REFLECTIONS
A Note on the Journey
My work over the past seasons has been deeply shaped by the writings of Bernadette Roberts. Her articulation of the interior journey gave language to experiences I trusted but could not yet name. For that, I remain profoundly grateful.
What is unfolding now is a pivot from that year with her. The blog will still be reflective in nature, but focused on different material. Something lived more explicitly in the body, in relationships, and in the ordinary moments where patterns reveal themselves and something new becomes possible.
I find myself at a threshold. There is energy here, curiosity, creativity, a sense of alignment, and also a necessary unknowing. Rather than certainty, what feels most faithful is attention.
In this season, my writing and work are pivoting toward presence as a lived reality, often through the lens of the Enneagram, not as a system to master, but as a doorway into embodiment, awareness, and honest engagement with life as it is.
This space will continue to reflect on the inner journey, but with a growing emphasis on how that journey shows up in real time: in the body, in conflict, in growth, and in the courage it takes to stay present when old strategies no longer serve.
If you are sensing a threshold of your own, you are welcome here.
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Roberts names “historical and cultural outgrowth” as one issue for distortion. Certainly we understand how historical and cultural bias creeps into a message. For instance, when playing the childhood game called Telephone, you pass a word or phrase down a line of people, ending in distorted hilarity. We also recognize that at this point-in-time the Gospel espoused by many churches would be unrecognizable by Jesus. The result though is not hilarious. Another issue is that the group misinterprets the individual’s revelation. This misinterpretation can include reasons connected with history or culture, but also with the maturity of the ears hearing the revelation. For instance, I can tell a three year-old that the earth circles the sun but the meaning may be lost to them. The distortion becomes magnified within the church when adherence to “doctrine” is elevated to faith and certainty, which results in an intellectual religion.
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At the end of the day all of life is joyful practice in order to take no revelation for granted; to honor the diversity in our spiritual experiences knowing the larger context can inform us as we are on The Way.
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How is one to understand that in a single life one can summarize, restate, or actually live the “key revelations on which man’s religions were founded?”
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From our biology classes we might recall the catch phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny."