highlighting silence...

It's almost impossible to describe all the gifts that I receive when I go on silent retreat. I do these twice a year and they are basically 4 - 5 days of self-directed Silence. Silence. Not necessarily quiet. Although beautifully located, the retreat house remains on a secondary highway and shares the waterway (Madawaska River) with several nearby homes and cottages. The Silence, therefore, is what I attempt to bring to the experience. Never an easy task, but always a worthwhile one! I'll borrow a page from my sister's blog and share with you some of the highlights of my most recent retreat.

• Going out for a long run on Sunday morning along a dirt road and not encountering a car for an entire 30 minutes. At one point, I heard a rustle in the clearing and saw a flash of white tail. Finally! I had been seeing prints all weekend... As I stopped, so did the deer. We just stood there, looking at each other. That's when I brought my hands in prayer to my heart centre, bowed my head towards her: Namaste. I have nothing but Love for you, Deer. We stared a bit longer, then I turned away and continued my run. Only then did she jump into the forest. Bliss. Pure moment of bliss.


• The food. The food. The food. I am so very well taken care of at Stillpoint. The cooks pay more attention to my special dietary needs then I do on many days! Phoebe had been experimenting with "sourdough pita" at home and looked forward to sharing it with me. It didn't quite puff up as much as she wanted, but it was delish nonetheless. And those tiny herb biscuits? Please!! Every plate of fruit I received was graced with a sprig of mint and tiny flowers - as always, food that is as enjoyable to look at as it is to eat!


• Gaining new clarity regarding my chose spiritual path... i am enough... My path asks nothing new of me - no new skills, or knowledge, or training, or abilities, or anything! I have everything I need to continue living a life of sane and happy usefulness. In fact, I tend to carry too much and need to let go. My path is one of subtraction, not addition.


• The loons! Is there anything more soul-stirringly Canadian than the cry of the lone loon echoing across the water?? (Don't you dare suggest this! :-)) Every evening, I slept with my window wide open so that I could hear the cry of the loons. What began with a single, mournful wail would often be followed up by a veritable toolooloo-ing chorus coming from all directions... a harmonious cacophony that had me smiling in my sleep.

All this, and so much more in four short days. Anyone who believes Silence is an exercise in deprivation has been sorely mislead.

-simply jag

a day in the (silent) life...

"Meditation is a discipline of simplicity. Our world needs to learn it urgently. It is a discipline whereby you direct all your powers of consciousness to God. Instead of being at the mercy of your mind with its myriad thoughts and imaginations, you bring our mind, your consciousness, to silence. In that silence you quite naturally become open to God and God's power. It is an utterly benevolent power which we can only describe with the word 'love'."
- Dom John Main, OSB


Once again, I have given myself the gift of a 5-day silent retreat. I leave after work on Thursday. Here's what a typical day on a non-directed, silent retreat looks like (with possible minor variations):

• sleep
• meditate
• eat
• walk
• read/write
• eat
• nap
• walk
• meditate
• eat
• read/write
• meditate
• read/write
• sleep

Well, SOMEbody has to do it! :-) See you on the flip side of Silence...
simply jag xox

a simple season...

"Rather than viewing Lent as a season of drab and dreary self-examination and sacrifice that waters down its spiritual potency, we might see it as a time offered to us each year simply to sort things out." - http://www.explorefaith.org/

I went to mass yesterday. Regardless of my troubled relationship with the Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday still calls out to me. You see, I love Lent. I really do!

For me, it's not about giving up, it's about giving in... in to the will that god has for me.

And in order to give in to that will, I need to clue in.

And in order to clue in, I need to become the quiet... and simplify.

The take-away from yesterday's mass for me was the phrase "to be at ease in one's own skin before god". I love that. It gives a focus to my Lenten journey... with this in mind & heart, Lent can indeed be a simple season.

simply jag
xox

a simple place...

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

- Hans Hofmann

In October 2000, a crisis in my life lead me to my healing place: Stillpoint House of Prayer in Springtown, Ontario. There, in that place, I experience simplicity in a most profound way thanks to its silence and its stillness. Truly, it is by eliminating the unnecessary clutter of the everyday that I create a space for the Sacred to speak.

...and the message I'm getting is that I need to book my spring retreat soon! :-)

simply jag xox

in stillness & simplicity...

"It often seems as if we rush through life at such high speed while in our heart there is the essential interior flame of being. Our rushing often brings it to the point of extinction. But when we sit down to meditate, in stillness and simplicity, the flame begins to burn brightly and steadily. As we abandon thinking in terms of success and self-importance, the light of the flame helps us to understand ourselves and others in terms of light, warmth and love."

- John Main, OSB

My meditation space at Stillpoint House of Prayer, Springtown, ON...
Twice a year, I spend time - in silence & simplicity - detaching from the clutter of my daily life. I never fail to leave there feeling refreshed, refocused and beloved.

simply jag
xox