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In Quarantine or on a Retreat?

Do you have any idea how much money you have saved by going on retreat in your own home? You are going to be asked to stay home, so, why not turn part of your time into a spiritual retreat? You can create for yourself a private retreat replete with spiritual guidance, spiritual practice, journaling, creativity and reading. And add to it, you get to choose your own food. Do you want to fast on this retreat? Drink juice and tea only? Have a vegetarian retreat? Stop for a moment. With the Coronavirus pandemic unfolding and the outside world closing down around you; YOU are at the perfect place to give yourself permission to retreat and reflect. How do you plan your own retreat? Well, what are you interested in? Are you interested in spiritual practices? Give yourself a day, two, or three of no electronics and silence. Allow your nervous system to have a break from being bombarded and nurture yourself. Follow your curiosity and allow it to...

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Broken Heartedness

“We are pain and what cures pain, both.”  Rumi “What is real can never be fully taken away; its essence always remains.” Poet David Whyte Many years ago, my heart broke wide open and since then I have not been the same. It splintered after an operation and my body wasn’t recovering well. My heart broke for the vulnerability and fragility of my physical being. At the same time, my father died. The grief oozed through my body and I saw everything through the temporal lens of death. Listening to a song I would say to myself “this could be the last time I hear this song,” then I’d cry for its beauty. Watching sunrises and sunsets choked me up more. I couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful and I knew there would be a time when my eyes would behold its last. At the same time, a major relationship ended. I chose to leave my home town and relocate to a city far away from family and friends and...

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My God is Love

I sit today with more questions than answers; rich in potential revelations open receptive slightly curious recalling. An Indian guru this week said with reverence “God is really feminine in energy as She creates, giving birth all of the time.” I wonder, why then, are women diminished hated, brutalized, used throughout the world I occupy. Is it a statement really toward God and potency, not women? I pick up a book by Alice Walker Anything We Love Can Be Saved, its title. I decide I will love all that is feminine, masculine, and alive. My world will change. My God will be Love. I change the tense to the present. My God is Love. I have a new prayer. Bonnie Barnard,...

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