Affirmation:  I let go of struggle.

The immaculate Conception parish in Durham, North Carolina held it's annual woman's retreat this last weekend.  It was at the Baptist retreat center on Oak Island, North Carolina.  Approximately fifty women attended.  They were of all ages and ethnic backgrounds.  There was one man, Father Jude Siciliano but as one of the women tried to explain to me, he was such a remarkable man that the women attending would be very comfortable with his presence.  She was right, very right.  

As you probably know if you regularly read this blog, I am very familiar with creating and presenting retreats.  This year will be our eleventh Pink Ribbon Yoga Retreat.  At the time of this blog, our first planning session is about to take place.  It takes a solid six months to get an event like ours together. 

The committee for the Immaculate Conception retreat also works on their event for many months beforehand.  It was very obvious.  They didn't miss a thing.  It was everything I'd want a spiritual retreat to be.  The design was very gentle with lots of free time.  The rooms were comfortable and well appointed.  The setting was originally Fort Caswell with remnants of the cement bunkers and walls in the midst of lovely houses and stunningly beautiful ocean vistas.  We were able to watch the sunrise and the sunset.  The theme was, Reclaiming the Gifts of Sabbath Living and we were encouraged to come with something written out that we wanted to eliminate from our lives.  We were then encouraged to "take an intention" to help us accomplish our desire.  I was right at home.  I must admit I also felt a little smug; I mean I'd already looked at the year and I had set an intention.  I was ready!  I really was but just like all adventures there was so much to experience than I could even imagine.

We were a carpool of four. We were the only four from our part of the Triangle.  It was a delightful ride to the beach.  One of the other women took on all the driving and another coordinated our pickups.  I was honored to be with these three spiritual sages.  They had all worked hard at getting in touch with God, each in their own way.  I couldn't wait to see what I would learn from each of them.  The simple fact that I was not in charge of any aspect of this trip, other than packing my own suitcase, was a gift in itself.  What a way to start a new year, in the company of three very loving, wise women and then to share in the journey of several dozen other women all with the same desire to know God better, to find a way to be better connected to the Divine. 

Father Jude led us in several ceremonies but for me the most meaningful were the two Centering Prayer sessions, twenty minutes of eyes closed and emptying the mind.  How easy that sounds but how difficult to put into practice.  I've meditated now on and off, mostly off, for over thirty years.  I'm great at praying and of course, I always journal but being called upon to just sit silently, without going to sleep, for twenty minutes, twice a day, is simply something I haven't made happen in my life, probably because I really don't want to.  I am a busy person.  There is so much to do and to think about and of which to be in charge!  I do fully realize, however, the multiple benefits of meditation, of resting the brain and in this case in finally being silent so that I can listen to God, not always be dominating the conversation.  That's what we were given, two twenty minute sessions to simply listen.  Did God speak to me?  Yes, She did!  

During both sessions I received images that I cannot explain.  I went into the first session with a question to which I could not find an answer and somewhere in that twenty minutes, an answer came and one I feel I never never would have arrived at using any other modality.  I was actually stunned and felt a great sense of peace.  During the second session I was prepared to simply sit quietly and repeat my word or "mantra" but once again I was visited with an image.  It was a warm, comforting person and I was so grateful for her care.  I might have stayed longer but the bell rang and she left.  She left and yet I still feel her with me.  I'm not sure if or when she will ever leave again.  

I'm curious now, will each time in Centering Prayer bring a new insight, a warm feeling, a sense of peace and calm or was it the power of almost fifty other people sitting with me that presented me with these gifts?  A few years back I took a ten week course in Mindful Meditation at Duke Integrative Medicine.  I sat quietly in lotus position, crossed legs, on the floor twice a day for twenty minutes for ten weeks and then the course ended and so did my practice.  I know all the benefits meditation presents.  I've read about lowering blood pressure, increasing self discipline, improving concentration and about how the brain actually changes its state with ongoing meditation.  This January there was a Sixty Minute episode that showed a computer scan of the beneficial effects on the brain during meditation.  I haven't read a self-help book yet that doesn't at some point tell the reader to meditate.  Presently, I am listening to Richard Rohr’s, The Art of Letting Go.  I just began session four this week.  Guess what the topic was?  Contemplation or meditation and why it’s so beneficial not only to our bodies but to our spirits.  

