Category: Spiritual
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Compassion and curiosity
Most often I don’t feel compelled to share out loud, as words come out irreverent, botched, inadequate, but sometimes i feel I am left with words on the tip of my tongue. So I’ll spill them here to free myself. This is how I open the door to join in the feast. I have learned…
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Invitation
It’s Sunday morning. I hear a knock on the door. Rufus hears it too and barks his head off. He gets really worked up when someone’s at the door. Extreme enthusiasm. We don’t get visitors at the door often. But when we do, it’s the neighborhood kids. Conrad jokingly said: any kid that shows up…
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Simple rules
After I had a good conversation with Jackie about decision making and empowering her to try, to step forward, to decide for herself many of the daily choices, because I trust her judgement and I believe she will make mostly good decisions, the next day I softened my passion, added some creativity and told ivy…
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Fruit of the spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I saw this verse from Galatians on instagram and I felt convicted in my heart. My tree is dry and bare. It has a few low fruit hanging. But it is not lush with joy, peace, forbearance, gentleness.…
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Reflecting on Church after Gmunden
I grew up in a broad community that adhered to a set of values and beliefs, and though my neighborhood was at the edge of the city, limited in many ways (economically and politically), we transcended our boundaries of space and time. Early on in my life I traveled all over the country, meeting new…
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The last day of the hike
The trails blend in my memory. We’ve had high highs and low lows. Metaphorically and literally. This morning we woke up more rested than I expected. The large shared room had double beds separated by a thin wood board. We even had a window above us that stayed open all night. This style rooms are called…
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How are you doing?
A question that most often doesn’t receive a good enough answer. We are too comfortable to get vulnerable. It’s a lot of work. It can be embarrassing. But then again, that is the point. We are all carrying different weights. We are all hurt. We have different but very personal longings. Rest. True rest. Community.…
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Three women in their thirties discussing burnout
It is not an exhaustive presentation. We all shared from what we learned as we traveled through the valley of burnout, camping there for a while, reaching the valley from different directions. Some having started the climb up a while ago. Awareness of where we are is a great starting point. And you don’t have…
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Integrity in the story of Joseph
At ROM, Marko Stupar shared about Integrity in the context of the story of Joseph. He posed a few questions that we had to sit with. Two are still stuck in my mind. Who are you when nobody is looking? Who are you when you have power? Indeed, the question of integrity applies to all…
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Inclusion
I think power lies within all of us. A sense of empowerment to stand up straight, look people in the eyes, smile, act. Kids hear everything we say, even when we whisper it, especially when we whisper it. Our micro expressions, our judgement or our openness towards others. Ivy gets along brilliantly with many of…
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Stand up and walk
I do not know how to mingle with every important cool person, though my social life is full. It’s too much. What happened to my incognito 🥸 structured simpler life? I am invited here and there and I haven’t learned to say no. For as strong and independent I like to think of myself as, my inability…
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Uninvited
The clicks of youth, the exclusion and the standards by which friendships are pursued, it is an age old drama and yet like nothing I’ve seen before. Especially when it comes to a randomized mixed group, like school or neighborhood or church, where we ought to learn to embrace those who are not like us,…