What is spirituality? Different people have different answers to this question. For me, spirituality is the fuel we need for our life-long journey to God, the Source and wellspring of life. It is about becoming conscious of and intentional about a deepening relationship with God. The purpose of spirituality is to give birth to a…
DetailsWhen I was fresh out of seminary trying to learn how to be a pastor in my first (and ultimately last) church appointment, there was a retired preacher who invited me out to lunch so we could get to know each other. During our conversation, I expressed a whole lot of doubt about what I…
DetailsSixth in a series of reflections on the questions posed in The Web of Meaning by Jeremy Lent, Prairiewoods’ Spirituality in the 21st Century facilitator, April 28–29, 2023 The last chapter in Jeremy’s book, The Web of Meaning, is called “Weaving A New Story of Meaning,” and it is chock full of avenues to explore…
DetailsAs I read the recent Prairiewoods blog Many Voices, Shared Questions (Leslie Wright, Jan. 6, 2023), I asked myself, do I identify as religious or spiritual? The answer for me was a bit of each. After all I am a Licensed Leader at my Unity Center here in Cedar Rapids, so that makes me religious,…
DetailsFifth in a series of reflections on the questions posed in The Web of Meaning by Jeremy Lent, Prairiewoods’ Spirituality in the 21st Century facilitator, April 28–29, 2023 “I am here to weave my unique strand into the web of meaning.” —Jeremy Lent, The Web of Meaning Last week I attended the presentation of The…
DetailsI have been privileged to be a part of a small book group that is reading The Web of Meaning by Jeremy Lent, who will be our featured speaker at the Spirituality in the 21st Century 2023 conference on April 28–29 with Prairiewoods. This is a profound book that looks deeply into the situation that…
DetailsFourth in a series of reflections on the questions posed in The Web of Meaning by Jeremy Lent, Prairiewoods’ Spirituality in the 21st Century facilitator, April 28–29, 2023 “As a living being in the midst of life, I should pursue symbiotic, fractal flourishing for myself, for humankind and for all life.” —Jeremy Lent, The Web…
DetailsSelf-described “author and integrator” Jeremy Lent, who will be visiting Prairiewoods in April for Spirituality in the 21st Century, calls for creating a new web of meaning to enable the development of an ecological civilization in which “all humans flourish as part of a thriving Earth.” Following the flood in Cedar Rapids in 2008 I…
DetailsThird in a series of reflections on the questions posed in The Web of Meaning by Jeremy Lent, Prairiewoods’ Spirituality in the 21st Century facilitator, April 28–29, 2023 Yesterday the beautiful day took us on a drive along the Old River Road in search of eagles who winter by the roller dam. There were not…
Details“The basis of spiritual renewal is not the guilt feelings that frequently arise in sensitized individuals in rich industrial societies. Instead, it is a crazy mysticism of becoming empty that reduces the real misery of the poor and diminishes one’s own slavery. Becoming empty or ‘letting go’ of the ego, possession, and violence is the…
DetailsSecond in a series of reflections on the questions posed in The Web of Meaning by Jeremy Lent, Prairiewoods’ Spirituality in the 21st Century facilitator, April 28–29, 2023 Where am I? Literally—I am sitting in my family room, a comfortable place surrounded by the familiar. Double glass doors open to the back yard; a view…
Details“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed.” —Genesis 1:31 One of the unique things about the creation narrative is this depiction of Yahweh the creator surveying all that was made and in response exclaiming, “It is all very good.” From the stars in the universe, to the asteroids darting…
Details“I am the integrated product of my animate and conceptual consciousness—an ongoing process of ‘I’ and ‘self’ continually interacting.” Prairiewoods has always held a vision for me, a vision that includes understanding how I belong to this time and place. I have regularly attended Spirituality in the 21st Century, and this year is no exception.…
DetailsIn relationship there is no joining, no parting. It is the strengthening, the weakening. of the universal one, the divine, the strands of the web. We are all part, all part of each other, physically present, spiritually flowing. To be with this, is to be with that, to be with you. To feel as we part,…
DetailsWhen in 1963 Maurice Sendak conceived his now iconic illustrated (children’s) story Where the Wild Things Are, he had no idea how oft-quoted, thought-provoking, spiritually probing and controversial his creation would become. The son of Polish Jewish immigrants who called Maurice vilde chayes—Yiddish for “wild beast”—when he misbehaved, Maurice grew to love writing about and illustrating the experience…
DetailsTwo recent spiritual reads mirror back the invitation to “dwell” in contemplation. As this incredible home we call Earth accompanies us on yet another whirl around the sun, we may find ourselves spinning in “busyness” and asking, as author Ursula Le Guin does, How am I prioritizing time for prayer, meditation, reflection? Le Guin calls…
Details“We must seed a new consciousness … drawing its inspiration from perennial spiritual and moral insights, intuition, and experience. We call this new awareness interspiritual, implying not the homogenization of religion, but the recovering of the shared mystic heart beating in the center of the world’s deepest spiritual traditions.” —Wayne Teasdale, The Mystic Heart The Fetzer Institute published What Does…
DetailsEach December, as one year winds down and another is just a glimmer of possibility, I try to encapsulate the outgoing year—and how I experienced it—in a single word or phrase. The year I regained my health by losing weight, went skydiving and took a pilgrimage to Italy with my mother, my word was Joy.…
DetailsHave you heard the phrase holding space? One person can hold space for another by just listening to what they have to say—without judging, without problem-solving, without comparing their experiences. It is a loving, compassionate act. Sometimes holding space can mean literally “holding space,” offering someone a place to be as they sort things out…
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