Many Paths to Contemplation
Contemplation is not confined to silent monasteries or meditation cushions. True contemplation blossoms when we surrender to life's currents, allowing love and suffering to shape our souls. The path unfolds through our daily experiences, relationships, and commitments.
Parenthood, partnership, and profound loss thrust us into contemplation's crucible. Caring for children, nurturing a marriage – these acts of selfless love demand our presence and vulnerability. Grief shatters illusions, compelling us to confront reality's rawness. In these moments, we touch the sacred heart of existence.
The spiritual journey is not a solitary quest but a dance with the divine flow permeating all things. We need not retreat from the world but lean into its joys and sorrows with open awareness. Each act of compassion, every tear shed in empathy, deepens our union with the loving presence underlying reality.
Contemplation is a way of being, not merely a practice. It is a radical openness to the needs around us, an embrace of our inescapable interconnectedness. Whether partnered or single, parenting or childless, the invitation remains: To live wholeheartedly, with our hearts cracked open to the world's beauty and pain.
The monastery is everywhere. The sacred silence echoes in a child's laughter, a lover's tender gaze, a friend's shared sorrow. By flowing with life's currents, we become contemplatives in action, midwives of a more loving world.
(inspired by: Universal Christ Interview with Fr. Richard Rohr; Parker Palmer, On the Brink of Everything)
I needed the reminder to approach caregiving as contemplation. How can I go with the flow today and seek to respond to invitation rather than feeling like my needs are neglected as my parent's needs increase.