Shalem Time

Hi. I'm still on Shalem time. We had 36 hours of silence, from Saturday night to Monday morning (today!). One friend here told me how she slept more than she expected in the day time, which reminds me of how I am when I go to Lebh Shomea, the silent retreat center in Sarita--I try to spend at least three days and nights there, because the first day I keep falling asleep! I think that deep fatigue under everything else finally surfaces in the quiet.

The silence was nice, as was the slower pace with no scheduled seminars. Though it is nice to have a longer period of silence, that is not practical when only ten days are set aside for the Shalem Residential time.

I am realizing that I came here, thinking I needed to find the "right" or Shalem way of spiritual direction. I am slowly integrating what I've been reading for the past few years; that I am to stay with my sight on God as much as possible and go from there. One man, a retired Methodist minister, helped me by asking questions (spiritual directing?) that prompted me to realize a further unwrapping of my last post--not to worry so much on posing enough questions, etc., but to be myself in God. The emphasis on being in one's heart with God helps me so much--and promoting silence even in the spiritual direction time to re-orient ourselves to the Holy One.

This is a good time. Tomorrow Rose Mary Dougherty will speak on discernment and reconciliation. On Saturday Tilden Edwards spoke about different traditions, chanting, and haiku. He also talked about my Episcopal Church in Corpus Christi as an example of living out of a contemplative viewpoint, especially with its Contemplative Eucharist every Thursday evening. He said he'd mentioned All Saints Episcopal Church in his new book, which is exciting! (But the publisher hasn't told him yet if it will be published.)

As Katherine E. was asking if I was still in Maryland, I'll tell you that the Shalem time will be over Thursday morning. Then all the travel starts!

And for a pertinent painting and post about spiritual direction, go to Purpletologically Speaking.