We are getting closer to Holy Week, in which we are invited to step inside of the events that transpired right alongside Jesus and Mary Magdalene, as our Living Teachers, who showed us how to be True Human Beings. They were/are examples of those who embraced their two natures, human and divine, to the point of upsetting those around them! We have an opportunity to listen deeply to the sacred currents embedded within the power of this thin week and embody them with more of ourselves as we walk the wisdom path in our own lives. I would love for you to join me in your own way these next two weeks as the Lenten Season transitions into Holy Week, culminating in Easter. This could be in the sanctuary of your own heart or if you are drawn, there are three upcoming Retreats. First, The Contemplative Society sponsored Online Silent Wisdom Retreat during Holy Week, April 3rd-6th. Second, there are two one day Retreats, Lenten Saturday before Holy Week on April 1st and Holy Saturday on April 8th (both are from 10am-4pm PACIFIC TIME). However you choose to engage these two weeks, I am grateful we are in this interconnected web together and know that our efforts and surrenders, feed and nourish the wider web for good. You likely won't see me in the pauses for the next two weeks but I will be journeying with you in the silence. A deep gratitude to all who have willingly stepped into facilitate the daily sits. Thank you. Lenten Love, Heather
From a few of the Pauses : Monday with Lacey: 'By Earth Be Blessed' May you know the embrace of Earth. May she teach you the wisdom of time: the unfolding of Spring the ripening of Summer the turning of Autumn the shedding of Winter. May she each you the wisdom of intimacy: seed embraced by warm, dark soil crevice traced by insistent stream raindrop clinging to new, soft leaf precious stones in hidden places. May she teach you the wisdom of grace: flowers entwining fallen oak healing gifts of common "weeds" grain for bread, fruit for wine dancing stars through barren branches. May you be known in Earth's embrace. — Jan Richardson Tuesday A Poem for the Spring Equinox 'Vernus' 1. Equinox Today most especially we hover in the balance. Day meets dark in equal parts, but we — we are tipping into the light. 2. Winter’s End Out of a season of pruning, pause, prudence, of waiting waiting waiting, we emerge: bony, ashen creatures lapping at dregs weary of cold hungry for light, wringing gray flake from our creaking limbs. 3. Below I want to plunge deep roots putting out blind tendrils that grope for more to entwine and bind — with you — together holding our dear Earth. We will weave her a shining net, gold in the broken places. 4. Above I want to spread my fingers into the sun to cup it into the pale curved leaf of my body swallow down the liquid light course it through my secret channels and greedily nourish each twining limb. Draw the ancient promise deep into my tree heart. The light is coming.” — Jess Vice Wednesday: “I begin to see that I live torn between two realities. On the one hand, there is the reality of my existence on the earth, which limits me in time and space, with all its threats and opportunities for satisfaction. On the other hand, there is a reality of being that is beyond this existence, a reality for which I have a nostalgia. It calls to our consciousness, across all the disappointments and misfortunes, to lead us to serve Being, to serve the “divine” in ourselves. If my life is lived only to subsist, the essential being is veiled, obscured. Even if I subsist in an intelligent, reasonable way, I do not see the true sense of my life—I have no direction. I am entirely drawn toward outer existence and thus prevented from becoming conscious of my authentic being. On the other hand, if I feel another reality, under the force of this impression I forget my life and withdraw into isolation. Thus the world claims me without caring about inner life, and my being calls me without caring about the demands of worldly existence. These are two poles of one larger Self, one same Being. I need to find a state in which I am more and more open and obedient [listening] to an essential force in me, and at the same time able to express this force and let it do its work in the world.” — Jeanne De Salzmann, The Reality of Being, p.135-136 Thursday: "To work with sensation means to focus on the actual energy patterns the feelings and attitudes create in your body. Real kenotic work is done here—and, I believe, only here. Once you understand the difference between sensation and attitude, it becomes possible to hear what is really being said in the most basic, no-frills statement of the kenotic path, which is as follows: Never do anything in a state of internal brace—that is, in a state of physical tightness and resistance: you'll discover it's never work the cost. This statement has nothing to do with giving up (that's an attitude) or relinquishing your right to defend yourself (also an attitude). At the sensation level the issue is simply this: in any life situation, confronted by an outer threat or opportunity, you have a choice between two options. You can either harden and brace defensively, or you can yield and soften internally. The first response will plunge you immediately into your small self, with its animal instincts and survival responses. The second will allow you to stay aligned with your heart, where the odds of a creative outcome are infinitely better." — Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus, p. 173-174 Friday: "Given sufficient realization of unity, and given sufficient willingness, one increasingly experiences the power and love of union being expressed in and through one’s daily dualistic life. Situations that were once boring or mundane now seem graced and alive. Strivings and grasping that once carried a life-or-death importance are now calmed and eased with deep reassurance. Concerns and attachments that previously muddied awareness and kidnapped attention now dissolve into amazing clarity. But all things happen. And they happen partially and gradually. They can be neither forced nor contrived into existence. They happen when they happen. In religions terms, they are given as gifts, graces, charisms. Again and again we must be reminded that. Although we can be willing to accept these things we cannot create them. Spiritual awakening may rightly be seen as an end in itself, or even more accurately, as a condition that uses human beings as means toward a divine end. But as soon as we try to use spiral awakening or some facsimile thereof toward our own ends we ask for trouble. At the very least, we are certain to create additional problems and confusions for ourselves, and at worst we can find ourselves on a path that is truly evil. As William McNamara says, “Most people assume that when one is spiritual included one somehow automatically transcends all the neurotic traps of life, and this is a dangerous assumption.” Spirituality simply cannot be seen as a means to end our discomfort.” — Gerald May, Will and Spirit, p. 252-253 Saturday: “May I learn to look at myself with the eyes of understanding and love. May I be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in myself. May I learn to identify and see the sources of anger, craving, and delusion in myself. May I know how to nourish the seeds of joy in myself every day. May I be able to live fresh, solid, and free. May I be free from attachment and aversion, but not indifferent. Love is not just the intention to love, but the capacity to reduce suffering, and offer peace and happiness. The practice of love increases our forbearance, our capacity to be patient and embrace difficulties and pain. Forbearance does mean that we try to suppress pain.” ― Thích Nhất Hạnh Sunday with Henry: 'Quietness' Inside this new love, die. Your way begins on the other side. Become the sky. Take an axe to the prison wall. Escape. Walk out like someone suddenly born into color. Do it now. You’re covered with thick cloud. Slide out the side. Die, and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you’ve died. Your old life was a frantic running from silence. The speechless full moon comes out now. — Rumi
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