Hello, friends! This week we are going to be exploring poetry as a spiritual practice. This includes both reading and writing poetry. But don’t be scared off by either of those! Too many of us still carry fear or confusion from our school days over how to even understand poetry (and we’d never *think* of writing it!). While it came naturally to some of our peers, for some of us it seemed opaque, impenetrable as we sought its meaning. Or perhaps you’re one of the ones for whom poetry feels like a first language, the descriptive attentiveness flowing out of you even when you aren’t writing it down or reading a poem proper. Whatever your experience thus far, what might it look like to approach poetry anew this week, as a way of being present to ourselves and God? To forget our assumptions, notice our emotional responses, and look afresh at this particular way of shaping language—as a spiritual practice? What are your favorite poems (or lines from poems), if you have some? How have they formed you over time? If poetry has felt foreign, notice what is coming up in you as we begin this week. Do you feel curious? Guarded? Hopeful? What do you do with this invitation to poetry? To reading it? To perhaps even writing it? Notice all your inner responses, and let them be. Here is our first poem of the week. Simply let it speak to wherever you find yourself today: “Come, come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving, it doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times. Come, come again, come.” ― Rumi, 13th century Persian poet What do these lines bring up in you as we begin? What do you tend to do with those responses? What desires (and perhaps fears) emerge? How do you respond to the invitation to "come"? Have a conversation with God about all that’s coming up in you this morning.

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2023-07-31 13:30:43 UTC