HERE'S TO WILD WOMEN!!!

I'm talking about the Medieval Christian women mystics.
Julian of Norwich
Bigitta of Sweden
Mechthild of Magdeburg,
Teresa of Avila
Clare of Assisi 
Hildegard of Bingen
Margery Kempe
To name a few.

These were strong, independent women who wanted more than domestic life.
Many entered the monastery where they could read and study and pray.
They wrote, they composed music, they founded and managed monasteries.
And they were passionate wild women.
At home with the intuitive and the practical.

As Carmen Acevedo Butcher says in the book A LITTLE DAILY WISDOM these women were "original, extreme, direct and frank".  They were risk takers.
No one had to tell them speak up to have impact. They left fortunes and approval to be their unique selves. Some were happily married with children multi-tasking family and spiritual work.  All served the poor and the sick in a hands on way. They were leaders. They got things done. They walked their own path when women didn't.

From--Clare of Assisi, letters-- (words of encouragement to other women)

What you hold, may you always hold.
What you do, may you always do.
Never abandon it.
With the swiftest, lightest steps
that stir no dust,
and on feet that don't stumble,
many you walk securely into the future
with joy and speed
along the path of wisdom, happy.

May your steps be practical and sure,
As the Spirit of the Lord calls you.

I am so enjoying reading their quotes. They pull no punches.
Nicely astringent when so much religious talk gets  soft and muddy.
Now, remember, they were passionately in love with God. Brazenly.
Medievally!!  
They must have driven people crazy!  Good for them.

IF THERE IS ANYTHING SACRED---IT'S LAUGHTER

And I am laughing.
A friend and colleague is helping me with my techno deficiencies.
So she changed all of my passwords for me to simplify.
Lovely.

She sent me a notice saying in caps:
EVERYTHING IS NOW---x password

All I saw was EVERYTHING IS NOW
And I thought the universe was speaking to me.
Yes, indeed, it all is NOW.
If only we could remember that.

The phrase that helps me remember that when I get greedy for the future or
wallowing in the past is:

"You are home
You have arrived" 
Thich Nhat Hanh in No Death, No Fear

In other words, "This is it. Right here. Right now.
So what are you going to do with it?"

That sounds so beatific and foolish.
Not so.  It is a demanding discipline.

WHAT IF PRAYER IS A PLACE?

I am curious about prayer.
And I pray. 

I have no grand theological surety or answers.
I have my own experience.
And I read and read and read about religions and the sacred and that"kind of stuff".  I am hungry and feed myself on every spiritual food available.

I have been reading about prayer. 
You pray it, there's a name for it.
Simple Prayer
Ordinary Prayer
Contemplative Prayer
Intercessory Prayer 
Unceasing Prayer
Petitionary Prayer

There are as many kinds of named prayers as there are names for "God"

Like usual, I dove into the topic til I emerged glutted and confused.
So once again, back to my own experience.

Prayer to me is a place I go.
I use silence and readings to take me there.
It is not meditative emptiness.
It is my home base.
When I "arrive", there is peace and contentment even when my life is a mess.
There is a sense of timelessness.
I feel re-aligned.  Truer to myself.
That's all.
Prayer is a place I go to.

WHO TO PRAY TO?

I am someone who prays but doesn't always "believe".
I've come to the conclusion to trust my own experience rather than try to force follow belief.

Strange maybe, but I have had so many people share a similar dilemma with me that I decided to share my up and down spiritual journey with prayer.

In fact, I'm writing a book with my kind of prayers in it and my joy and struggles and embarrassment about it.  It's called I PRAY ANYWAY--Devotions for the Ambivalent.

I have had the best conversations with people when I mention it. (That will be book number 2.)

So I mentioned the project to one of my sons who looked at me like I was Cro-Magnum Woman.  Kind of exasperated I asked, "So don't you pray at all?"
And he said, "All of the time.  I just don't worry about who I'm praying to."

We'll come back to that.  I found it liberating.