Exhaling My Prayer Breath

On January 29th I received my first Pfizer vaccine shot. On February 19th, I received the second shot. Two weeks later, I could finally begin to breathe deeply again. How long had I been holding my prayer breath? I didn’t realize how long I had been shallow breathing… more than 11 months, beginning when we […]

April 04, 2021 by Westina Matthews
Categories: Beloved Community, Body Prayer, Breath, Community, Compassion, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Living, Contemplative Spirituality, Continuous Prayer, Coronavirus, Loss, Love, Pandemic, Prayer, Race, Self Compassion, social justice, Solitude, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual discipline, spiritual growth, and spirituality in community. Tags: awareness, body prayer, breath, Breath of life, breathing, community, compassion, contemplation, contemplative tradition, Covid-19, Dana Fauds, George Floyd, gratitude, grounding, healing, Heschel, hope, love, prayer, Prayer breath, presence, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, racial equity, racial justice, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, suffering, trust, Vaccine, and Westina Matthews. Formats: Friday Blog. Interest Areas: Friday Blog.

The Sacredness of Time

As 2020 draws to a close and a new year opens before us, I’d like to offer some words that invite us to reflect on the sacredness of time. This year has been so hard, in ways unimaginable to us at the start of it: deepening climate crisis with both drenching rains and severe drought […]

December 12, 2020 by Barb Kelly
Categories: Christmas, Community, Compassion, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Leadership, Contemplative Living, Contemplative Spirituality, Continuous Prayer, Coronavirus, Discernment, Listening, Loss, Love, Nature and spirituality, Non-duality, Pandemic, Prayer, Retreat time, Self Compassion, Service, social justice, Solitude, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual direction, spiritual discipline, spiritual growth, spirituality at work, and spirituality in community. Tags: 2020, awareness, Christmas, community, compassion, contemplation, contemplative tradition, discernment, Genesis, God, grief, grounding, healing, hope, Howard Thurman, Inspiration, Jesus, joy, leadership, listening, love, Meditation, nature, New Year's Eve, peace, prayer, presence, qadash, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Heschel, Renewal, silence, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, suffering, and trust. Formats: Friday Blog. Interest Areas: Friday Blog.