“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.” Richard Rohr
Oh yes, I do agree with this!
Too many times has something glinted with promise, beckoning with a ‘new you!’ sales-pitch (no matter how well-intended) assuring that this [book/programme/practice] is the one – that a new, more balanced, more ‘well’ and somehow better way of living lies ahead. That with work, thinking, reading or just following the right steps this new way of living is within reach.
The reality is that living – full colour, getting-it-wrong-most-days, gloriously imperfect but keeping trucking-on-anyway – is a messy, fluid and multi-layered business and we can’t think ourselves to better versions of it.
I’ve learnt that my thinking must never be too set-apart, abstract, ‘venerated’ or idealistic that it steers me from the path of real-life. To live ourself into new mindsets we need to stay open to being wrong, to challenge and to change – to looking through the little door in our souls that leads to darkness and owning that those shadowy corners have a home in us too.
Living is done day-by-day, moment-by-moment, and it’s only through consciously cultivating our awareness of this that we might reach new, more peaceful, all-encompassing ways of thinking that may restore wholeness to us as individuals, to our communities, our world and our Mother Earth.
Writing to the early Christian community in Rome, an early church leader called Paul offered advice [you could substitute the name ‘God’ for another word for a higher, spiritual source if you find this helpful – or maybe just the deep wisdom within yourself]:
“So here’s what I want you to do…..Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering….. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.”
Romans 12: 1-2
So as we ‘truck along’, mucking-up, giving up daily and starting again, life calls to us for our attention. For us to be still for a moment – noticing the new paths that our feet are beating and the journey as it unfolds day by-day. Drawing deep energy from the reserves of Love within that connect us to ourselves and others, anchoring us moment-by-moment to both the mysterious reaches of the galaxies and the intricacies of our own human hearts. And as we live these very ordinary lives – fumbling, often painful, never straight-forward, but sometimes wonderful human lives – our Human Being is itself a gift of endless curiosity and encounter.
“Wanderer there is no road, the road is made by walking…”
Antonio Machado
These blogs, writings and podcasts explore Human Being in its fluid, multidimensional, rainbow-hued variations. You’ll see the seasons change and lock-downs come-and-go through these blogs, and hear different voices and questions rise up. We invite you into our journey of wondering, and hope our writing kindles fires of curiosity or dissent! Either way, slow down and feel it all…..
St Peters House · By the light of the moon… Advent Begins As I write there’s one day to go…. My annual discipline
St Peters House · Vulnerability – Hannah Skinner – St Peter's House I’ve been looking around and struggling to find a word to
Students in halls are on rent strike, fences were hastily erected and then pulled down, a security guard is being investigated for ‘racial profiling’. Fallowfield
St Peters House · Tearing Down Walls Tearing Down The Walls There’s fire in the belly of the earth this week. Did
St Peters House · Remember… I feel like I’ve been picked up by a gust of Winter wind, flurried around with a thousand curling
St Peters House · Halloween, Thresholds and a Liminal Year In-between places. Liminal spaces….. 2020, for many of us, is one long year of
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