The Spacious and the Sacred

118 What is Hope part 2

It's spring and in episodes 117-120 we are talking about hope. What is it? How do we talk about this intangible thing? Can it be toxic? We don't have the answers, but we lean into the conversation. 
Gathering Word:
“Hope” is the thing with feathersby Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the words -And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -And sore must be the storm -That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -And on the strangest Sea -Yet - never - in Extremity,It asked a crumb - of me.
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Andi Chatburn: https://www.andichatburn.net/
Audre Rickard: https://www.saturatedgrace.com
Heather Fignar: http://www.heatherfignar.com
Irene Dunlop: https://www.tendsoulcare.com 
If you need support during this season, please reach out to a friend or call a crisis hotline: dial 988

117 What is Hope?

It's spring and in episodes 117-120 we are talking about hope. What is it? How do we talk about this intangible thing? Can it be toxic? We don't have the answers, but we lean into the conversation. 
Gathering Word:
“Hope” is the thing with feathersby Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the words -And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -And sore must be the storm -That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -And on the strangest Sea -Yet - never - in Extremity,It asked a crumb - of me.
______________
Andi Chatburn: https://www.andichatburn.net/
Audre Rickard: https://www.saturatedgrace.com
Heather Fignar: http://www.heatherfignar.com
Irene Dunlop: https://www.tendsoulcare.com 
If you need support during this season, please reach out to a friend or call a crisis hotline: dial 988

116 Dormancy

Episodes 113-116 move us from fall to winter at winter solstice. How do we hold onto hope in a dark season? How do we actively wait in the long dark night?
Gathering Word
Excerpt from It Will be Okay by Lysa TerKeurst
One morning, the Farmer came into the shed, as He had on many days.
“Little Seed,” He said as He placed him in His hand, “I have a wonderful plan for you. I have waited for just the right time, and today is the day!”
Oh no, please no! I don’t want to go!thought Little Seed.
The Farmer went outside and knelt down. He pushed Little Seed under the ground, into the dirt, and down to a deep, dark, messy place.
“Now, Little Seed, this is going to be different and it might seem scary, but it will be okay. You can trust Me,” said the Farmer.
Little Seed wished he were inside the cozy packet on the rickety shelf in the Farmer’s dusty shed.
“I want to trust, even when I can’t see. But how in the world is this good for me?”
“Little Seed, come back!” cried Little Fox when he saw the Farmer take his friend away. “Where are you, Little Seed?”
He looked in the front of the shed and behind the shed, but . . .Little Seed was not there.
He looked on top of the tractor and under the tractor, but . . .Little Seed was not there either.
He looked in the horse’s stall, the pig’s pen, and even in the Farmer’s boot, but . . .Little Seed was not there either.
Now Little Fox was really worried. “Little Seed?”he shouted
“I’m here, I’m here,way down in the dirt.
I’m scared and I’m lonely, but I’m not hurt,”
came Little Seed’s muffled voice right below him.
Now Little Fox was really worried. “Little Seed?”he shouted.”
Little Fox thought hard for something to say or something to do that would help his friend not be scared. But he was afraid too.
“It’s different and scary to be someplace new . . . but it will be okay, Little Seed.”
Little Seed was not so sure. And neither was Little Fox.
But the Farmer was good, and the Farmer was kind, and the Farmer was always watching over them.Even when they didn’t know it.”
______________
Andi Chatburn: https://www.andichatburn.net/
Audre Rickard: https://www.saturatedgrace.com
Heather Fignar: http://www.heatherfignar.com
Irene Dunlop: https://www.tendsoulcare.com 
If you need support during this season, please reach out to a friend or call a crisis hotline: dial 988

