Over the years I’ve had more than one concussion. Two years ago, a concussion led to headaches. I had heard that art can be calming so I took up painting, trying out a different art media every few months. Whatever the media, it released my headaches and became a spiritual practice with the intention of healing. I am still a beginner, but I wanted to share my art starts. Currently I’m auditing a drawing class at our local college.
First, you’ll notice I’m mostly learning on flowers!
The first photo is pencil drawing, then watercolor, oil and in the second row, watercolor, watercolor and acrylic. I highly encourage anyone who think they have no artistic abilities to give it a try. It is very relaxing. And the ones below were from a retreat on Circles, Spirals and Labyrinths. The first one below is neurographic art, designed especially to be calming art and the other is part of the circles I painted.
I use extra time in July and December to learn, organize and deepen my spiritual direction skills. A recent worship service I conducted at the First Unitarian Church of Orlando where I am a member focused on” “Questions of Purpose” with a children’s book by Amanda Gordon and a YouTube Video by Adam Leipzig supporting the ideas. I painted the cover picture in oil of a sunflower my son, Joel, photographed in Georgia.
Here are some of the ideas I included:
David Brooks, an author and writer for decades, has said that he revisits his own life purpose every five years. Think about that. Five years ago we were in the middle of a pandemic. Five years before that, Ted and I were still living in Northern Virginia and had no idea we would be moving to Orlando and we didn’t know what a blessing you and 1U would be to us.
Not all five year increments will have such significant changes to life circumstances, but there are changes, sometimes primarily within ourselves, sometimes determined by world, community or family events.
Today I am inviting us to take a deep dive into our own purpose in life and to contemplate how our 1U community supports our endeavors.
Recently, my spiritual director asked me a question that broke my heart open:
“What is the spiritual significance of your birth?”
I had no answer. It was a very big question, even for a spiritual direction session. But it did prompt me to take “the spiritual significance of my birth” into my heart and spend some time wondering how the activities, jobs, relationships and way of being in the world have supported or detracted from my spiritual purpose in life.
As I contemplated this big question, I began to substitute my “spiritual significance” with my “life purpose,” which seemed a little bit easier to get my head and my heart around.
When we are lucky, or perhaps intentional, our life purpose can be carried out in our jobs as well as our roles in our families and communities. Yet, our jobs change, our families grow, and our communities face new challenges.
Sometimes these challenges can seem to knock us away from our soul’s purpose, yes, another substitute set of words for life purpose. Or, perhaps time and circumstances have changed slightly and we feel the need to revisit our spiritual paths and life journey.
I try to find my authentic self through the words I can use to live out my “spiritual significance”, because, quite frankly, like the author David Brooks tells us in a reel somewhere out there, I revisit my life purpose every few years, to see if my words and actions are being authentic to my life purpose and to see if new skills or interests might add to it.
Just checking, has anyone’s life not changed at all in the last five years?
We can benefit from a bit of focus on who we are and how we are living our lives in a way that is true to our authentic selves. I’d like to invite you into this process. Our service is titled “Questions of Purpose” so I will pose questions to you…but we won’t start with the big “What is the spiritual purpose of your birth.” We’ll work up to that.
I’d like to take you on a journey to explore some possible answers to “purpose questions.”
One of the ways I revisit my purpose is by regularly reviewing the TedTalk by Adam Leipzig. I’ve found his process instrumental in helping me revisit and shape my own spiritual path. Leipzig shares five questions he says were inspired by his 25th college reunion of Yale graduates. At his reunion, he recognized that everyone in this group had privilege and education. He also realized they all had big hopes and dreams as undergraduates. As he surveyed these grads, he found out that 80% of them were unsatisfied with how they were living their lives…too busy, too career oriented, and in today’s world, the survey might have added, they were too social media focused or too isolated. In college these Yale graduates had been inspired to live their best lives and change the world.
So Leipzig studied the 20% or so that were satisfied and he found that by asking just a few questions, the happiest people had found deep purpose in their lives. He asked them:
Who they were
What they did
Who they did it for
What they wanted or needed
What changed as a result.
Their answers inspired him to formalize his questions, which are the ones I revisit every few years to help me live into my soul’s purpose, or life purpose, or maybe even the spiritual significance of my birth (that one still seems too big for me to answer).
I want to share Adam’s questions with you, since they have been so helpful to me. I hope you will play along by shouting out the very first answer that comes to mind when I ask his questions. As we did in the worship service, I hope you will speak aloud the first ideas that come to you for each of these questions:
Who are you?
Next I’m going to ask you: What do you love to do? Sing, write, teach, crunch numbers, work for justice… in fact, think of something you are such an expert in that you would share it with someone else with joy. Might be teaching about it but it could be showing someone or inviting someone to do the thing with you.
What do you love to do?
It gets easier, think about “Who do you do it for?”
