter. I would invite you to consider the sonic landscape of your spiritual life.

Reflection Questions:

• How is sound or music a part of my communal practice?
• What about my daily personal practice?
• How might I make time to make, participate in, or listen to music that anchors me in the moment and helps me to connect with the divine?

Be gentle with yourself, you are worth it.

Peace and Everything Good,

The Rev. JM Longworth, OEF Spiritual Direction and Trauma Care

https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/GreenMtFriarOEF/ To book an appointment: https://calendly.com/greenmtfriaroef

This month, I’m engaged in a training course to serve as a spiritual direction supervisor. Whereas my typical appointments are centered on the needs, story, and becoming of the client, this work would focus on supporting another director through careful listening to case presentations on challenging sessions, offering affirmation, education, consultation, thoughtful challenge, and an invitation to self-reflection.

These responses are designed to support the director in their role, help them to continue their formation and development as therapeutic listeners, and provide insights necessary to be their most skillful selves for their own clients.

Halfway through the class, I’m already making lots of wonderful connections and gaining vital experience through roleplays and observing consultations. I’m looking forward to completing the course, though I’m not in a rush to build a supervision caseload. I want to start slow to continue to practice the craft, and trust that I can continue to receive support in these interactions through my own supervision relationship.

I’m also excited about using these new skills and frameworks in the peer supervision group that I belong to, hopefully to the benefit of everyone who attends. I’m so grateful that my own supervisor invited me into this experience and gave me a way to continue to deepen this aspect of my life and work. Bearing witness to people is indeed an awesome and deeply privileged experience. I want to do everything I can to nurture that trust and bring skill, attentiveness, and compassion to that space.

I’m also pleased to report that I will be teaching with Spiritual Directors International again this February on the afternoon of the 9th. I’ll be the lead-off session of an eight part series on providing spiritual companionship with people on the margins. You can learn more about that course here.

I’m really excited to share about the lessons I learned during my time as the lead chaplain and trainer for Faith on Foot, a street outreach program connected to the organization now known as Rutland Neighbors. Connecting with people in neighborhoods, outdoor hangouts, camp sites, on front porches, and on the street led to countless moments of awe and wonder as we engaged in the art of what Carl Jung called “being a human soul present with another human soul.”

In the liturgical calendar, this shorter period of Ordinary Time, also called the season after Epiphany, the focus of the Gospel stories are on the steady revelation of who Jesus is, and how the divine is fully present in him. Our street team used to reference the Road to Emmaus story from the Easter season, noting that “every seven miles we see Jesus”. I feel such deep gratitude that every week I am blessed with opportunities to catch glimpses of divinity shining through the stories of the people I care for.

Be gentle with yourself, you are worth it.

Peace and Everything Good,

The Rev. JM Longworth, OEF Spiritual Direction and Trauma Care

https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/GreenMtFriarOEF/ To book an appointment: https://calendly.com/greenmtfriaroef

Each day, I make a sincere effort to journal using two distinct pages. One is a weekly page that allows me to track daily and weekly habits on one side and to reflectively plan for the week on the reverse. The other is dated blank page that provides space for writing down memories, thoughts, feelings, experiences, and initial interpretations of my day. I say initial, because even through the lens of contemplative examination, I want to hold open the possibility that a more nuanced and anchored understanding of the experience might emerge through my ongoing practice and meditation.

When I write, aside from brief corrections when I misfire with my pen, I don’t edit while I’m reflecting. I simply let whatever flows from the pen land on the page and trust that what I have added is essential in some way, and that what I have already forgotten is not something I should worry about.

This is less about making sense of what I have experienced than it is about documenting my experience and providing mile markers that I can use to ponder later, though not forever as rumination is not the same thing as meditation. In fact, I have made a practice of looking over things within the quarter in which I write them, and then I recycle the removable pages from my journal like the temporary art of a sand mandala. Each new quarter brings a chance to be present with what is happening now while gently setting down the work of what has gone before. In my experience, that which is going to resurface over time, simply will if I give space in the silence.

