Friday Five: Transformations

 

 

Sculpture is called "Expansion" by Paige Bradley. 

You can read more about it and its creation here.

  MaryBeth, over at RevGals offers this beautiful image and Friday Five:

 

For today's Friday Five, share five occasions or events in your life that have been turning points...when you have felt like a new thing was being born. You can refer to the birth of children, career, your kitchen garden, or whatever moves you.  

 

1.  Top on my list is the call I received to come to this church in Dearborn. No doubt this has been a call of birth and new life. I am blessed to be in a creative, energetic, progressive parish where I most fully able to be authentic as a priest and as a person. I love that in addition to all of the ways in which I love being here vocationally, I can also walk most anyplace I need to go and I can garden too. It's a holistic place for me, new life in many ways.

2. CREDO II - my recent experience at CREDO II afforded me an opportunity to rest in truly deep ways: long walks, daily yoga, centering prayer, daily meditation, beautiful environment, great conversations with colleagues, and great learning opportunities. The purpose of this CREDO II experience was to guide us through reflections on how we, as priests fifty-five and older, are living our lives in healthy ways. I knew going into this experience that I was holding tremendous, residual tension in my body. My body remained on high alert, in defensive mode. This became evident to me when I realized that was able to relax my mind in prayer and meditation but my hands and shoulders were clenched and my perpetual headaches were the result of clenching my teeth. This experience afforded me the opportunity to fully relax so my muscles could relearn what it feels like to rest in a relaxed state. Muscle memory is a powerful thing. I've come back from CREDO II and implemented some changes in my life. These include walking to yoga four to six times a week. Walking is one of the ways I remember to relax and appreciate life, walking is meditative. And yoga, well. Yoga is the primary way I engage my body, mind, and spirit. It's just what works for me. This practice is helping me maintain a more relaxed body and a less defensive state of being.

 

3. My marriage to Dan. Not just the wedding day...but the many years we have been together. I have much separation in my life which began when my family moved away from our home town when I was nine. Managing to have one long term steady relationship has been healing. We have a good marriage, not perfect, (we could spend more time together, go on vacations as a couple, things like that). No doubt being married to this loving, completely supportive, generous man has been transformational in life.

 

4. and 5.  Our children: each of our two children have enhanced my life. They are both creative, brilliant, ambitious, loving human beings. I am amazed at these now adult human beings. Being their mother inspired in me the desire to be and become the best version of myself for their sake, so I could be a good enough mother for them. Given my childhood that was no simple task, took a good deal of hard internal work and the good grace to have an excellent therapist. Over the years I have engaged in therapy now and then, always with good results. So, children and therapy have been transformational blessings in my life.