Grounding + Becoming
A Spacious Wisdom Cross-Pollination
Listen for what’s already in you, the seed within reaching toward sunlight. Stretch into what only you can become.
There is no limit to what Wisdom will shine through to reach us. Silence, nature, art, music, words, and connection are some of the prisms through which the invisible may become briefly visible to our subtle senses.
What we will need for the terrain ahead is mysteriously sprinkled around us days, weeks, months, or even years before we actually need it. There is a resonance we cannot quite explain—a knowing that doesn’t seem to conform to our linear timeline and context.
We recognize it.
Father Bruno Barnhart distills the essence of Wisdom:
“If we require a definition, let us call it knowing: a knowing that is personal, experiential, and tending toward union with that which is known.”
Wisdom cannot be known with the mind alone; it ripens in us, as us.
You are known, and you know.
Wisdom practices help us fine-tune our senses and cultivate inner stability to be present to reality, even when it is hard.
Follow the threads that draw you and listen for what is stirred within.
Contemplative Curiosity: Neil Theise on Complexity
A 10-ish minute spiritual practice -- bringing curiosity to a quote on complexity by Dr. Neil Theise.
A night of complete undoing
John O’Donohue give us words for the obscurity we encounter in our dark nights of the soul. I take comfort in knowing I’m not the only one to encounter this location in my spiritual geography.
I See You, and I’m Not Going Anywhere
Here's a poem I wrote from a grounded place -- wisdom from myself to myself. I'll keep these words as an anchor to guide my home.
Contemplative Curiosity: Cynthia Bourgeault on Surrender
Here’s a 10-minute unconventional spiritual practice - bringing curiosity and presence to a Cynthia Bourgeault quote about bracing and surrender.
Contemplative Curiosity: Lama Rod Owens on Goodness
What do you notice and wonder as you read this Lama Rod Owens quote on goodness?
Contemplative Curiosity: Mary Oliver on Moments
Creating space for presence with Mary Oliver's words about moments.
Contemplative Curiosity: Teilhard de Chardin on Truth Setting the World Ablaze
What do you notice and wonder as you read this Pierre Teilhard de Chardin quote on the way truth spreads.
Contemplative Curiosity: Praying Our Experiences
Praying our experiences means being open to seeing ourselves as we are. This requires an awareness and an honesty that will root us in our actual daily life.
Contemplative Curiosity: Dr. Gerald May on Making Friends with Mystery
When we were children, most of us were good friends with mystery. The world was full of it and we loved it. Then as we grew older, we slowly accepted the indoctrination that mystery exists only to be solved.
Contemplative Curiosity: John O’Donohue on Awakening to Your Life
“…the most trustable form of soul balance is when you trust it to happen of itself.”
Please Tell Me What To Do: The Gift of *Not* Receiving What I Thought I Wanted in Spiritual Direction
My spiritual director wouldn’t give in to my pleas for a narrow way. As I look back now, I see that in her wisdom, she resisted the human temptation to “fix” or “save” me.