""As we are, our hearts our closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until, one day, the heart breaks, and the words fall in." --Parker Palmer
Image from The Gift of Writing I'm learning how to listen to my heart. What does it sound like? Where does it show up? Ego, Intellect, Fear, Should . . . these parts of me are noisy. Sometimes they distract me from who I am and where I am going. When I forget, when I … Continue reading What to Do When Your Heart Doesn’t Know What it Wants
The best questions--the kind of questions that can change your life--aren't meant to be answered right away.
How much undoing do we have left, God? It seems like we have undone a lot, and I am itching to do something. But there is always more. Another layer that needs to go. My expectations for myself. You would like those? These are hard to release. The disappointment I feel because these expectations of mine don't match … Continue reading Undoing: A Prayer
"Don't start looking in the Bible for the answers it gives. Start by listening for the questions it asks. . ." --Frederick Buechner Sometimes a story catches your heart with its truth--a truth that is piercing and happening even thousands of years after the story was first told. Like the story of that earnest young man (the Bible … Continue reading Asking “What do You Belong to?” and Other Life-or-Death Questions
Sometimes I get excited about really small things. Like seeds. Especially these seeds. These are seeds that I saved from a tomato that grew in my garden last summer. The fall before, I drove out to Milwaukee to visit my Opa in hospice. During that visit, in one of our last conversations, my Opa told me … Continue reading A Gentle Reminder
Some of us grow into thinking that our beliefs--statements we hold to be true--are the most important part of who we are. I'm not saying that beliefs are unimportant or that every belief is right. But there is a danger in defining our deepest self by what we think about things.
How can I feed my soul? What does my soul need? What wakes me up, the deep-down waking up? What makes me come alive, really alive? What opens up my heart? What prepares me for Presence?
The discrepancy between my experience of Lake Superior and its Reality stunned me this weekend. There is something to this fact that is Truth. There is something in this Truth that my soul needs to sit with for a while. Sometimes small truths hit you in your heart to remind you of a Big Truth that your soul needs.
This year, we spent spring break at the beach: surrounded by soft, white sand, brilliant blue skies, and water. So much water. Blue. Warm. Sometimes still like a swimming pool. Other times surging with energy. This beach time was therapy for a frozen Minnesota girl. I loved our beach time. I loved watching my children … Continue reading Jumping In
Jessica Sanborn 