Faith - Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew

The Beauty of Embracing Opposites

Church, Faith, Faith and Imagination, Justice

Jeanne Audrey, unlike me, thrived on conflict. I remember her at the Re-Imagining Conferences in the mid-nineties, the gatherings by which feminism hit the mainline denominations like a train wreck; Jeanne Audrey sniffed out the conservative infiltrators and press reps, brought them coffee, and engaged them in lengthy, honest, and disconcertingly intimate conversations. By the end of the day they were exchanging phone numbers. Jeanne Audrey was fearsome in her ability to transform enemies into friends.

The Beauty of Embracing Opposites Read More »

Freedom in Constriction

Contemplation, Creativity, Faith, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Practice, The Writing Process, Writing as Sacred Journey

The spiritual path requires letting go of what doesn’t give us life and giving ourselves wholly to what does. From the outside this can look dire, but from the inside the story’s quite different.

Freedom in Constriction Read More »

God as Being, Being as God

Church, Contemplation, Faith, Faith and Imagination, Language, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Practice, Writing

A few years ago, I set off on a journey to the heart of Christian contemplation, both in practice and with studies. I began doing Centering Prayer, a form of meditation rooted in monasticism and the teachings of the mystics, and reading works from the mystical margins of Christian tradition—St. John of the Cross, Meister

God as Being, Being as God Read More »

Boiled Down to a Drop

Contemplation, Faith, Natural World, Spiritual Practice, Writing

None of us, it turns out, are separate, siloed identities. We’re all mash-ups of each other.

Boiled Down to a Drop Read More »

Original Sin—Original Blessing—Blessedly Sinful & Original

Contemplation, Faith, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Practice

We’re all Japanese kintsugi, broken pottery mended with gold, made more beautiful by its repair. These days I trust myself to do my best, but when I screw up, I’m grateful for the ways failure transforms me.

Original Sin—Original Blessing—Blessedly Sinful & Original Read More »

Mystic or Bust

Church, Contemplation, Creativity, Faith

Forget belief. Believing isn’t the point. Nor is following a prescribed set of rules or performing a set of rituals. The point is experience, opening ourselves to transformation, to awe, to becoming agents of change, to loving.

Mystic or Bust Read More »

How do we frame these times?

Climate change, Contemplation, Creativity, Faith, Justice, Natural World, Social engagement

I wish for us that we can look back at this point in history as a time of spiritual awakening, transformative love, healing reconciliation, and powerful creativity. A time where we collectively went through an evolutionary leap.

How do we frame these times? Read More »

For Behold

Climate change, Faith, Spiritual Practice

I wonder if love wants to be born through even my fear, that fear can crack me open if I choose rather than shut me down.

For Behold Read More »

Entering Shadowland

Climate change, Contemplation, Faith, Justice, Natural World

This, I suspect, is the great invitation of entering Shadowland. In the face of real darkness, we can now reorder our lives according to our values, and live these values to the utmost.

Entering Shadowland Read More »

Liberating Stories

Art Making, Creativity, Faith, Faith and Imagination, Writing, Writing as Sacred Journey

We jam our experiences into a box and come to love that box, but the work of writing—the work of evolving—requires unpacking the box and building a new one, perhaps a bit more fitting, and then discovering a cloth bag works better, and finally realizing that all these containers are marvelous but incapable of holding the true glory which is our story.

Liberating Stories Read More »