The Companioning Center Blog
The four gratitude postures move and flow together, each one providing gifts. All the gifts are available to us, and we receive them. The gifts move into our hearts. They transform us as we encounter awe, wonder, and reverence. We then give it all away. Awe, wonder, and gratitude flow from within us into the world, and the world changes.
Our church is going through a revisioning process and is leaning toward refreshing our understanding of listening. An essential component of this process is that we are Quakers—we listen together on the way forward instead of voting so that the majority rules. We listen to God's movement and invitation, trusting God to meet each of us in navigating the way forward. It is a beautiful process to witness and be part of.
The imagery of Jesus' right arm reaching downward was a powerful image for me that day. I was transfixed. I will never forget the impact of this exemplary carving. It became an impromptu visio divina. (If you need to become more familiar with this practice, it is an ancient form of Christian prayer that engages the heart and imagination through entering into a sacred image).
Every March, my daffodils pop their sunshine faces into the sky far too early for what I deem safe, and they see themselves ice or snow-covered before April comes. And yet they survive. Each year, about this time, exhaustion feels relentless, and still, I plant my vegetable seeds and have faith in germination.
Roomy. That’s how I told her I felt, not a little more room but wide-open space. As soon as I said it aloud, I knew spaciousness was where I had been headed for quite some time. Where I longed to be inside and outside.
For most of my adult life, I’ve valued friendship in theory but struggled to live it well. It wasn’t easy to prioritize when parenting a young child and getting through college. In ministry, friendship felt complicated by the demands of leadership. And I’ve sometimes thought of it as frivolous or indulgent. It’s not. We need trustworthy companions to become our most authentic selves and connect more fully with the Holy. Bono calls friendship a sacrament as holy and transformative as the bread and wine of communion or the waters of baptism. I wonder what might shift for us if we considered friendship as a means of receiving (and offering) divine grace.