Am I ready?  Can I do it?  Even as I sit here and write I can feel the resistance.  "Be careful what you pray for," I've been told.  So, I'm not going to ask God to help me with this intention. Instead I'm simply going to allow the time to unfold and present itself to me.  My intention for the year had already been set before I ever got to the retreat, this is, The Year of Trusting in Christ.  The quality I left behind at the retreat to honor Sabbath living was struggle.  My affirmation is, I let go of struggle, even the struggle to meditate daily.  I'm simply going to see how the days evolve and maybe this time, with God in the picture, my desire to sit quietly and discover His/Her message will come as a welcome gift.

Stay tuned.  I'll report back in a few months.  Maybe you want to join me in this journey?  I'd love to know what you might discover.  

 

Trusting in Christ

Affirmation:  I dedicate this year of 2015 to trusting in Christ.

It’s January 1st, 2015 and that can be a time for reflection and retrospection.  I know many people make some sort of New Year’s resolution.  It can be a very common topic during the first few days of January; “Have you set any New Year’s resolutions?”  We all know how they usually go.  Most people are lucky if they hold onto those resolutions for more than a day.  You know the usuals: lose weight, stop smoking, begin exercising, eat healthy, spend more time in prayer and or mediation, etc. and then life takes over.  The holidays are finished and most of us head back to work or to our normal routine and that routine doesn’t include those good intentions.  There is however, ways to make permanent changes in our life.  Some changes we choose, those can be a gift we give ourselves.  Other changes are thrust upon us, and depending upon how we approach those, they can also be a gift we give ourselves.  

I’m very excited about this New Year.  I must admit coming out of Christmas and looking towards the New Year, I didn’t feel excited.  I felt anxious but I’ve been consistently journaling and reading as much inspirational and motivational writings as are available to me and I’ve decided that this is my year to simply go with the flow, to let go of the struggle and the challenges that I’ve always created for myself.  My study group, The Seekers, is presently reading Martha Beck’s Finding Your Own North Star.  I really had a difficult time relating to the beginning of the book but midway through it took on new meaning.  The section we are presently studying is about The Change Cycle.  Change, one of those elements that every human being experiences and experiences all the time.  Sometimes we are aware of the changes, they are dramatic and potent but most change is subtle and insidious.  We go through life not paying much attention to it.  It hasn’t really commanded our attention but it’s always there and how we deal with small changes is a precursor to how we deal with large changes. 

My Enneagram type, Type 7, is prone to anticipation.  It’s part two of Martha Beck’s Change Cycle.  That may sound exciting but the truth is it can be exhausting and it takes me “out of the moment,” out of the experience of the present.  I miss too much by not paying attention to the Now.  Between Martha and the information about my personality type in the Enneagram, I decided not to live like that this year.  This year my intention is to allow life to unfold.  I want to live in the movement of the spirit.  I can’t tell you what that will look like and I will tell you I have prayed that I am not called to be a martyr but I’m still going to go with it. 

I owe this year’s intention to one of my dear friends and study group traveler.  She gifted me with the book, One Word That Will Change Your Life by Jon Gordon and she has shared with me over the year the impact of focusing on one word, like taking a mantra.  I know my intention is more than one word but the word I’ve chosen to focus on is Trust.  It’s been here now for a few years, floating in and out of my consciousness and my affirmations.  A while back I developed the RTR principle: I fully Rest in God’s care, I Trust in God’s love and I Release myself from any struggle.  It was helpful but it was a little like a resolution; I didn’t hold onto it for very long.  I have discovered that when I take an intention for the year, miraculous things, subtle and not so subtle take place and without a lot of effort my life takes on new meaning and color. 

This is the third year of taking an intention, declaring the year a “year of.”  This last year you might recall was “The year of connecting to the Divine.”  It’s been a wild roller coaster ride with the publishing of my book in February, the death of my mother, Margaret Grolimund in March and the marriage of my daughter, Ellen, to Adam O’Sullivan in May but through it all there’s been a peace and a sense of being in the presence of a greater power.  Each morning my journal had the year’s intention written at the top of the page and even though I mostly left the thought as I went throughout my day, I still carried it with me in my inner being.  As with all affirmations I believe they first enter your consciousness, then our subconsciousness and then they permeate our cellular being and we are different, different in ways we might never even imagined but different in ways that enhance our lives. 

I’m ready!  I’m excited about this year’s intention.  I am expecting amazing, miraculous things.  I know life will still hold all the challenges life normally holds and maybe a few I can’t even imagine and for which I would never ask but I’ll be good.  I’ll let this new intention seep deep within me and whatever the world throws at me, I’ll be breathing deeply and knowing that since I’ve made a conscious choice, every day to trust in Christ, I’ll look back on this year, just as I did on 2014 and see the miracles and the blessings in all the hills and the valleys that is the ride of my life.