We live in a small mountain village. When it’s dark, it’s really dark for we have 
no street lights. Last night, in the moonlight, a man and his two sons arrived at our mountain home. We helped them load into their van our dining room table and chairs. He told us they were new in Canada, finding their way, setting up their home with five children. I shared with him how much we had enjoyed this dining room set for many years. I gave him the blessing of it into their family life. He received the blessing and returned one to us. As they piled back into their van, I heard repeatedly, ‘God bless you. Pray for us. I’ll pray for you.’. And then they drove off into the dark night.
Our move has given us the initiative to give a lot of things away to a lot of people. On many occasions I’ve been able to offer a blessing to the people. Nothing ‘formal’, but heartfelt words of how much this loom, filing cabinet, doll house, chair, book etc. has meant to me and how I wish them enjoyment, peace and an awareness of Love as they use it. Most times the blessing has been received and that is such a gift back to me.
Letting go has been deep within me this week. Giving away the dining set was just one more physical reflection of the deep emotional, intellectual and spiritual release that this move is asking of me. The layers of letting go quite astound me.
As each layer peels off, I can feel more and more vulnerable, getting closer to my core for there is less and less I can hide within, fewer roles and tasks to hide behind. Even ‘The Moving Task’ I hold more lightly, as I continue to let go realizing I can’t control it.
We have some pine cabinets that we’ve had for forty years. I’ve been trying to sell them, but no one has purchased them in Toronto or BC. Tomorrow we’ll give them to charity. Another letting go. We bought them as newlyweds, as we made our first house into a home. It is time to let them go. It is time to let go too of who we were, so we can become who we are today, a couple married forty-five years, beginning a new life in a new location. It is time to let go of who we were, so we may become who we are today.
I know there is a blessing in all that letting go. I know that, but oh, sometimes it’s hard to let go and hard to both give and receive the blessing.
What do I cling to? Many times this week I’ve asked myself that question. What things, expectations, ideas, memories am I clinging to? What might I release so I can give and receive The Blessing?
How about you? What might you be clinging to? What might you release or give away? And how might you do that?
Love and prayers
Anne
Mystic in Motion
Contemplative Fire Community Leader, Canada
I stood in the centre of the labyrinth, I felt the change of seasons all around me. There is a time to let go of things, a time to be dormant, and a time to welcome new life to emerge. I’m in a time of letting go: letting go of past connections, of old belongings, of old ways and habits, of old responsibilities and also of expectations that I brought with me concerning my/our new life. I’m in a time of letting go, and simply being patient, living within the ambiguity, uncertainty, unknowing of this season of life.
and found it complemented my retreat work so beautifully. I settled down even more to waiting patiently in the unknowing of my new life. I’m not ready to hear the answers yet. I’m not ready to know what my new life will be. I know God’s Spirit is alive and would give me answers if I needed them, but I don’t. I can wait before unopened doors and be content. I can be alive in the uncertainty. How wonderful! I can be fully alive in the uncertainty of a new life. I don’t need to know. What a relief that is!
on their adventure. Last night I woke in the middle of the night with a full brain. (Does that ever happen to you?) I felt like I was joining the gang as they made their way through Mirkwood, a deep, dark and dangerous forest. The guiding wizard, Gandalf had warned them to ‘stay on the path’. They were NEVER to set foot off it or they’d get lost and most likely perish. STAY ON THE PATH!! As the troop make their way into Mirkwood, it gets darker and darker. They walk for many days consuming all their food and water. The nights are pitch black except for colored eyes watching them. Oh, it’s murky….and then, so very tired, distraught and hungry, they smell food. ‘STAY ON THE PATH!’ I yell at them, but they don’t heed me and go racing after the smells, never to catch them, only to get into serious trouble. Why didn’t they listen?
Rhythm of Life, so I made my way through Contemplative Fire’s ‘The Companion’s Journey’, a series designed to help us be in touch with our rhythm. As I read through the material, one phrase that resonated was the invitation to follow Jesus as he leads me in a contemplative pace……a contemplative pace.
half hour into our hike I realized that I hadn’t stopped once to catch my breath. Yes, my heart was pounding, but I was okay. I could keep this pace up. I’m not a runner, but my daughter is, and I’ve cheered her along in a few of her marathons. In those races there are people who wear rabbit ears with a number on them. T
hey are called ‘Pace Bunnies’ and are volunteers who will run at a set pace, some faster, some slower. Racers find a Pace Bunny with their expected time and let the bunny set their pace for the race. My daughter became my Pace Bunny as we climbed the mountain that day. It was wonderful. I let her lead the pace. We’d stop and look at some marvelous trees and then we’d move on. It was all natural and organic.
His ways are known, not hidden. If I lose sight of him and sometimes I do, I can ask those around me for help to find him again. He won’t go far. He keeps his eye on those walking with him.
know myself as a branch entwined with the Divine Vine. Then my day unfolds as prayer. What mischief will we get up to today? To whom am I to smile? To whom will forgiveness be given? To whom will I be vulnerable? My prayers are no longer tucked into a few devotional hours in the morning, but flow through me throughout the day. And they flow, whether the light is sparkling in me like it did during my Sabbath Leave and the year that followed, or whether the darkness surrounds me as it can in this time of the relentless work of a move and significant uncertainty. No matter what…
welcoming all that comes our way as guests, being at the door to welcome whatever comes with warmth and laughter. I believe that our life on earth is about learning how to live well, to live with compassion and kindness. That involves learning how to suffer 
well. Our lives are woven with times of pain, all sorts of different kinds of pain and we are, I am, to learn how to navigate the rough waters of life with integrity, with care and compassion, with even a welcome smile. That gives me enough to work on for the rest of my life!
Right outside our bedroom window a robin has been building a nest on the drainpipe. It looks like an exposed an awkward place, but I suppose he’s done it before. Deep down, he knows how to build a home for his family. Deep down he knows that it will be just for this season. Deep down, he knows. Deep down I trust that we’ll be able to build a new home too.
‘He’ was a man who had been lame from birth, living his adult life as a beggar asking for help of people as they entered the main worship place in the city. Surely those people would be kind to him. ‘They’ were two of Jesus’ closest disciples, Peter, that impetuous one and John, the one who sat close to Jesus. That day, they ‘saw’ the lame man reaching out to them and from their open, broken hearts the healing power of God moved through them to heal the lame man.
steady me were a sense of God’s reality, having family and friends within reach and knowing the inherent stability of my life.
After writing last week about those wonderful solid stepping stones, I found myself taking steps onto slippery stones this week. Sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes in the middle of the afternoon I’d encounter anxiety, worry and fear. The whispers….’What have you done?!’ ‘You know the market is soft right now. Too bad you didn’t sell last year or wait till it rises again.’ And then….’Why did you buy that small, odd house? Surely if God were in this EVERYTHING would be smooth and effortless. The seller wouldn’t be difficult. The price would be cheap. The decisions on letting go of our belongings would be simple…..’.
off! When a ‘train of thought’ goes through my mind, I have a choice whether to stay on that train or get off it. One of the fruits of a meditation practice is a growing awareness of the train of thoughts that flow through my mind, and the flow of emotions that steam through me. I don’t have to stay on a particular train. I KNOW my destination. I can get off a train. There is no seat belt forcing me to stay.
