Autumn

A time for slowing, for listening, for being mindful. The pause before the snows of winter.

Abandon malls.

Seek sky, scented leaves, surprising scarlets that have nothing to do with Santa suits.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.    There are some things in our social system to which all of us ought to be  maladjusted."

A few of us involved in spiritual leadership are planning to make a Pilgrimage to Occupy Wall Street.

Have you been to OWS? Would you like to share your experience in a comment here?

In this time of struggle for communities of faith, can we move beyond the church walls? Can we get rid of those walls altogether? Imagine no outrageous heating bills in winter – because there would be no cavernous building to heat. Imagine using those funds which go into maintaining the structure and grounds for work in the community instead ~ for walking the talk. Imagine meeting in small groups ~ in homes, outdoors, or in public places.

Do you have any ideas regarding creating Sanctuary Without Walls? If you wish to sponsor a SWW gathering, contact info@sanctuarywithoutwalls.org

During the evening, one participant made a remark something to the effect that transformation is a totally inner experience. In one sense, this is true. As a lover of solitude, I can relate to this. Yet Rites of Passage involving other people, and perhaps including other aspects of the natural world, can be powerful indeed.

At Theology on Tap, others talked about the need for a community to “hold” and support a person who is undergoing a transforming experience. We are relational creatures. Some of us have recently passed through divorce, the birth of a child, or a marriage; others through menopause, or the death of a loved one. As we share, we learn from one another’s experiences, sometimes finding our discoveries mirrored in others, even though we may be different ages and genders, undergoing a variety of passages.

Some people avoid spiritually focused groups for various reasons, perhaps due to past negative experiences in such groups. How can we be together in life-affirming ways? One Spirit Interfaith Seminary posted a list of Guiding Principles, a recital of ways that we can be more graceful and respectful with one another when we gather. While the length and depth of this is meant for seminarians and is quite daunting, it does offer something to which we can aspire.

These principles help us orient ourselves in the right direction. We aspire to live and practice these principles in our individual and collective life. They point the way to embodying the best of what it means to be human, and they are a significant part of the philosophy and teaching at One Spirit.

• To bring increasing awareness to our interior and exterior lives.

• To see every experience in life as an opportunity to grow.

• To take responsibility for our intentions, thoughts, feelings, and actions in every communication and interaction.

• To develop a personal practice that fosters inner peace and skillful action.

• To see our outer life in the world as a reflection of our inner state and experience.

• To remember that each of our lives is an interaction of our inner life and our outer life in the world.

• To understand that our life in the world includes participation in multiple roles, relationships and communities, each of which may hold different values and each of which affects us in different ways.

• To be willing to explore our cultural norms, family patterns, personal values and defensive routines as part of our commitment to our own development and our capacity to relate to others in an unbiased and open way.

• To act in ways that create a safe container for each other.

• To engage in authentic dialogue that seeks to surface what is true for both the individual and the community.

• To seek to enter every situation from a centered place.

• To be aware of the quality of our energy and its effect on those around us.

• To recognize that we all have blind spots, and that our interactions with others help us recognize what they are.

• To value each other, blind spots and all.

• To seek the highest good in every relationship and situation.

• To always say what is true, to always be kind, to only say what is useful.

The above may be found at the blog of One Spirit Interfaith Alliance.

”For the child. . . it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused – a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love – then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response . . . It is more important to pave the way for a child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts that he is not ready to assimilate.”
Rachel Carson

These warm days have encouraged our hearts, invigorated our bodies, as our faces turn toward the sun. The herb garden has awakened.

Pulmonaria

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Lady’s Mantle

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Sweet Woodruff

This Celtic saying reflects the importance of pilgrimage as a spiritual practice in the Celtic tradition.

At the holy well of St. Brigid in Kildare, Ireland.

Why “place of resurrection?” During  pilgrimage we leave behind our usual ways, our comforts, as we step into the unknown. Resurrection is about the trust we have that our steps will be led by the ever-unfolding presence of guidance in our lives – that which brings us hope, healing, renewal, liberation, transformation, rebirth – whatever we choose to call it: God or Goddess, cosmic serendipity, Tao, flow, Christ consciousness, emergence, the Universe.

Celtic monks sought their places of resurrection in this world, journeying to find the place where they could best fulfill their mission. Many of us are wanderers in this way – spiritually if not physically. We follow our hearts to best discern where we can serve, and how we can bring the spirit of resurrection to others.

Feel free to share your pilgrimage and resurrection stories.

Pause and feel those stirrings within yourself.

It is time to blossom.

In the words of Mary Anne Brussat:

Nature often holds up a mirror so we can see more clearly the ongoing processes of growth, renewal, and transformation in our lives.