The Big Share

For a New Beginning

In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

~John O’Donahue

Friends, Welcome to the Perennial Sojourner Blog!  I am thrilled to actually be publishing this blog with the help and support of wonderful friends Ruth, Lisa, and Robin.  It has been bubbling up inside me to share my late night epiphanies and lessons from bodywork, meditation, and religious studies.  Sharing our stories gives voice to our souls and opens space for others to do the same.  It takes courage to share your insides on the outside.  Always, I am looking for the inner and outer aspects of my life to be in coherence.  How our beliefs about who we are, why we are here, and what we are meant to do shapes our choices, our responses to circumstances in our lives, and how we move into the next chapters of our spiritual autobiographies.

I am especially interested these days in an up and coming degree in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, seeking to make the healing capacity of Story Sharing mainstream in our modern culture’s medical system.  Indigenous cultures and healers have known since the beginning of humankind how valuable a person and community’s stories are to one’s health and identity.  In today’s rapidly evolving social and spiritual environment, I see an intersection between story sharing in the provocative concept of evangelization for modern Christian churches, and in the shift in the nature and actualization of healthcare.  I imagine a program for lay and ordained people with a curriculum designed to help each of us discover, explore, and express our spiritual autobiographies- expanding the narrative of human history and exponentially educating each other and our growing members in this planetary family.

Like the perennial philosophy of many paths leading to one loving and unified Beingness, each of our stories is a puzzle piece in the ornate panorama of existence.  So I take this leap into cyberspace at the end of a year, and the beginning of a new practice in risking the Big Share to invite you to begin considering who you are, how you got to this moment, and where you feel Spirit calling you forward.  I imagine this to be a space of connectedness; sharing of resources; and gentle, yet brave exploration.

Check out my links to books and podcasts for some highly influential resources.

Start writing, moving your body, and feeding your soul in the all the ways that already matter most to you; and better yet- all the ways you have been dreaming of trying!

Peace and Love,

Gina