I really enjoy the analog experience of writing with pen and paper, and while I try not to accumulate endless journals or notebooks, I do keep my daily pages separate from my planner, my poetry/prayer journal, and my meeting notes. I prefer the focus that comes with having fewer purposes in one set of pages, though you may want to experiment with the system that works best for you.

Practice:

Here are some tips for beginning your own daily pages journal.

• Decide how many purposes this journal will have, fewer total uses might allow for greater focus.
• Blank pages or bullet pages offer the greatest flexibility for laying out a single day
• You may want to find inserts or a page layout for a habit tracker/weekly look ahead to remind you of your intentions for the week
• Don’t edit or revise while writing. Your thoughts, feelings, experiences, and initial impressions are worthy in their own right.
• Make a plan for what to do with your journal when it is full? Will you save it? For how long? How can you hold these first impressions loosely and allow the Spirit to continue its work in you?
• Don’t panic if you miss a page. There’s a really good chance that you chose the most necessary thing instead. Return to the practice as soon as you can, and with grace and gentleness.

Be gentle with yourself, you are worth it.

Peace and Everything Good,

The Rev. JM Longworth, OEF Spiritual Direction and Trauma Care

https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/GreenMtFriarOEF/ To book an appointment: https://calendly.com/greenmtfriaroef

For Christians, today is the 6th day of Christmas, which puts us halfway through the celebration of the Incarnation. Beginning on the Feast of the Nativity on December 25th and ending with 12th Night. I came to a much deeper appreciation of this short season in 2020, when a worldwide pandemic had people isolated in their homes for Christmas. Something about the inability to travel and the long cold nights inspired a more thoughtful move through the season. With the help of friends and colleagues, I was able to produce a short devotional film, highlighting the themes, festival days, and various ways to celebrate Incarnation that the 12 days offer. It’s more than just the story of an unusual birthday, even if that’s how it starts. If you appreciate the low budget, on-the-fly style of 2020 digital media, you can watch it here!

While it feels like the world has changed many times over since December of 2020 and January of 2021, the lessons of this particular Christmastide have continued to bear fruit in my own spiritual journey. For one, I no longer feel the rush to treat December 25th as a deadline, but rather I can engage with it as a starting point. It’s okay if I’m still visiting people, listening to Christmas hymns, savoring the decorations and nativities, giving alms, engaging in charity, and distributing gifts right up to January 5th.

Making the time more spacious allows for moving more slowly through travels, visits, devotions, and worship. All of this helps to cultivate a sense of wonder at just how much of a gift genuine presence is. Not only the Divine presence we celebrate in the Incarnation, but the ongoing presence of the Indwelling, and the ubiquitous of the Creator in every growing edge of the universe.

Not only the divine presence, but our own presence, in the moment that matters, the current one. It remains the only time and space which we actually occupy, no matter how much our preoccupation with memories or imagined futures might be. We can actually miss the entire celebration by not showing up, mercifully and lovingly present in each moment of it.

One way we savor this time at St. Clare House is to engage in service projects and generosity that specifically take place on or about January 6th, the Feast of Epiphany. Remembering this occasion of wise strangers giving gifts to honor the Christ child, we look for ways to bring the season to a close with a lot of love. Whether that looks like boots and toe warmers for the day shelter where we live, or bringing the final platters of cookies, fruit, and cheese to the day shelter where I serve. We remember how the Holy One sneaked into the world and tented among us, noticed only by outcasts at first, much like the shelter guests we are trying to help this year.

I have come to cherish this less anxious way to embrace the holidays and the holy days of this season, and I hope it gives you some thoughts about what you might do differently next year, or even in the 6 days that remain. What love might you experience just by being fully present in these sacred moments?

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Blessed Epiphany.

Be gentle with yourself, you are worth it.

