Project Outline

Here's what I'll be doing this summer!

Three mini retreats that will allow me time to slow down, rest, meditate, pray, and engage in those things that ground me and help me to experience God's goodness. Recently I’ve been working with a spiritual director who specializes in spirituality and trauma and we’ve talked a lot about the sorts of things that help me to stay grounded and to experience God as present and good, things that help me slow down and engage my senses, filling them with beauty to remind me of all of the ways God is present in the world around us. Doing this reminds me of the many ways God is gentle and good and loving to me, like a mother who rejoices in introducing her child to delightful experiences. Some things I’ve found that really help me do this are natural beauty, dance, spicy and flavorful food, yoga, and spiritual practices that emphasize the essential goodness of the world around us and of humanity, a goodness that God seeks to help us uncover and restore in our damaged selves and our world.

Visiting communities of faithful contemplation and social justice in the "New Monastic" tradition:

Community One: Trinity House Catholic Worker in Albuquerque, NM
Description from webpage (can’t be linked to directly—have to search from http://www.communityofcommunities.info/). A progressive Catholic community in the tradition of the Catholic Workers that runs a house of hospitality for homeless, protests nuclear weapns, and distributes food and groceries through Food Not Bombs.

Community Two: Koinonia Farm in Americus, GA. This community grew out of the civil rights movement and continues to be a strong space of Christian peace and justice work. (It's really a fascinating place. Visit the link above!)

Fun/Delighting in God's goodness/integrating faith and mommyhood: Taking my family to Ghost Ranch in Abuiqui, NM for family week, hosted by the Southside Presbyterian (birthplace of the Sanctuary Movement) youth pastor and his family. Click here for a description. It's beautiful! Georgia O'Keefe used to paint in the canyons of Abuiqui.

This part of the project, though it might seem a bit out-of-sync with the rest, feels very essential to me. I’ve spent much of the last three years overcoming prenatal and post-partum depression and working through my own mother issues. Now that I’m healthy (though seriously burned-out) I am mostly working on how to integrate this new part of my identity as a mom into my spiritual life, ministry, and understanding of the work I am called to in the church. Much of the spirituality and models for church leadership I have been exposed to are still based on the idea of a celibate male or a male pastor who devotes time to work and church needs rather than family and who develops a spiritual life primarily through solitary devotional acts. I need a more integrated model of leadership in my own life, but I also think the church needs this. I'm hoping Ghost Ranch will give me some ideas for how to develop a deeply engaged, deeply faithful, deeply progressive spiritual life with my family and in my everyday existence.

Final retreat--maybe Costa Rica, maybe Ireland, maybe local--a week-long period of rest, fun, contemplation and integration for me!