115 The Long Dark Night

Episodes 113-116 move us from fall to winter at winter solstice. How do we hold onto hope in a dark season? How do we actively wait in the long dark night?
Gathering Word by Alexander John Shaia
Christmas falls at the darkest moment of the year. It is also the very moment when the light is once again made visible to the naked eye.
The deepest dark is not the place where grace goes to die. The deepest dark is where grace goes to be reborn.
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Andi Chatburn: https://www.andichatburn.net/
Audre Rickard: https://www.saturatedgrace.com
Heather Fignar: http://www.heatherfignar.com
Irene Dunlop: https://www.tendsoulcare.com 
If you need support during this season, please reach out to a friend or call a crisis hotline: dial 988

114 Dreaming in the Dark

Episodes 113-116 move us from fall to winter at winter solstice. What happens when the winds shift and the days darken? 
Gathering Word:
Sweet DarknessWritten by David Whyte
When your eyes are tiredthe world is tired also.
When your vision has gone,no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the darkwhere the night has eyesto recognize its own.
There you can be sureyou are not beyond love.
The dark will be your hometonight.
The night will give you a horizonfurther than you can see.
You must learn one thing.The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worldsexcept the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweetconfinement of your alonenessto learn
anything or anyonethat does not bring you alive
is too small for you.
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Andi Chatburn: https://www.andichatburn.net/
Audre Rickard: https://www.saturatedgrace.com
Heather Fignar: http://www.heatherfignar.com
Irene Dunlop: https://www.tendsoulcare.com 
If you need support during this season, please reach out to a friend or call a crisis hotline: dial 988

113 Shifting Winds

Episodes 113-116 move us from fall to winter at winter solstice. What happens when the winds shift and the days darken? 
Gathering Word:
A Liturgy for those who feel distant from God by Heidi Johnston Every Moment Holy Volume III
I recall with longing days whenthe waters parted at your command and youcarried me, featherlike, into your presence;when your lovingkindness was the whisperthat revived my weary soul;when your presence was the pillar that marked my path by day,and your voice the flame that banished darknessand kindled my song in the night.
Oh God, my God,Where is your comfort now?
If in this season of loneliness your silencesimply offers me a chance to do what will neverbe asked of me again in all of eternity to come;
to trust without sight, believing that time will vindicate my hope and prove you ever constant,
then give me the courage to stand, trusting thatthese lines I throw out are not cast into emptinessbut, passing through the veil, have taken hold of Things eternal.
Give me boldness now,even as doubt crouches at my door,that I may choose to anchor my heartnot in the ebb and flow of feelingsBut in what I know to be true.
______________
Andi Chatburn: https://www.andichatburn.net/
Audre Rickard: https://www.saturatedgrace.com
Heather Fignar: http://www.heatherfignar.com
Irene Dunlop: https://www.tendsoulcare.com 
If you need support during this season, please reach out to a friend or call a crisis hotline: dial 988

112 Letting Go

Episodes 109-112 move us from summer to fall. In this episode we discuss the letting go and a grandmother's kazoo band.
Gathering word: The Consequences of Death by Pattiann Rodgers from Firekeeper: Selected Poems (2005) Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis. 
You might previously have thought
Each death just a single loss.
But when a plain gray titmouse dies, 
What plunges simultaneously and disappears too
Are all the oak-juniper woodlands, 
The streamside cottonwoods, every elderberry
Bush and high spring growth of sprouted
Oak once held inside its eye.
 
And when a sugar pine splits, breaks
to the ground, falling with its fiestas
and commemorations of blue-green needles, 
long-winged seeds, the sweet resin 
of its heartwood, there’s another
collapse coincident - a fast inward
sinking and sucking back to nothing
of all those stars once kept in its core, 
those clusters of suns and shining 
dusts once resident in the sky of its rigid
bark and cone-scales. We could hear
the sound of the galactic collapse as well,
if we had the proper ears for it.
 
And when a mountain sheep stumbles, 
plummets, catapulting skull, spine, 
from cliffside to crumbling rock below, 
a like shape of flame and intensidy
on a similar sharp ledge on the other side 
of the same moment, out of our sense, 
loses balance, goes blind. 
 
