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The Holy in the Ordinary
by Ann Siddall It is early morning at Stillpoint Spirituality Centre in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. A cool breeze stirs the gum trees, the kookaburras are laughing joyously, and the earth is fragrant after the first soaking rain for three months. As I set up for a small retreat, check the diary, and respond to e-mails, a…
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Present Moment Ponderings
by Martha Campbell I awakened from sleep early this morning with a deep awareness: I am immersed in a world, a culture, a life situation in the throes of change. Claiming the anxiety I feel as my truth, I open to prayer. I acknowledge that, everywhere I turn, I see a dying process at work. Structures that I thought…
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Horizons
by Greg Cochran Although not nearly as dramatic as Jesus being whisked away to the pinnacle of the temple or to the top of a very high mountain where temptation was waiting, in my recent imagination, I have been taken back to the Southwest high desert—in particular to a natural formation called Shiprock. And more specifically to the natural…
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The Imprint of God’s Fingers
by Bill Dietrich “It is not you who shapes God, it is God who shapes you. If then you are the work of God, await the hand of the artist Who does all things in due season. Offer God your heart, soft and tractable, And keep the form in which the artist has fashioned you. Let your clay…
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Through a Mirror Dimly
By Maureen Watson In 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was surprised by what he saw. A screen on the opposite side of his lab began to glow. When he held something up between his experiment and the screen, he saw all the bones in his hand projected on the wall. Seven weeks later, Roentgen introduced the world to X-rays. As…
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Why Shalem Matters
By Shannon Howard After working at Shalem for the past year, I took the opportunity to reflect on what Shalem has come to mean to me and why I feel that nurturing contemplative living and leadership is so important in our world at this time. I have lived in several countries and have worked with organizations doing international work…