Contemplative Practices - Jen Helmuth

Self-Observation Without Judgement by Danna Faulds

Release the harsh and pointed inner voice.
It's just a throwback to the past, and holds no truth about this moment.

Let go of self-judgement, the old, learned ways of beating yourself up for each imagined inadequacy.

Allow the dialogue within the mind to grow friendlier, and quiet.
Shift out of inner criticism and life suddenly looks very different.

I can say this only because I make the choice a hundred times a day to release the voice that refuses to acknowledge the real me.

What's needed here isn't more prodding toward perfection, but intimacy - seeing clearly, and embracing what I see.

Love, not judgement, sows the seeds of tranquility and change.

I am my silence. I am not the busyness of my thoughts or the daily rhythm of my actions. I am not the stuff that constitutes my world. I am not my talk. I am not my actions. I am my silence. I am the consciousness that perceives all these things. When I go to my consciousness, to that great pool of silence that observes the intricacies of my life, I am aware that I am me. I take a little time each day to sit in silence so that I can move outward in balance into the great clamour of living.
~Richard Wagamese from his book Embers

This Richard Wagamese reading set the beat of our silent breathing and being together this morning.

When the drum beats, it resonates beyond your body. It becomes the heartbeat of Creation as it was meant to be. To sing with it is to offer a blessing to all that is and to receive blessings back. That's why drums echo. Put your hand on your chest. close your eyes. Feel the drum in your chest. Sing with it and blessings become your breath, indrawn and expelled, emptying and filling, all the world at once...

A Blessing For the New Year
by John O'Donohue

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The gray window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colors,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the curragh of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

Thanks to everyone who came to the Contemplative Practice this morning! Here is the poem that I read:

The Clear Days by Wendell Berry

The dogs of indecision
Cross and cross the field of vision.
A cloud, a buzzing fly
Distract the lover's eye.
Until the heart has found
Its native piece of ground
The day withholds its light,
The eye must stray unlit.
The ground's the body's bride,
Who will not be denied.
Not until all is given
Comes the thought of heaven.
When the mind's an empty room
The clear days come.

A few pictures to help you find your way.

Welcome to the new Contemplative Practices page! I'll post news, upcoming events and readings from our practice times. I'd love to hear from you, please reach out and let me know what you'd like to see in our community around contemplative practices and spiritual wellbeing in general.