A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey. From The Wisdom Years.
Longing
The posture of God’s people from time immemorial is a posture of longing, not so much for what was, but for what will be.
In this posture of longing we find blessing. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they will be filled.”
-Br. James Koester
Society of Saint John the Evangelist
This week:
- Mother Trees in a Wood Wide Web
- Salt and Salt Substitutes
- How Do You Be?
- Embrace the Spiritual Practice of Aging
- Spiritual Friends
Mother Trees in a Wood Wide Web
It is not only humans who acknowledge and depend on their elders. Scientist Suzanne Simard has found that “mother trees” connect a forest just like human elders connect families across generations.
From Awakin.
Salt and Salt Substitutes
We are the salt of the earth. Jesus said so (Matthew 5:13). But what, exactly, does that mean? How do we make sense of that metaphor? SSJE Brother Curtis Almquist looks at the uses of salt and concludes not only that we are each precious and needed, we can also be of value in the lives of others.
How Do You Be?
Remember the 1990 movie Awakenings? It is the story of Dr. Oliver Sacks, who not only discovered a drug that brought patients out of their comas, he also cared deeply for his patients, often asking them, “How do you be?” How can we ask that question as we emerge from the COVID pandemic?
Found in Daily Good.
Embrace the Spiritual Practice of Aging
We really didn’t know what to expect as we aged. But here we are, and many are finding that aging is a spiritual practice, an opportunity to dig deeper into ourselves and move into our interior lives.
Found in the San Antonio Express News.
Spiritual Friends
Each of us, on our spiritual journeys, needs friends. Spiritual friends help us stay on the path not by walking it for us but by walking it with us. A spiritual friend is a person who “knows something of the terrain from having traveled some of it,” says Joanna Seibert in her reflection.
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