Friday Freewrite Fifteen

Today, I will write on my blog and not my private journal. Combined with the other blog I lost but then I found again, I have been blogging for 22 years in October. There were only 24 posts on that blog (and I cannot remember how I lost it). 

So many memories of blogging. I had this blog, but I also had the blogs that were for Project365 - taking a picture a day for the whole year and posting the picture on the blog so that the other 32 people I did it with could also look at the picture you posted. Now, people would probably do it on Instagram, but there was fun in doing it on a blog because I could write something to go along with the picture. It was photojournalism. It was beauty too. I have asked my directees (especially when I was training to do it with children) many times, "Where did you see beauty in the last week?" Keeping my eyes open to the beauty around me was so enriching for me. I am so glad I did that. I did it for five years starting with 2007. That was the year my mom died. So it was also healthy to document that journey. 

I am deciding whether I will go to the Prayer Watch at 5:30 am. They do not offer much variety in the Watches. It is always a few minutes of introduction by the leader. Then they always break you up into rooms where there is discussion and you pray for yourself after you pray, then we all come back for the final prayer. There used to be so much variety. There isn't much contemplation like there used to be. Often, we would have prayerful meditation as a group in a passage. I don't even get asked to facilitate it anymore because I have said, "No" so many times. 

I feel like I should go just to keep in touch with people, but it isn't like it used to be. I asked about starting up Silent Prayer (or Centering Prayer) again, but they have not gotten back to me. Maybe I didn't get back to them, and maybe i just need to not lead anything because I am leading three and possibly four groups in the fall. Supervision for B, C, D; Direction Training for five, Exercises for four (plus an intern), and possibly a Director Development group with Renovare. I don't know. Maybe that is enough for now. 

With the Director Development, I would like to lead that monthly rather than every other month. I want to go deeper in the books, if that is possible. I will probably still go to the group that I have been in locally for 10 years, but I had told some of my directees that I want to offer that to directors that I am involved with. 

So, I think I have freewrote for fifteen now, and I need to decide about the Prayer Watch. I feel like I have so much to pray about. Maybe I will go to the next one at 8:30. That will work out much better with my schedule. Bye! 

The War of Worldviews: Choosing Connection in a Culture of Separation

Our culture is obsessed with safety and self. We are constantly assessing risks, prioritizing tasks, and categorizing people. We seek out security, efficiency, and comfort and avoid uncertainty, wasted time, and distress. We crave the known, the quantifiable, the safe. We resent people who interrupt us, challenge us, or need something from us.

"Listen, Hear, Obey, Shema!" Those are the last lines of this book. And it sort of sums up the book and how the world can change as a result. It is a God sized vision for the world. 

I am a "micro" person, and Jamie is both a "micro" and "macro" guy. His first book, Living Fearless, is for the individual and is a "micro" book, but it is the foundation for living a "macro" life out in the big world. 

This book is looking into this on a "macro" level in the world, but don't let it scare you. Jamie is brilliant, and I encourage you to read it. Some things may be over your head, but the stories are so engaging, even for a "micro" person!

Here is an interview with Jamie about the book:

Wednesday Freewrite

I have not done a freewrite on here in ages. So, I am setting my timer for 15 minutes and am typing away.

I journal every day. I call them "Morning Pages" aka The Artist's Way. I have to admit that I am not following all of Julia Cameron's advice because I have not had an "Artist's Date" for months. I have been creating though. So, I guess I can call that "art" in that I am writing curriculum for the Spiritual Direction training that I am starting in less than a month. It will be Thursday-Saturday, September 17-19th. WOOHOO.

I am very excited about this too. The group is so good. I was just trying to get through "finishing well" with the group I am been supervising/training this last year. I had deadlines for doing a final "Core Competency" Evaluation and then meeting with them all one-on-one. They have been a joy. They are new directors, but they will be great directors. I want them to feel freer to be the unique director that they are. I think one of them would benefit from more supervision. The other three are going to do great with supervision about every three months or so. Those three will continue to meet with me. I did not initiate that. It just happened. They all discerned that they would not do the third year offered by the organization I have been working for this last year. In that discussion, they asked if I would be willing to continue with them in supervision. Since three of them asked, I suggested that we gather all three of them, meet monthly, but only have one of the three present over a six-month period from January-June next year. They would get a supervision every three months, and there would be no meeting in the summer. Mine will be 6 months and $150. I think this will be good. I will also lead them in how to do "Peer Supervision." That way, they can go on and do it among themselves for free. 

