October Indoor Gathering

Written By Ancient Hearts Collective .

October Message: Spiritual Care in the Midst of Transition

✧ Featuring Heart Leader Tim Dean, Certified Spiritual Director

Tim is a Certified Spiritual Director who trained through the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. He also served as a Lutheran pastor for nearly 30 years. Tim deeply appreciates and honors the diversity of faiths, including those who identify as “seekers” without a specific tradition. He welcomes and wholeheartedly affirms the gifts, relationships, and callings of LGBTQIA+ people. In spiritual guidance, Tim enjoys accompanying others in discovering, naming, and being open to the mysterious loving presence arising within and around them.

✧  If you are interested in connecting with Tim to explore spiritual direction, he can be reached in the following ways:

OPENING MEDITATION

✧ Buddhist Tradition: Guided Meditation titled, “Accepting What Is.”

  • Source: “We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons for Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption” by Kaira Jewel Lingo

  • Order from a local Rock County bookstore here.

GATHERING MESSAGE

✧ Life is a series of transitions, some that we wholeheartedly welcome, and some that we flat-out resist. Based on his research for the book Life Is in the Transitions, Bruce Feiler defines a transition as a vital period of adjustment, creativity, and rebirth that helps one find meaning after a major life disruption.

Feiler uses two key terms to describe disruption: a "disruptor" and a more significant event called a "lifequake."

  • Disruptor: a disruptor is a value-neutral event or experience that interrupts the ordinary flow of a person's life. 

    • Examples: Changes to work, identity, health, beliefs, or relationships can all be disruptors.

    • Frequency: Feiler argues that these smaller-scale disruptions are constant in modern life, happening on average every 12 to 18 months. 

  • Lifequake: a forceful change in one’s life that leads to a period of upheaval, transition, and renewal. A lifequake is a major disruption that fundamentally reshapes the meaning, purpose, or direction of a person's life. It is more than just a minor interruption; it is a seismic event that leads to a prolonged period of transition and renewal. 

  • Examples: A lifequake can be a happy event like getting married, a sad one like losing a job, or an involuntary one like a serious illness. It can also be personal or collective, such as a natural disaster or a pandemic.

  • Frequency: Feiler's research indicates that the average person experiences three to five lifequakes in their lifetime, with each transition lasting an average of five years. This means we spend about half of our adult lives in a state of flux.

  • The "Messy Middle": According to Feiler, a lifequake is followed by a non-linear process of transition, with three distinct phases:

    • The Long Goodbye: Confronting emotions and letting go of the old reality.

    • The Messy Middle: A period of shedding old habits and experimenting with new possibilities through creative acts.

    • The New Beginning: Rebuilding a life with a new sense of identity and purpose. 

✧ How can we care for ourselves spiritually in the midst of our life transitions? 5 ways to move through our transitions with greater ease:

  1. Tend to your emotions: awareness of, presence with, and acceptance of grief, love, pain, beauty, hope, sadness, joy, and everything in the middle. Naming, honoring, and listening for what your emotions might have to teach you. Consider using an emotions wheel to help you identify the specific emotions you are experiencing.

  2. Find community and wisdom with others: find a community that resonates with your heart and lifts your spirit, and make time to regularly engage and participate within that community. Find support groups or listening circles with others who are going through a similar transition, and seek our wisdom that resonates with your heart.

  3. Open your heart to new experiences: consider these questions - what have you always wanted to do but couldn’t before this transition? Is there something new calling to your heart? Who in my life is doing what I would love to be doing? How can I learn from them?

  4. Search for meaning: Feiler identifies three core components that comprise our sense of meaning, which he calls the "ABCs of meaning": 

    • Agency: This is the feeling of personal power and control, the sense that your actions matter and that you have a creative impact on the world around you.

    • Belonging: This component is about your connection to others. It includes feeling valued by your community, family, and relationships.

    • Cause: This refers to a purpose or mission that is larger than yourself. It is a connection to something transcendent that guides your actions. 

  5. Seeking renewal in nature - for example, the trees are companions for transitions. Look to them to see how they move through the transition of the seasons each year.

    • Spring–awakening, renewal, new possibilities

      • What new pathways are stirring in this transition?

      • Where are the buds?

    • Summer–growth, bearing fruit, branching out

      • What is growing?

      • What directions are the branches heading?

    • Autumn–letting go, detachment, awareness of inner beauty

      • What do I need to let go of to embrace the present and lean into the future?

      • What grief am I experiencing?

    • Winter–resting, hibernating, roots

      • What kind of rest do I need?

      • What is my heart seeking?

“We need suffering in order to see the path. The origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path leading to the cessation of suffering are all found in the heart of suffering. If we are afraid to touch our suffering, we will not be able to realize the path of peace, joy, and liberation. Don’t run away. Touch your suffering and embrace it. Make peace with it. A true practitioner isn’t someone who doesn’t suffer, but someone who knows how to handle their suffering.” Thich Nhat Hanh

✧ SPIRITUAL INVITATION FOR SEPTEMBER

If you are in the midst of a challenging transition, determine the best way to spiritually care for yourself and then get started.

Spiritual Practice: listening to the trees. Placing one hand on your heart and one hand on a tree, say “Speak to me, my heart is listening.”

✧ QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

If you are in transition, does it feel more like a disruption or a lifequake?

We learned about different methods of spiritual care - what practices might support you in softening into the uncertainty?

What might be keeping you from surrendering and leaning on your source of inner strength?

PERENNIAL WISDOM SOURCES

✧ SPIRITUALLY UNBOXED

  • “Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age” by Bruce Feiler

  • “The Secret to Mastering Life's Biggest Transitions” | TED Talk by Bruce Feiler

  • “The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home” by John Philip Newell 

  • “Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver” by Mary Oliver

✧ INDIGENOUS

  • “Spirit Wheel” by Steven Charleston - an Indigenous Elder of the Choctaw Nation

✧ BUDDHISM

✧ DIVINE FEMININE

  • "Prayers to Sophia” by Joyce Rupp

MUSICAL INSPIRATION:

 

NEXT GATHERING:

  • Sunday, Oct. 19th, 10am-Noon

    • Location: Rock River Heritage Park

    • Map link: 5801 N. River Road, Janesville, WI

    • What to know/how to prepare:

      • Join us as we explore the park and connect with the land. We will create a group mandala with found objects. Mike Revels will offer a sound healing to deepen our connection to the land after our journey together.

      • Bring a chair, towel or blanket for relaxing during our sound healing.

      • Bring water and wear comfortable shoes and protective clothing.

      • Apply sunscreen and bug spray as needed.

Ancient Hearts Collective . https://ancienthearts.org
Next

September Outdoor Gathering