12.16.2024. Make Flesh
It is the season of advent, a time of light dimming only to lengthen again. A time of incubation, of being pregnant with. A time of readying, to bring into form the Holy that resides, that is gestating inside, each one of us.
What if we recognized this, ourselves as womb?
I wonder what gorgeous offering we each would birth, make flesh? And you know how fierce a mother’s love is – I cannot help but wonder even further, as a mamma bear with her cub–how we would protect and defend, offer our life if needed, to prevent any harm from coming to this Divine offering born through us.
This seems essential to know, to hold, to plant as seed in our hearts during this sacred season, this dark holy time. Can you even imagine what could erupt this spring!
May we burst into bloom!
May we fill the dark sky with the Light of our brilliant billion holy offerings.
May we keep awake to our heart whispers.
🌿
Today is Metta (loving-kindness) Monday at 2pm. All Welcome. No meditation experience required. Come as you are, open heart and all.
Drop-in Meditation Practice: 2-3 pm
Sacred Sharing: 3-4 pm. Bring a journal. Sometimes we write.
Where: 1765 Glenview Road, Glenview in the Patio Shops
Cost: No Fee. Donations and poems appreciated.
So grateful we are here, together.
May the offerings here be balm for your heart.
Love,
Wini
🌸 Below, lovely offerings for your Heart: 2 Poems. 3 Quotes. 1 Book to Inspire. 1 Video + 1 Poem to Inspire. 1 Oldie but a Goodie Closing Song.
🌸 Two Poems to Share.
The Avowal | Denise Levertov
As swimmers dare
to lie face up to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.
Meditation | Earthschool Harmony
Be Still.
Wrap yourself
in your robes of silence
Be drawn
into the mystery
of the absolute
Feel
your connection
to the whole
You are love
🌸 Three Quotes | Sam Harris. Doris Lessing. Kathleen Dowling Singh.
“A willingness to begin again is the key to freedom.” — Sam Harris, creator of Waking Up.
“Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.” ― Doris Lessing
“Silence engenders the space called, so evocatively and beautifully by David Steindl-Rast, the Benedictine monk, "God bathing." In God bathing, the body is still, speech is silent, the mind is at peace. One bathes in the presence of the very Being of God.” — Kathleen Dowling Singh, The Grace in Dying : How We Are Transformed Spiritually as We Die
🌸 SOMETHING OF INTEREST | The Enneagram ✨
Many of you here know about my friend Karen, the tea monk and my sacred book club buddy. (It is a two-person book club. Small but mighty!) We are reading a new book that I am taken by and thought you all here may enjoy too.
Back story: I attempted learning the Enneagram years ago while working on my graduate degree at Loyola, Institute of Pastoral Studies in counseling. The enneagram is a highly regarded tool in spiritual direction but at that time I was not ready to soak into my bones. Then I attempted again with Buddhist teacher Susan Piver, studying her gorgeous book, The Buddhist Enneagram: Nine Paths to Warriorship. She explores the enneagram not just 9 personality types but also as a system of 9 ways of BEING. (highly recommend too, especially for those interested in Buddhism).
When Karen recommended us reading, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile, I was open but hesitant. Now, I am loving it so much, my husband and I are reading it too, and it comes with a separate study guide, that is beyond helpful and insightful!
If you are an enneagram lover, or are a curious-seeker, I highly recommend this book.
"With The Road Back to You, the small number of books I recommend to absolutely everyone has increased by one. You couldn't ask for a better introduction to the Enneagram than what's found in this book and you couldn't ask for better guides than Cron and Stabile. If a modicum of self-awareness is needed to navigate life these days, let this book be your map."
— Nadia Bolz-Weber, author of Accidental Saints
🌸 SOMETHING TO INSPIRE | David Whyte
“Therefore, at any time of life, follow your own questions; don’t mistake other people’s questions for your own.”
— David Whyte
Beautiful Questions. (13:27 min) Leaning into what do you believe? What are you interested in? And the fierce question–are you willing to be shocked by who you find inside yourself? David Whyte, an exquisite poet asks–
What is the self portrait you are willing to paint, Vincent van Gogh with his bandage around his head, wrapping his ear, his brokenness exposed.
He asks –what are your own questions, what questions am I carrying in my body? This is where he wrote his poem, Self Portrait from.
Self Portrait
It doesn’t interest me if there is one God
Or many gods.
I want to know if you belong — or feel abandoned;
If you know despair
Or can see it in others.
I want to know
If you are prepared to live in the world
With its harsh need to change you;
If you can look back with firm eyes
Saying “this is where I stand.”
I want to know if you know how to melt
Into that fierce heat of living
Falling toward the center of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing
To live day by day
With the consequence of love
And the bitter unwanted passion
Of your sure defeat.
I have been told
In that fierce embrace
Even the gods
Speak of God.
🌿
Listen here David Whyte: excerpt - poem Self portrait
🌸 Closing Song | The Wind
A Classic by Cat Stevens. Sometimes a song just calls.
What happens when you listen to the wind, the wind of your soul? What happens when you let it take you? I wonder where you would go?
I listen to the wind
To the wind of my soul.
Where I'll end up, well, I think
Only God really knows.
I've sat upon the setting sun
But never, never, never, never.
I never wanted water once
No never, never, never.
I listen to my words
But they fall far below.
I let my music take me
Where my heart wants to go.
I've swam upon the devil's lake
But never, never, never, never.
I'll never make the same mistake
No never, never, never.
Listen to here on Spotify (1:42 min)
Listen here on YouTube (1:42 min)
🌿
🌸 So Grateful You Are Part of This Community. 🌿 Thank you for being here!
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please feel free to share it with someone who might need dollops of goodness for their heart.
This Metta Newsletter is a Love-offering
✨ an offering to bloom more Light
💞 more Goodness
🌎 more gorgeous-tenderness on our planet.
Please consider making a small donation to support the Metta Mondays newsletter rippling out into the world for the benefit of all.
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….Until next week. 💖 ✨
