• being human,  embodied liturgies,  musings,  writing

    Reflections: Spiritual Traditions of the World

    As part of my Interfaith Spiritual Guidance training, we were asked to write a Reflective Expression on four of the world’s spiritual traditions, followed by an integration narrative. Below are the conclusions I’ve drawn about sitting with people from various traditions: The voices we’ve heard in these modules intensifies my belief that we are a lot more alike than different. I believe any truly spiritual person with a heart for God can see this. I believe the biggest detriments to peace among religions/traditions are ‘othering’ others not like us, extremist beliefs within particular traditions and rigidity/dogma of a particular belief system. Our capitalist society plays into, and in many ways, guides all of this.   We all live with bias and judgement daily; its how we work with them that matters most. I don’t know if its this SGTI study, the pandemic we just…

  • being human,  breath,  embodied liturgies,  musings

    God’s Promise

    I woke up aggravated yesterday, thinking about a Facebook post by an acquaintance. In it she claimed to be cutting ties with all businesses who support LGBTQ+ rights and stated that ‘the pride flag is a mockery of God’s promise.’ I hear this type of speech somewhat regularly, living in southeast Ohio, a hotbed for Christian nationalism. I didn’t comment. This is the type of ideal (and person) that can’t be argued with. In my experience, it’s black and white for them. It’s a deep seated, ‘doctrinal,’ issue of morality. It negates another’s experience in lieu of words on a page that can easily (and often are) taken out of context to prove them right (and those that believe differently, wrong). And yet, here are just two very clear passages that seem to say that God loves us all, regardless of race, creed, culture,…

  • being human,  breath,  embodied liturgies,  musings

    True Nature

    I’ve never been one to steep myself in ideology, or to even be a devoted follower of anything. It seems that as soon as I attach myself to anything outside of myself or my experience, that thing eventually becomes stale, foreign and untrue. I often think back to the beginning of my yoga journey, wondering what specifically brought me to it. I know the inward drive had to do with seeing past the reality of what was before me, in search of something deeper. I indeed found that something deeper and taught about it for a decade and a half. But life happened and I stepped away. The deeper truths that continue to reveal themselves on the other side of teaching yoga have been inspiring. Those tools gave me a new way to see. They led me to Contemplative Christianity and eventually to what…

  • being human,  embodied liturgies,  prayer,  writing

    A Liturgy in Service to Wholeness

    Dear God of All … Instead of asking ‘why am I just now ‘getting this?,’ may I be grateful for a recent divine discovery: that nature isn’t out there; it’s in me too. Yes I am nature in equal measure to the birds, beasts, oceans, stars, raging fires and blades of grass. I am a seamless part of the whole, and I see now that my job is to live into that wholeness, to live into this theology of wholeness I’ve uncovered, within myself and within every alive thing that exists. Spirit is whole; ego is fragmented. May I live in wholeness, dismantling fragmentation whenever I find it in myself. Spirit is truth; ego is non truth. May I ever live in Divine Truth. May I also recognize that my inherent brokenness as a human is not a curse. No, it is only that…