21 Jul
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.
21 Sep
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.
23 Apr
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.
30 Oct
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.
15 May
When I first began working with the women in homelessness, it was a wonder to me how quickly the women responded and were able to connect to their deeper, inner selves. This work amazed me, that the power of being together in a sacred space drew forth their own inner capacities.
I had a dream after a few years of facilitating the circles. This dream showed me how women - each one of us - can work and be in life.
07 Mar
Listening...perhaps this is the most important time to listen. Listening inwardly as well as to our outer lives and life around us. This listening allows us to hear the heartbeat of our daily actions. If we do not work at this depth, the foundation of anything that we do will not hold.
21 Nov
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.
20 Sep
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.
24 Jun
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.
18 Apr
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….
