Fiona, thank you for this. I thought I could feel a word hovering in the background and so decided to journal and mindmap around it. The word was "doors" as in opening and closing doors. But as I journalled, finishing up with a bit of a prose poem, it emerged that doors was not the word for me. Instead it was more of a "trusting my heart to be in the right place at the right time and being true to me". So if it had to be one word it would be "emergence" as in coming out of the cocoon. Thank you so much for encouraging me to explore all this as I don't think i would have got there otherwise.
And I would say that my "resurrection guides" would be my writing but also those random people one meets who say something that resonates with my heart.
Oh I love that process and how you came in the end to the word that felt like yours for this season! Emergence is a beautiful word and theme. It reminds me of Sue Monk Kidd's book 'Dance of the Dissident Daughter' where her story follows that of a cocoon she finds in her garden. Have you read it?
No I've not read "Dance of the Dissident Daughter" though I have just ordered it from my local library. I have read other Sue Monk Kidd books [Mermaids Chair, Secret Life of Bees, The Intervention of Wings and When The Heart Waits, which I think I might just reread] and have enjoyed all them so I look forward to giving this a go. Thank you for the recommendation
Fiona, thank you so much for telling/sharing this story. It's amazing and I know it will stay with me. I also appreciate the invitation to sit with the invitation to journey to a place of resurrection. My word this year is Grace. I've been resting and restoring into and around the idea of atonement and repair. I've felt a significant shift at the invitation to journey with Grace. I don't have to reach it in a literal sense. I get to carry Grace as a companion and as a "sacred fire that beacons." The Grace that is shown to me along with the Grace that I'm able to grant bears me and sustains me.
I feel sure it’s acceptable to hold of on to the word I’ve been grasping for these three years. Like the binding of a comfort blanket, like a lifeline, like the strong hand of a friend keeping me upright, I’m pretty sure I’m not ready to let it go. I’m pretty sure I need to keep holding it because there is more and more I have to gain from it. The word is loving kindness. It is “hesed” in the Hebrew Scriptures. Three years ago, I was inundated by the hesed of so many people who offered lovingkindness when I was suffering grief and loss. In these three years I have come to be able to hold the sense of the hesed of the Holy One as I passed through a seismic faith shift and still know that lovingkindness follows me all the days of my life. And recently -- I have been breathing into ways that I myself can be hesed in the world.
Rayelenn, I love the movement I can hear in the way you have journeyed with hesed - from receiving, to holding, to offering. I had one word journey with me the last two years and in someways I think there is a similar movement, from external to internal and then back out into the world again. Maybe that's the cycle of resurrection that pops up everywhere!
Fiona, thank you for this. I thought I could feel a word hovering in the background and so decided to journal and mindmap around it. The word was "doors" as in opening and closing doors. But as I journalled, finishing up with a bit of a prose poem, it emerged that doors was not the word for me. Instead it was more of a "trusting my heart to be in the right place at the right time and being true to me". So if it had to be one word it would be "emergence" as in coming out of the cocoon. Thank you so much for encouraging me to explore all this as I don't think i would have got there otherwise.
And I would say that my "resurrection guides" would be my writing but also those random people one meets who say something that resonates with my heart.
Thank you X
Oh I love that process and how you came in the end to the word that felt like yours for this season! Emergence is a beautiful word and theme. It reminds me of Sue Monk Kidd's book 'Dance of the Dissident Daughter' where her story follows that of a cocoon she finds in her garden. Have you read it?
Thank you
No I've not read "Dance of the Dissident Daughter" though I have just ordered it from my local library. I have read other Sue Monk Kidd books [Mermaids Chair, Secret Life of Bees, The Intervention of Wings and When The Heart Waits, which I think I might just reread] and have enjoyed all them so I look forward to giving this a go. Thank you for the recommendation
Fiona, thank you so much for telling/sharing this story. It's amazing and I know it will stay with me. I also appreciate the invitation to sit with the invitation to journey to a place of resurrection. My word this year is Grace. I've been resting and restoring into and around the idea of atonement and repair. I've felt a significant shift at the invitation to journey with Grace. I don't have to reach it in a literal sense. I get to carry Grace as a companion and as a "sacred fire that beacons." The Grace that is shown to me along with the Grace that I'm able to grant bears me and sustains me.
Kelly, that is beautiful. I'm certain grace will be a good and surprising companion for you as you journey to that place of resurrection!
I feel sure it’s acceptable to hold of on to the word I’ve been grasping for these three years. Like the binding of a comfort blanket, like a lifeline, like the strong hand of a friend keeping me upright, I’m pretty sure I’m not ready to let it go. I’m pretty sure I need to keep holding it because there is more and more I have to gain from it. The word is loving kindness. It is “hesed” in the Hebrew Scriptures. Three years ago, I was inundated by the hesed of so many people who offered lovingkindness when I was suffering grief and loss. In these three years I have come to be able to hold the sense of the hesed of the Holy One as I passed through a seismic faith shift and still know that lovingkindness follows me all the days of my life. And recently -- I have been breathing into ways that I myself can be hesed in the world.
Rayelenn, I love the movement I can hear in the way you have journeyed with hesed - from receiving, to holding, to offering. I had one word journey with me the last two years and in someways I think there is a similar movement, from external to internal and then back out into the world again. Maybe that's the cycle of resurrection that pops up everywhere!