04 Dec

When Women's Hearts are Open...

Over the years I have had many dreams of the work of the feminine, dreams like seeds that carried an energy, a potential. I found the dreams couldn't remain separate from my life; I had to learn how to live them. This energy pushed on my shoulders, so to speak, insistent that I listen, and then live their wisdom. 

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21 Jul

A Square Inch of Silence

Eight years ago, when I first began to sit in circle with the women in the shelter, I talked a fair amount. I wanted to explain about the feminine. Then we would sit in silence before a time of sharing. I would encourage the women to speak, saying that sharing helps to make their own inner knowing more real. 

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21 Sep

Through Women the Birds Will Hear...

Kathy is new to the women’s shelter circle. She said she had never meditated but she was willing to try. She has eight siblings she has always looked after, and has never had time for herself.

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23 Apr

I rise and greet You...

For me, the day begins before the sun rises. It is a time I love, a time when I am alone, and the world begins anew. I usually open the window to listen. A bird sings a single note, a few houses away.

There is something that goes on in this moment before dawn, a deep relatedness that takes place.

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30 Oct

Slowly something comes alive...

In our circles with women experiencing homelessness, we create a space for the women to touch a part of themselves so deep, a seemingly remote and unfamiliar terrain. Yet in this created space the women rest. Deeply rest. Because this deeper place belongs to us. We are not separate from it. And this is why it’s said that in a woman, spirit and matter can never be separated.

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21 Nov

Finding Strength in the Silence

Over and over in our lives, when we sit quietly, in the night or during a brief moment in the day, there is always this question: where do we put our attention? Holding this question, we can become receptive to an inner response. It is how the feminine works. We listen.

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20 Sep

The Light of Wisdom

How is it that in our deepest time of need, there comes a light of wisdom that helps us to see in the darkness? To see where our attention needs to be. To remember what is sacred in the midst of tumult.

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24 Jun

Restoring the Sacred to Life

In my own life, I have experienced how a seed of possibility must be protected in order to grow. Protected from my own doubts, or fears. Many a time have I had a dream in which I was shown something new. But the real work comes after such a dream. Just to hold, each day, each night, this possibility in the face of outer appearances.

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18 Apr

Once there was a seed...

We sit in circle... six women who are homeless and living in shelters, a colleague and myself. After a silent meditation, I offer a writing exercise that begins with the words, Once there was a seed….

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27 Dec

O Holy Night, every night

Many years ago, when a dear friend of mine became ill, I took care of her one night. I seemed to lie awake all night, until the early hours of the morning when I fell asleep. I had so much doubt, so much worry. But as I was waking up in the morning, I heard these words: Hope. Love. Joy.  

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