I think B would be really good at that. Maybe I will ask B if she wants to intern as a supervisor with me. I could let her take the lead on supervision, and she could talk about how she transitioned from formal supervision to peer supervision. I would need to ask B if that would be OK with him though. We will see. 

All that said, I would also use my 10 supervision models for my supervisees. That would be important. 

Today, I will go to hear Trevor Hudson speak to the group. 

Parenthetically, I want to add that I love the group that I have been working for. It has been an honor. I think they are all sincere people, I do training and supervision differently, but that is OK to have different models of supervision. 

I think I will introduce that concept of having one book they read in the six months we are together. Maybe a book that is about spiritual direction or maybe a book about a specific subject in direction, like doing it with children, doing it using the Enneagram, or bringing cross-cultural spiritual direction into it. 

We will see. I am excited to develop this. 

I am also excited to lead a group through the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius. I only have four and one intern, C, who did it with me back in 2020. I know two out of four of the people doing it pretty well, and then I have two that come highly recommended by the sister-in-law of a person I did it with and the wife of a fellow supervisor. It should be really great. 

Oh this is fun to do a free write here. I should go back to doing more of them. I just have to not mention names, but this is similar to what I do over at Morning Pages. I don't know why I wanted to do it here today.

Oh, the picture above is from a meditation I did in Psalm 23 this morning. This is a page from a poetry book I read to the R girls when I was a nanny in Spain 44 years ago! 

I think it is going to go off any second. Oh, I have a new oven and microwave. My husband is so great to do that for me. 

Ok, 20 more seconds. I have just Trevor's talk and writing curriculum today and Pilates and a walk. Bye! 

Theo of Golden

There are no words that could express how much I loved this book. I read one of the reviews by a friend. She gave it such a harsh review calling is "saccharine"! I was so shocked. 

Then I asked one of my best friends. She didn't like it either! WOW! She said everything was too "tied up in a bow." So that is fair. She is also a very logical thinker on the Myers-Briggs, and I am a sap. So there you go. 

All that said, I LOVED it. I brought it to the Spiritual Directors I am supervising this year, and one of them had just read it and thought it would be so good for spiritual directors to read it. It is about hearing a person's story and really "seeing" the other. I think that is so true.

I don't want to ruin the plot. But I highly recommend it (even though two of my friends do not - LOL!). 

A friend told me about this Oprah interview with the author. It is excellent. 

In the interview, they interview three people (a country singer, a musician, and another person - I cannot remember what she does, and I don't remember any of their names) who loved the book too. Here are some of their favorite quotes that I took a screenshot of during the interview.

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

My husband and I watched this series years ago, and he has read all the books. We own all of them and the series, but I have never read them. He is rereading (retirement has upped his reading), and I thought I would join along (like he did when he saw that my son and I were both rereading Narnia).

It is a swashbuckler with many action scene of ware described. My husband says that the later books get into more dialogue. I will still rewatch the series with my husband (I gave it to him for a Christmas long ago), but I think this first book in the series will be my last. I just didn't get into the battle scenes. 

Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith

I read Hillbilly Elegy two years ago, and this was a continuation of his story from atheism to Catholicism. I found it very compelling. He is very pro-family. I loved that. He has some very compelling arguments. He got a bit political about 3/4ths of the way through the book, but then he got back to faith toward the end, and I would recommend this book. I am not catholic, but I practice so much that the catholic church has practiced for a very long time that seemed to get lost in the Reformation and Evangelicalism. I love that. 

With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God

I am doing a simple book review because for some reason, Google has given a "warning" for my last two posts on this book, and I still cannot figure out why. Many years ago, they said my BIBLE BOOK CLUB once had offensive content, and I never knew what they were talking about then either. 

With is a simple book. It talks about how most followers of Jesus have four different "postures" toward God:

1. Life Under God - Obey rules to control outcomes (Think the cult of the Duggar family)
2. Life Over God - Rely on divine principes rather than relationship
3. Life From God - supplier of spiritual goods
4. Life for God - Pursuers of mission, achievement, or purpose for God, often leading to burnout when identity is tied to usefulness. (This is the camp I deal with a lot in spiritual direction.)

The posture God longs for is a relationship WITH Him. Amen. The enemy has really messed with people's minds because this should be really obvious, but it is not for most people. So sad. 

That is all I will write for this. For a more extensive review, please just read my other post that has the "Warning" on it. It goes into more detail, but I am so afraid even this one is going to get a warning on it too. This is so silly. 

With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God (Ignore Sensitive Content Warning!)

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.