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.

Prayer is fundamentally an offering of ourselves to God. It is not a matter of offering the pious thoughts of theologians or spiritual writers. Nor is it a matter of offering God only what we believe to be worthy.

What does Mary Oliver’s instruction on prayer evoke in you? Here’s an invitation to engage with her words contemplatively.

Have you noticed the concept of trauma coming up more in the past few years? You are not alone. What do people mean when they use the word trauma in this rapidly-changing landscape?

Sometimes an image or phrase can help us gently help us excavate this wisdom (like an archaeologist, not a construction worker!). Here’s a practice to experiment with.

“The human soul is hungry for beauty; we seek it out everywhere…”

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. —Dr. Gerald May

What words shimmer for you in this poem by Derek Mahon? What arises in you as you hold those words?

“…the most trustable form of soul balance is when you trust it to happen of itself.” —John O’Donohue

“You’re able to begin to notice that God speaks to us, God comes to us in our experience, that God becomes known; God becomes flesh in our everyday experience.” - Jonathan Merritt

This playlist is not designed to tell you that your dark night of the soul is not so bad, nor is it an attempt to coax you out of your dark night.

This is an evocative poem in Ó Tuama’s own voice. What words stick with you when you listen/watch? What is your felt sense of the poem?

These are some of the threads I’ve been following related to the topic of trauma. May curiosity and resonance be your guides as you explore this collection.

When someone sees and welcomes us with lovingkindness consistently, it makes space for us to see and welcome ourselves. 

Coming home to our bodies is about recognizing we are complex beings whose present-tense needs are worthy of time and care. These needs are not distractions, but rather, a portal to our deepest wisdom.

Here’s what’s emerging for me as I contemplate Meister Eckhart and John O’Donohue’s image of the soul as a shared dwelling place.

A poem about coming home to ourselves, to inner wisdom—not as an end in itself, but as the place we perceive the ways we are interconnected.

Here’s a tool I use in my life and my trauma-informed spiritual direction practice often. Naming our felt sense of something helps us connect with the wisdom of our body.