What Happens When We Take Contemplative Seeing Seriously?
In my Spiritual Director training, I came across Walter Burghardt, a Jesuit theologian’s beautiful description of contemplation. He said contemplation is “taking a long, loving look at the real.”
“A long, loving look at the real” is the invitation I want to follow this year with you, the paid subscribers of Smaller and Deeper. My ethos for spiritual direction is contemplative. I believe spiritual direction happens when we pause to intentionally notice how daily events, feelings, adventures, and disappointments are infused with the sacred. Spiritual direction happens with a Spiritual Director and most often by ourselves when we notice the contours of our lives with contemplative eyes, heart, spirit, and soul.
In that spirit, a few weeks ago, I made a list of all the quotidian moments and events of life that offer opportunities for contemplative and spiritual direction “looking.”
Over the next year, I’m looking forward to exploring how walking in nature, journaling, poetry, resting, sitting at a coffee shop, when caught off guard, reading fiction, by stained glass windows, and even online shopping offer us all contemplative opportunities and spiritual direction.
It goes back to an often-used quote, “how you do anything is how you do everything.” (This quote is hard to attribute; there are many different attributions from Martha Beck to the Dali Lama, so I use it with thanks to whoever said it first.) What might happen if we slowly adopt a lens of letting the most quotidian, average, unremarkable moments be contemplative moments, holding the seeds of direction and rootedness? What spiritual direction will noticing how we do everything teach us?
In his book Contemplation and Compassion, Richard Rohr writes, “Contemplation is not the avoidance of the problem, but a daily merging with the problem, and finding its full resolution.” I would add that I think (but we will learn together) that contemplation is a daily merging with the good, the small, the unremarkable, and letting those moments guide us, too.
I’m looking forward to all 2024 holds and all the learning and growth this space holds for each of us.
What to Expect in This Space (For Paid Smaller & Deeper Subscribers):
A weekly Spiritual Direction..with, through, by, around {whatever quotidian event is on my list or mind} .. post on Wednesday.
A Poetry Pause: As I find poems that I love, I’ll share them with ideas for reflection and interaction similar to Advent.
A Zoom Group Spiritual Direction Session each quarter-more details to come soon on our Q1 gathering.
Poetry Pause:
Read the following poem slowly. Give attention to commas and periods, and pause appropriately. Notice if a word or phrase seems to sparkle.
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