We are currently in my favorite season in the Christian year - Lent. Lent is a call to reflection and spiritual preparation for the coming Easter season. 

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, named for the imposition of ashes in the sign of the cross with the words "remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return."

It isn't often that Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine's Day, but that is the case this year, which makes me remember the last time the case. We had an Ash Wednesday service that brought together different clergy who lived into their gifting - one proclaimed the word, others served the sacraments, still others prayed over folks with the anointing of oil, and of course others imposed the ashes. Clergy gathered together, bound by the love of God. Clergy sharing the message of the great love of God for us. 

While Lent is a particular season in the life of the church, St. Benedict writes that our Christian walk is a "continuous Lent." A continual time of remembrance, preparation, and reflection. 
​
How is your spiritual journey a continuous Lent?

A few weeks ago was the third anniversary of my grandfather's passing. I knew the day was coming - it was on my calendar because we celebrate it with Floppy Hat Day - a day of wearing my grandfather's favorite article of clothing and doing kind acts in his honor. 

But, leading up to that day, I noticed I was getting really tired. I was worried that I was getting sick. Then I was worried I was getting the winter blues. I just could not work at my normal capacity. Going to bed early and still waking up tired. The general blahs. 

It wasn't until things drastically changed with my mood and general feelings after the anniversary passed that I put two and two together. My body was remembering his death in ways that my mind had tried to push aside and forget. 

Friends, I study death, dying, and grief and my body had to remind me what I kew to be true - that the body remembers.

​What does your body remember and how does it invite you to presence and prayer?

I am s-l-o-w-l-y working my way through an Annual Examen. Not one that is guided, but one that is based on question prompts that I started at an online retreat on the 30th of December. 

​Thankfully, one of the recommendations was to move through these questions with an intentional slow pace, so they have time to sit in your head and your heart. Allowing us to notice what questions sit well with us and which ones poke at us. 

Well, one of the questions that poked at me was around what moments and events had significant meaning for you over the past year. 

A relatively harmless question that the Spirit used to reveal that I didn't see significant meaning in moment. In events, certainly! I had a whole list of them - but not so much moments. 

Which leads me into an invitation in this new year to find meaning not just in big events, but in the everyday. To embrace how and when the Spirit shows up - even if I don't notice it at first. 

What is the Spirit revealing to you in this new year?

"Radical Hospitality" has become a phrase in churches, inviting congregations to go beyond what they consider to be hospitality, but may really just be friendliness, to something deeper. Something more challenging and transformative.

​While churches may have recently picked up this phrase, spiritual direction has always been a place of radical hospitality. I was sharing with one of my students recently that my first spiritual director would meet me at the door, take my coat and ask if I wanted a cup of tea. As the tea brewed, we settled in with one another to do the holy work before us.

Holy work that focuses on the directee and their experience of the Divine. 

And perhaps that is what makes spiritual direction such a place of radical hospitality. It isn't about the director - their thoughts or preferences. Rather it's about the directee and their noticings of the Spirit.

There are so few places in our world today where we show up and something is about us. Is for us. And exists to help draw us closer to God. Where are places that you have discovered radical hospitality in your life?

 If you aren't familiar with nesting dolls they are a series of usually five or six figurines that fit inside of each other in a related way. Some are the same design with smaller and smaller features. Others tell an ongoing story - like a fairytale. Still others are related characters from a narrative, like my nativity nesting dolls. 

But more than the story the dolls themselves tell, whenever I see nesting dolls it reminds me of calling. Sometimes we think that we only have one calling, but I have described my life as a call within a call within in a call - working down the truest essence of who I am. 

For example, I think my truest call is listening passionately, which effects everything that I do, in my relationships and in my vocation.

​What is your truest calling and who is helping you to discover and live into it?

This past week I had the opportunity to talk to college students about what leadership means - specifically leading from the heart. I was struck by some of the words that they first used to describe leadership - chiefly authority. 
The truth is that authority doesn't come from a title but from your character. Are you trust worthy? Do you show compassion and care? Do you model integrity, honesty, and loyalty?
Sometimes folks get confused about the phrase "spiritual direction" thinking that it is someone who is going to tell them what to do in their spiritual life - having authority over them. But it's about accompanying another person meeting them where they are. 
Who is coming alongside you on your spiritual journey?

For Trick-or-Treat, the church I serve had a table in our driveway. We stuffed 400 bags for the kids coming through that evening and had more pounds of candy than I could count. 

We ran out of everything in an hour and twenty minutes. 

Of course, there were still more trick-or-treaters coming, even as we were breaking down the tables and turning off the light. When I told one little boy that we didn't have any more candy, he sat right down on the pavement and started to cry. 

Was that little boy sad? Of course. But he was also overstimulated by all that night had entailed. 

There are times I sit down and cry as well. Perhaps not physically, but certainly in my spirit, when I become overstimulated and overwhelmed. And that is something that I bring to Spiritual Direction. Those moments that I can't sort through on my own because I'm in the thick of it. I want someone to help me see with more grace and clarity what I can't in the moment. 

​What do you do when your spirit becomes overstimulated? 

This past week I had the opportunity to talk to college students about what leadership means - specifically leading from the heart. I was struck by some of the words that they first used to describe leadership - chiefly authority. 

The truth is that authority doesn't come from a title but from your character. Are you trust worthy? Do you show compassion and care? Do you model integrity, honesty, and loyalty?

Sometimes folks get confused about the phrase "spiritual direction" thinking that it is someone who is going to tell them what to do in their spiritual life - having authority over them. But it's about accompanying another person meeting them where they are. 

​Who is coming alongside you on your spiritual journey?

How many times during the week do you think that you spoke but were not heard? Depending on who you interact with - the number could be quite a lot!

​And out of the number that heard you - how many actually listened to you and valued you what you said?

I recently had to go to a large chain store to pick up something for an upcoming worship service. I looked high and low and could not find the items I needed. So I asked a clerk - only to have her sigh and roll her eyes at me - until she realized they were all sold out of what I needed. 

Beyond just being listened to and valued, there is another layer to listening called active listening. Where you know that person isn't just valuing you and your words but paying close attention. Not waiting for. a turn to jump in with their words, but treasuring yours. 

Who is your life actively listens to you?

I recently had to travel a few days for work - putting hundreds of miles on the car. If I'm honest, I'm not a big fan of driving long distances - I do it because I have to, not because it is my favorite thing to do. 

But, over those days, I spent hours listening to podcasts. Some which were new. Others that had been in my feed for months. 

And so many of those podcasts sounded like they were having a conversation with me. Speaking right to my soul. Could I have listened to them sooner? Sure. But this - this was the right time. 

​What has been your experience of encountering something at just the right time and how did it speak to you?