Your Whole 360-Degree Experience

Your Whole 360-Degree Experience

My Mom and I went to Germany last fall.

It was a catch-up trip, planned for 2020 and put on hold until 2022.

I brought six things home for myself: a beautiful, hand-crocheted scarf and a sticker.

Five of the same sticker, that is.

We were exploring The Pied Piper's town of Hamelin and stepped into the sweetest little shop full of regionally made cards, soaps, children's clothes, toys and more. I was smitten by a green scarf and as I was heading to the front of the store to make my purchase, I spotted the sticker and belly-laughed out loud.

I grabbed five and settled up with the shop owner.

I used to think spirituality and sacredness had to be serious to be "real."

Stuffy, even.

Separate.

Other.

Sometimes they've even felt off-limits and unattainable.

I've come to understand them both as I understand creativity and art . . . they encompass our whole 360-degree experience of life.

Sure, they can be somber.

I've learned they can also be full of awe and wonder and imagination.

Sensual.

Sad or angry.

Celebratory and delightful.

Funny. And silly, too.

When Mom and I left for Germany, I knew I'd have four days to unpack, wash my clothes and repack my suitcase for a five-day intensive with The Haden Institute.

Two days after we returned from Germany, we both tested positive for Covid. It meant that I had to attend my intensive virtually while the rest of my cohort was there in person.

I was heartbroken.

My cohort wasn't just nine people I was studying with, they were nine people who'd stolen my heart.

During the two years I studied Spiritual Direction at Haden, we experienced a lot of different spiritual practices.

Some, I adored.

Others, I checked the box and moved on.

I thought poetry was going to be a box-checker experience, but I found that I enjoy reading poetry!

Reading is one thing.

I was WAY out of my comfort zone when we were invited to try poetry-writing as a spiritual practice. 

We were taught to begin with an abiding image; an image we just couldn't get out of our head. Something we could craft a poem around.

We were asked to write a poem to share during the intensive.

I wanted a pretty abiding image . . . flowers, the ocean, the crescent moon . . . something that felt beautiful and inspiring.

But I was not feeling beautiful feelings.

I was sad and I was angry. My heart was 194 miles away with my dear friends and I was missing them terribly.

And all I could come up with for my abiding image was the sticker I'd brought back from Germany.

I couldn't shake it. And so, I wrote a poem around it.

It felt sacred and holy to expose my true feelings and to write about them without shame.

My wish for you this week is that you honor your whole 360-degree experience of being human and that you don't reserve sacredness and spirituality for just the pretty parts of life.

This is how my cohort loved on me and made me feel included during the intensive I couldn't attend live. It was so hard being away from them.