This time we welcomed their Presence

Made easier to bear because everything felt like it belonged

Normal nuisances and unfulfilled to do's

Even grief felt far away

This day….

A poem written in response to total solar eclipse

Since 2020, I have resurrected the lighting of my Advent candle tradition. I now gather items from my home to create and Advent altar of sorts. Peace comes to me easily during this process as I reflect on God’s faithfulness in my life and spend time meditating and praying through and with the Christmas story as it relates to my own journey.

I invite you to join me in this life-giving spiritual practice.

We sat cross-legged across from each other on the astroturf of my parent’s backyard. Her face seemed a bit drawn, less bright than usual. She was normally talkative or silly or inquisitive. Something told me to let the silence connect us.

~ An excerpt from an essay on a day with my niece and a loving kindness meditation towards self

The Experience Circle is a tool and way of thinking that encourages us to widen our perspective, looking for the ways we hear, feel, see, taste, touch and notice the Divine in all areas of our life. Enjoy this meditation as a solo prayer practice or in 1:1 or group spiritual directions sessions.

This is a meditation that can be used in small groups, in worship service, 1:1 or alone in prayer. Allow 15 - 20 minutes to read, pause and reflect. Notice root causes to physical symptoms keeping you in negative cycles of living.

What and who are your taskmasters? Is it the worry that consumes you not knowing what tomorrow or even the next six months will bring? Is it a pile of bills? Is it the tedious online learning that now serves as school? Is it the repetitive news of police brutality that grieves your spirit over and over and over? The vile and lewd comments spewed back and forth between political parties?

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of home, it was the winter of despair.”

These words from Charles Dickens are the introduction to his classic novel Tale of Two Cities.

Not until now have they resonated so deeply.

The idea of sitting at my kitchen table each day around the wreath to make space, to prepare the way – it fills me with warmth, with familiarity of good times past and with hope.

We are in the middle of that strange week – the last week of the year. That odd bit of time sandwiched in between Christmas and New Year’s. Many of us have celebrated with meals, worship services, presents, maybe a few “Christmases” where we gather with one side of the family and then the next. We are full, maybe a little “hungover” from the surge of delight, excitement and expectancy that leads up to the holidays and Christmas.

This Psalm is simple yet it evokes a sense of peace in my soul. It causes me to pause and to reflect on what I have received from God. Without striving, without finagling, the Holy One has given me, given us, so much. Sometimes I notice, sometimes I don't.

When my spirit feels flat like the desert, dry and dusty, I find myself asking questions and sometimes, when the energy is there, calling out to God - when will you part the sea? Or, if the sea parting is too much, what about just a little stream of water from a hard rock?