Because of these torn paper-shreds 
of gold-lashed wings, this spangled
fritillary’s death, somewhere behind the night
a convinced declaration of air and matter a
and intention, silenced, speaks no longer
of the god of its structure.
 
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Andi Chatburn: https://www.andichatburn.net/
Audre Rickard: https://www.saturatedgrace.com
Heather Fignar: http://www.heatherfignar.com
Irene Dunlop: https://www.tendsoulcare.com 
 
Rewilding Retreat on Dec 21, 2023
https://www.andichatburn.net/retreatmt/p/wild-winter-solstice-dec-22-23-2023

111 Storing Up

Episodes 109-112 move us from summer to fall. In this episode, we contemplate what it means to store up glimmers as sustenance for our future selves.
Gathering word a poem by Heather Fingar
What if we celebrated the smaller?
The way we hoot and holler
When tinies learn to high five
Blow kisses, carry their dishes
A blue hydrangea flower boon
Under the dying blooms unpruned
Avocados perfectly ripe
August rain, a lessening of pain
Yesterday me who thought ahead
Making today me easily fed
Hatch chiles stuffed and grilled
Spicy goodness, small gifts fill us.
Chimes below ring with the breeze
and I feel myself sink into ease
How would the practice change us to
celebrate the smaller, hoot and holler?
-copyright 2023. Heather Fignar 
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Andi Chatburn: https://www.andichatburn.net/
Audre Rickard: https://www.saturatedgrace.com
Heather Fignar: http://www.heatherfignar.com
Irene Dunlop: https://www.tendsoulcare.com 
 
Rewilding Retreat on Dec 21, 2023
https://www.andichatburn.net/retreatmt/p/wild-winter-solstice-dec-22-23-2023

110 Harvest & Gratitude

Episodes 109-112 move us from summer to fall. In this episode we discuss gratitude for Harvest even when it's messy.
Gathering word by Morgan Harper Nichols
You are allowed to haveGratitude for the presentAnd Hope for the future at the same time
 
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Andi Chatburn: https://www.andichatburn.net/
Audre Rickard: https://www.saturatedgrace.com
Heather Fignar: http://www.heatherfignar.com
Irene Dunlop: https://www.tendsoulcare.com 
 
Rewilding Retreat on Dec 21, 2023
https://www.andichatburn.net/retreatmt/p/wild-winter-solstice-dec-22-23-2023

109 Celebrations of Summer

Episodes 109-112 move us from summer to fall. In this episode we discuss out favorite summer moments - including a cold plunge in a glacial creek.
Gathering word is a portion of 
Taste and See by Puno Selesho
Taste and see.
You have loved me in my quiet, danced with me in my wild.
You take pleasure in my smile and you decorate my braids with flowers of praise.
 
Filled with wisdom, but even when I do not heed your wise call, you do not mock me as my feet trip and fall, but instead you look upon me with a longing and a love. And you say ‘Thalita cumi’, get up little girl, arise my love. Let’s try again, go right, and further on turn left, a lamp unto my feet, guiding every step.
 
Taste and see the goodness in this space
We can neither touch you nor describe you but we feel you. You are not merely a sixth sense but a potent presence with a fragrant potpourri of grace, I beg you. In every room I enter: sprinkle your petals all over the place. Fill it. Mend it. Restore it.
 
Taste and see it and feel it.
Taste and see and feel it.
Let it move to your fingertips ever so slowly, wrapping itself around you.
Let it creep up to your smile, tugging at each stubborn corner. Open up wide. Joy!
 
May the coldest, most awkward hugs become momentary havens. A transfer of love. 
Taste and see
Taste and see
Taste and see and feel
That the Holy Spirit exists.
 
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Andi Chatburn: https://www.andichatburn.net/
Audre Rickard: https://www.saturatedgrace.com
Heather Fignar: http://www.heatherfignar.com
Irene Dunlop: https://www.tendsoulcare.com 
 
Puno Selesho: https://www.punoselesho.com/