Let Silence Be Your Partner in Healing
"Saint John of the Cross taught that interior silence is the place where Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds. Make time during the day to be alone — not to read or watch TV — but to be quiet. Garden, sit outside, walk mindfully, go into nature, meditate, be with music. Most of us will give out time and energy away to others, leaving little for ourselves. The disbalance that occurs when you squeeze yourself out of your own life creates new stress that prevents the healing of old pain. Save time to let silence be a partner in your healing."
— Fire in the Soul: A New Psychology of Spiritual Optimism
Savor Interdependence
"I was driving along in a companionable silence with a niece of mine when she was about six. She turned to me suddenly with a beatific smile on her face and announced cryptically that words were wonderful things because they contained information about many worlds and how the different worlds touch. When pressed for an explanation, she said that a tree had to do with the world of the sky — the sun, rain and wind. It also had to do with the earth and the worms. Everything was connected. Little Alexa had stumbled upon the concept of interdependence."
— A Woman's Book of Life: The Biology, Psychology, and Spirituality of the Feminine Life Cycle
Protecting the World from the Ravages of Greed and Violence
"From a spiritual vantage point our major life task is much larger than making money, finding a mate, having a career, raising children, looking beautiful, achieving psychological health, or defying aging, illness, and death. It is a recognition of the sacred in daily life — a deep gratitude for the wonders of the world and the delicate web of inter-connectedness between people, nature and things — a recognition that true intimacy based on respect and love is the measure of a life well lived. This innate female spirituality underlies an often unspoken commitment to protect our world from the ravages of greed and violence."
— A Woman's Book of Life: The Biology, Psychology, and Spirituality of the Feminine Life Cycle
The Net of Love and the Open Heart
"At a conference where I was lecturing, an elderly couple stepped into the crowded elevator. The gentleness of the wife's hand on her husband's shoulder as she guided him in, and the innocent sweetness with which her eyes swept over the ten or so of us fellow travelers, invited me into a holy moment. I felt as if I were in her skin, a proud grandmother casting her net of love over a brood of strangers that somehow were all her children and grandchildren. My heart overflowed with the joy in her heart, and for a moment we were one. When the heart is open, we overcome the illusion that we are separate from one another, and the mystery of divine love wraps us in a cloak of security, unity, wisdom, and joy."
— The Ways of the Mystic: Seven Paths to God
Forgiveness
"Forgiveness is one of the least understood of all spiritual practices. It has nothing to do with condoning poor behavior in ourselves and others. Rather, it calls us to responsibility. In forgiving ourselves, we make the journey from guilt for what we have done (or not done) to celebration of what we have become. This transformation of heart comes about through reflecting on the results of our mistakes, understanding how ignorance or woundedness created those actions, and doing the necessary healing so that we will do better next time. Error calls us to repentance, which means literally to think again. It is the crucible in which the soul is forged and the psyche healed. Mistakes, in fact, are sacred because of the powerful potential for growth that they contain."
— The Ways of the Mystic: Seven Paths to God
The Light Is Steady and Sure
"You are at my side, dear friends, and God is everywhere. Yet ultimately we are alone, making our way home by the candle of the heart. The light is steady and sure but extends only far enough to see the next step. That there are steps beyond is a matter of faith. That we have the faith to endure and walk our own journey — even when we think that we are lost — is a gift of grace, and of friendship. Many times our light seems to go out. But another light, one held by a stranger or a friend, a book or a song, a blackbird or a wildflower, comes close enough so that we can see our path by its light. And in time we realize that the light we have borrowed was always our own."
— A Woman's Journey to God: Finding the Feminine Path
The Ground of Our Being Is Love
"Relationship is an invitation into a parallel universe where fear, doubt, and separation are unknown. There are no miracles in the house of belonging, other than the homely reality of love. The path to God doesn't require scaling mountains, slaying dragons, or living in caves while dining on meager rations of locusts and wild honey. It only requires the eyes of the mind to recognize what the heart has always known. The Ground of our Being is love."
— A Woman's Journey to God: Finding the Feminine Path
Peace of Mind
"Perhaps the best indication of whether we are walking Sarah's circle is peace of mind. In the ladder model of men, heaven is a promise of things to come, as is a close relationship to God. In the circular model, heaven is now, and God is already and always was here. We find the Divine in the light of our own intuition, by growing into an authentic sense of self, by seeing God in other people and in the natural world, and by doing what comes naturally, bringing out the best potential in others by mirroring the goodness inside of them. When we are doing this, the peace of mind that is our birthright shines through."
— A Woman's Journey to God: Finding the Feminine Path
Let Go of The Known
"All of the practices we've discussed — praying for help, stillness, gratitude, surrender, forgiveness, and loving the truth — are all facets of a single jewel: humility. It's that basic attitude of not knowing — but being willing to be shown — that allows the ego to step aside so that true nature can emerge. The willingness to let go of the known is the oil for the lamp of awakening . . . our readiness for the unexpected moment when the divine bridegroom will appear. Awakening can happen anytime."
— Your Soul's Compass: What Is Spiritual Guidance?
Be At Home in Yourself
"These experiences of being at home in yourself, centered in some essential kernel of what it is to be human, are profoundly natural. . . . Sages from all of the world's traditions tell us that such experiences of 'true nature' are expressions of our essential inborn humanity — like the nectar that's the subtlest and most exquisite essence of a flower. True nature lacks the self-consciousness, fear, and compulsive need to make things happen in our own way, which creates so much suffering and unhappiness. Aligning with true nature allows freedom to love to move into alignment with larger currents of wisdom and bring new ideas to fruition."
— Your Soul's Compass: What Is Spiritual Guidance?
Divine in the Light of Our Intuition
"We find the Divine in the light of our own intuition, by growing into an authentic sense of self, by seeing God in other people and in the natural world, and by doing what comes naturally, bringing out the best potential in others by mirroring the goodness inside of them. When we are doing this, the peace of mind that is our birthright shines through."
— A Woman's Journey to God: Finding the Feminine Path