Peace and Everything Good,

The Rev. JM Longworth, OEF Spiritual Direction and Trauma Care

https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/GreenMtFriarOEF/ To book an appointment: https://calendly.com/greenmtfriaroef

The Christian liturgical season of Advent might be my favorite period of practice in the year. Anticipatory awe side-by-side with anticipatory joy, all bundled in the profound awareness of how much of the world is desperately awaiting relief of one sort or another. The need for food, shelter, companionship, and all kinds of safety are highlighted by the conspicuous consumption, overindulgence, illusions of peace, and chasing of happiness that seem to mark the end of the year in our broader culture. So many people are waiting on a hope that often feels like it may never come.

Adopting a posture of humility, patience, and wonder in response to the deeply worn ruts of our conditioned thinking and old habits, is a radical departure from the going along to get along that seems to be the prescription for these weeks. Waiting in hope might be the very medicine that striving in anxiety calls for.

There are plenty of reasons why anxiety can spike this time of the year. From the pressure to avoid conflict as family and friends engage in rhythms of gathering and celebrating, to the retailers praying to end the year in positive financial territory, to fundraisers hoping to remind all of us that giving generously will lift our spirits and provide a huge portion of their operating expenses in the year ahead. Whether December 31st marks the end, the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end, so many of us are tracking goals and objectives.

Even neighbors in deep need are paying close attention to how much medical spending they can do with their remaining benefits (perhaps as an uninsured year ahead looms large), and households who rely on cold weather rules are hoping for a chance at survival by securing one of the limited number of emergency rooms for the winter. If anything, it seems like hesitating could cost some of us everything.

Contemplation that loses the capacity to be moved into loving action, especially life saving loving action, ceases to be of much value. It follows that the essential things ought to be done, even when the invitation to a posture of waiting is so strong. Discernment between what is necessary and sufficient, and what is wanted and superfluous will be of great significance here.

With that said, I invite you into the season of waiting, and the opportunity to set things down in order that you might experience the fruits of this practice more fully.

Practices:

• An Advent Wreath- putting up a wreath with four candles creates an opportunity to count down slowly, especially if you linger on each candle for every day of that week, rather than just making note of the passing time on Sundays. The nightly lighting can make room for a period of prayer and reflection, and is a perfect time to examine our consciousness for the ways we engaged the season that day.
• Centering Prayer- abiding with God in the silence is always a beautiful idea, and in this time of waiting we can experience the tender pull between the Holy One who is already deeply present, and the further expression of that presence that we long for.
• Devotions- the daily office is full of seasonal content that will enrich this time, but if that’s not one of your practices, these four weeks can be a time to engage in reading brief devotions. See an example here.
• Embrace the Earth- is the Summer Solstice drawing near as spring lengthens into the heart of growing season? Perhaps you’re contending with snow, ice, and long hours of darkness. Whatever is happening, take time to simply observe, and be present to those changes. Let your heart take inspiration from the simultaneous holiness of darkness and light, warmth and cold, rest and revival.
• A Nativity Set- this tangible reminder of the miraculous littleness and humility of it all can be a powerful experience. Consider building it piece by piece as the days go by.
• Meditate on Incarnation- the central miracle of the coming Christmas season, Emmanuel (God-With-Us) invites all sorts of creative pondering. I like to wonder which of the water bottle in the kitchen or in the aisle in the store secretly has the ocean hidden inside it. Whether it’s cherishing something in your heart, exploring it on journal pages, or making art that expresses the beautiful impossibility of it all, this theme holds infinite possibility.

I hope these ideas are a good starting point for you, as you tackle what must be done, and make space for what can be surrendered to the practice of holy waiting.

Be gentle with yourself, you are worth it.

Peace and Everything Good,

The Rev. JM Longworth, OEF Spiritual Direction and Trauma Care

https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/GreenMtFriarOEF/ To book an appointment: https://calendly.com/greenmtfriaroef