Our Shared Journey: Roots + Paths

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Our Shared Journey: Roots + Paths

Welcome, friends, to Soul Journeys Advent. We are going to be traveling, again this year, with four animal companions through the season of Advent. We are going to be connecting with Bear and Bear’s transformational process of hibernation. We're going to be connecting with Snake and Snake’s transformational process of molting. We will be connecting to Caterpillar/Butterfly, and getting invited into an inner journey, and experiencing and looking at metamorphosis. And we will be connecting to Hen and listening to that rhythm of brooding, and what it is like to labor for something, to work towards some kind of fruition, maturation, or birth, only to realize there's still more to come, more we have to wait for and wait on.

So, this is the second year that I'm traveling with these companions for Advent. And they have a little bit more to say, than they did last year. I'm really excited to share this with you and want to give you some of the roots and paths that this course and my own spiritual perspective offer, when I am creating this course. So, this particular course, and my spiritual practice and path, are rooted in Christian tradition, Christian story, Christian myth, Christian theology (primarily Christian mysticism) as well as Ignatian spirituality, which holds that Spirit speaks through all things: our lived experience, our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our bodies as well as synchronicities and the natural world. I am also rooted in Celtic spirituality, which has a very strong connection to nature, as well as connection to pagan spirituality through the Celtic tradition. I'm connected to this through not just my spiritual interest and spiritual lineage, but also my ancestry. I have had teachers from many traditions, from Reformed Judaism, to Zen Buddhism, and paganism. I am particularly interested in science, storytelling, myth, and folklore. As just personal interests, if you follow my work, you'll notice that outer space and things that grow from the ground are always popping up in my Love + Hope stories and in my courses, because these are languages that enliven me.

And again, because of my spiritual roots, I see these languages as opportunities for me to connect more to my own uniqueness, and also to the Sacred, who I believe has a unique relationship with each of us. I want this course and everything that I offer, to have room for you to approach the content with your own spiritual traditions, lineage, language, and beliefs. I do not believe that we have to believe exactly the same thing to have meaningful, nuanced, deep and expansive conversation and connection. I truly believe that our diversity is a reflection of the many, many ways that Spirit animates and is in connection to this world. I truly believe our uniqueness is a gift. And it's an opportunity to learn and to advocate for each other and the things that we do share. So, we will be diving into this course with a lot of nature, a lot of rhythms, particularly from the Northern Hemisphere, because as much as I try to recognize that this is a holiday, that Advent is a season and Christmas is a holiday, not rooted in one particular earthly experience, I am very much located in my place of the Northern Hemisphere and find myself diverting back to the winter, and the starry sky, and the cold earth, and that kind of anxious, excited waiting that happens at the end of winter, where we're all thirsting for the sun to come up a little bit earlier and set a little bit later.

I hope that as we journey with the Christmas story, and how it may or may not relate to your experience, and the experiences that I feel like these animal companions are offering us, I hope that you always know that you are invited to go to your own tradition, your own lineage, your own experience, trust it, embrace it, and bring it into this course.

So, those are some of the roots and some of the paths that I travel on a regular basis in my own spiritual journey and understanding some of what I'm bringing here. My shared value for all of us, is that we recognize that we can wave to one another from our different paths, pause and celebrate with each other, honor the different ways that we name the Sacred, the different ways we name the Light, the different ways we name Spirit, Source, Universe, God. And after we connect, and share time and ideas with each other, I hope we can go back on our path, enriched and more empathetic and sympathetic to the various ways that some of us find shelter in some traditions, and how some of us may feel a shadow from those same traditions.

So, your flexibility, your inclusive spirit, your hospitable welcome towards yourself, and what you believe and what you are still growing to believe–and towards me, and what I am believing, and how I am growing and changing in my own journey, and to others, I say, “thank you”. I give you my gratitude. I really appreciate the many, many ways that we can come to each other, come to the light and see each other for how we are different. And how we are also still connected. The next four weeks, officially begins end of November.

But before that official start of Advent, I have a couple of other invitations for you. We'll look at some of the symbology of shepherds and kings. They are not going to be the primary focus in this course, but along with the animals, they kind of came up and tapped me on the shoulder when I was creating this and said we have something that we think we'd like to share with the course and you and the people taking it. It is my goal, when Spirit offers me an invitation that clear, that I say, “Yes”. So, take a listen to that invitation from shepherds and kings, as well as from some of the animals that are in your backyard and your community before you start your adventure journey. I think it will make the experience more unique, personal, and intimate for you. And I also think it will reflect that wide inclusive lens that I really want us all to value in our time together here. Thanks so much.