For every human to meditate on.
What a historical week here in the United States. There is so much to celebrate and I think everyone agrees that there is a lot of healing ahead of us. There is still a need to allow our hearts to be broken and grieve. We need to make space so that we can move forward together.
At the inauguration Amanda Gordon offered this country a poem that speaks to this and is worthy for every human to meditate on. It is below in the readings and I encourage you to work with it in lectio divina or audio divina this year. Here is a link to listen. Let it continue to speak to you as you listen from your heart.
The contemplative life is also about healing and making space for that which is seemingly contradictory. It is about making our life our prayer so that our stillness and resting in God is not separate from all that we do but rather a pervading posture that infuses everything. Side note, as you continue to engage the practices that help support this aim I want you to know that you are welcome to join the ‘collective contemplative pauses’ for any part of it, even if you aren’t able to join at the start or stay the whole time.
May you be anchored.
May you be surrendered.
May you be connected.
May you be free.
May you trust the invincibility of your own heart.
With love,
Heather
Here are a some of the readings from the ‘collective contemplative pauses’ this week:
“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
— Martin Luther King
‘Blessing for the Brokenhearted’
“There is no remedy for love but to love more.” — Henry David Thoreau
Let us agree
for now
that we will not say
the breaking
makes us stronger
or that it is better
to have this pain
than to have done
without this love.
Let us promise
we will not
tell ourselves
time will heal
the wound,
when every day
our waking
opens it anew.
Perhaps for now