As a peer group leader with Shalem’s Transforming Community: Leading Contemplative Spiritual Groups and Retreats program, my focus was on helping our associates to be fully present in the Presence through the many prayer practices taught throughout the program. Silence is one practice that plays a vital role in helping us to be fully present […]

Early one morning something was stirring outside. It was almost as if something was tapping on the window, beckoning me out. I pulled open the front door and immediately felt light gusts of wind as I stepped onto our sheltered patio. As I looked heavenward, the upper branches of the eighty-foot redwoods by the garage […]