mindfulness – The Wisdom Years

Gathered Wisdom, Oct 8, 2024

October 8, 2024Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey. From The Wisdom Years.

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When the eyes and ears are open, even the leaves on the trees teach like pages from the Scriptures.

-Kabir, as quoted in Legacy of the Heart by Wayne Muller
From Well for the Journey

10 Questions for your Autumn Equinox

It’s autumn – a time for slowing down and pondering. The days are shorter – what is one activity that you want to stop doing? Courtney Martin offers 10 provocative questions for the season.

Engage with the questions.

From The Examined Family.

Joy in Solidarity

They met the small little man in a migrant shelter where he had stopped for a warm bowl of soup before crossing the border into the United States. He would have to cross the desert, and his feet were filthy and sore inside his thin sneakers.

Read the story.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

A Place to Watch the Rain

The recommendation said that the man could sleep in a storm. His employer found out what that meant when the bad weather hit. In the midst of a storm, “we survive by affirming who we are,” says Terry Hershey.

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey’s Sabbath Moment.

Parker Palmer: On The Brink Of Everything

Joanna Seibert introduces us to Parker Palmer’s wisdom on growing older in his book On the Brink of Everything. “Palmer takes us to the brink of an alternative life,”. Says Seibert “It is a slower life where we observe and become aware of so much we missed in this world while living at a frantic pace.”

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Searching for a Word Filled with Reality

Faith is not something you achieve, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. “Faith is a journey, with constant ups and downs, with alternating periods of fervor and dryness, with consolation giving way to desolation, and with graced moments where God feels tangibly present eclipsed by dark nights where God feels absent.”

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser.

Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.

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Gathered Wisdom, July 16, 2024

July 17, 2024Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey. From The Wisdom Years.

I pray that I may serve by doing what is mine to do, knowing I will remember and forget, find and lose, knowing too that your infinite grace is everywhere when I choose to be attuned.

-Danna Faulds, “Prayers to the Infinite”
From Well for the Journey

What Is New and What Is Old

There are going to be tears and holes in the fabric of our lives. That is when we must remember our history – that Christ has always been with us, has always rescued us. “Remember your past, draw on your past, how you’ve been provided for, sustained, protected, healed, empowered up until now,” says Br. Curtis Almquist.

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

May You Live Long Enough

To be able to laugh at your most embarrassing moments in the past; To side with your former adversaries, if only for a glancing moment; To experience prayer as the automatic breathing of petitions for others’ good; and other short bits of wisdom.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

The Point Is to Grow

It was out of deep grief that Paula D’Arcy’s heart was opened. “Now that suffering was a lived experience, I realized there was so much I needed to change about how I understood life,” she says. “I had to move beyond my old conclusions.”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Learning To Trust The Slow Work Of God

How long does it take to become more like Jesus? Oh, a lifetime or so. “Transformation almost always happens at a pace slower than we would expect or desire,” says Carolyn Arends.

Read the reflection.

From Renovare.

Have I Been Saved?

That is the wrong question, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. The real question, especially at this stage of life, is “How can I help?” “A non-negotiable part of meeting Jesus,” says Rolheiser, “means being sent out, and not just alone on some private spiritual quest or individualized ministry. It means being called into community . . .”

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.

If this post was forwarded to you, sign up to receive Gathered Wisdom in your email by subscribing at wisdomyears.org.

To learn more visit our website.

Gathered Wisdom, Mar 12, 2024

March 12, 2024Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey. From The Wisdom Years.

Gather up whatever has tumbled in the waves…
It all comes down to this:
In our imperfect world, we are meant to repair and stitch together
what beauty there is…

-Stuart Kestenbaum, “Holding the Light,” Only Now
Found in Well for the Journey

A Spiritually Literate Photographer

The cigar store manager took a photo of the store every day. To the casual observer, they all looked the same. You had to slow down and look deeply to see the differences. That’s what spiritual literacy is like.

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

As Way Opens

Quaker spirituality has a phrase for discernment – “as way opens.” It means paying attention to which path feels right and which one is filled with obstacles. When a decision has to be made, even with a deadline looming, there must still be a pause, a way of checking in with our heart and our own deep knowing.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Dying to Live

On average, 90,000 Christians are martyred every decade. While few of us will be called to die physically for Christ, all of us will be given the opportunity to be Christ’s witnesses. To do that, says Brother Curtis Almquist, something will have to die.

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

The Kiss of God on the Soul

You know that little indentation just below your nose and above your mouth? Some say that’s where God kissed you before you were born. Once we knew perfect oneness, perfect truth, perfect goodness, and perfect beauty. We long to know them again.

Read the essay.

From Fr. Ron Rolheiser.