Our next question needs a little more time: “What do they want or need?” Again, shout it out after the countdown:
“What do they want or need?”
How do they change or transform as a result of what you share with them?
By the way, this process is almost exactly as Adam Leipzig does it on his TedTalk video.
Think about your answers and string them together into a thought.
Please take a few calming breaths together before my last question.
Breathe in to allow the spirit of life to fill you, and breathe out to let go of the things you worry will never be fixed.
Breathe in to open your heart, Breathe out to let go of disappointments.
Breathe in to feel purpose and breathe out to feel the pulse of this community.
And now, my final question: How does being in your Unitarian Universalist (or other) community support your purpose?”
No need to shout this out, just hold it in your heart.
I find that each time I return to my soul’s purpose, I get closer to answering that big question of what is the spiritual significance of my birth. And I know I can’t live into my life’s purpose–my soul’s purpose– without the support of you, of 1U, supporting me as I seek to live an authentic life.
Together we can encourage each other to listen for our own and our collective life purpose, the spiritual significance of being born. Let’s inspire each other to travel together on this spiritual journey as we all strive to live into our collective purpose of bringing more love into the world.
I’ve been writing with a group of three spiritual memoirists for the past two years. We are all part of my first spiritual director’s writing group: Elizabeth Jarrett Andrews Eye of the Heart Center online writing community. We call ourselves the “Deep Divers” and it has been a joy to write twice a month with these two wonderful writers. After two years, I realized I had written about 200 pages and I decided I need to start the editing process. Two books that have inspired me to tackle this project are poet Maggie Smith’s Dear Writer and the amazing Anne Lamott and her husband Neal Allen. If you are writing, spiritual or otherwise, you may find these books hugely helpful. You may also find support in joining the Eye of the Heart Center.
Writing your spiritual journey can bring deep peace and understanding to your life. To add a psychological bent through Internal Family Systems, I was a reader for my friend Elizabeth Venart, who wrote an engaging book that I believe would allow the kind of understanding needed to write a spiritual memoir. Her book is called, Trusting Your Highly Sensitive Self. Elizabeth’s writing will engage you whether you consider yourself a highly sensitive person, or you know someone who is.
As a liberal Unitarian Universalist I am proud to have friends who share my beliefs that all people have great worth. My friend, Rev. Kären Rasmusson and her partner, Barb and other friends Sarah and Lydia are part of a weekly protest in Vienna, Virginia. I was visiting and so inspired by all of the people who honked or waved at us in support.
A new church year brings many joys along with many challenges and opportunities. If you are a religious professional, a congregational member or a seeker, you may find that September is a time to renew your commitment to your own spiritual life. You may be seeking to center or ground yourself to be able to fulfill your calling in life. You may be yearning to find your spiritual center or create sacred space in your life. You may want support in starting or deepening a spiritual practice. Spiritual companionship may be a way to find yourself and connect with the mystery. I have openings starting in September for all seekers, with the first session always free.
If you are curious, seeking, or ready for renewal, sign up for a pro bono session here. Note that I do not require a “same time every month” commitment. Rather, you choose the time and date from my availability. See my info page for more information on fees, which professional development funds (if you are minister or staff member of a congregation) can usually be used to cover the costs.
Photo is when we were hiking in the Shenandoah Mountains this summer with my family and little dog.
I do see two people each year free of charge (rather than offering a sliding fee). They are seminarians or religious professionals who have no professional development funds. You can join my wait list for free services if you fall into those categories. I will have openings in January 2026 for two new pro bono seekers.
As a spiritual director, I am committed to continuing my professional and spiritual education so that I can better serve you. As I explore my own spiritual life, and uncover stumbling blocks, I use classes, writing and spiritual practices, time with my own spiritual director and with my spiritual director supervisor to explore them. This allows me to be a clearer vessel to hold your sacred stories with an open heart, no judgment and love.
Currently, I am taking a yearlong class with the Jung Platform. I have taken several classes with them over the years, including one on shadow work and one on dreams and wonder. I highly recommend them and I have established a formal connection as an ambassador with them to highlight their courses. Take a moment to look around at single-session, multi-session and yearlong programs they offer.
I’ve been in a writing group for over a year now. We are a group of three, all members of Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew’s writing platform: Eye of the Heart Center. She was my first spiritual director, and she is now focused on her writing and teaching writing. She has several books published by Skinner House Books, including her most recent, The Release, which I have yet to read, but have been benefiting from her wisdom through her classes and wisdom shared on her app.
Our small group has been writing and sharing snippets from our spiritual memoirs. Or, I thought I was! I took a class from Yvonne Vassel on “Writing Your Life Story” and the difference between a memoir, in particular, a spiritual memoir, and a life story became crystal clear. I had actually been writing a life story. I’m now aiming for moments that I can bring a reader into that will share a spiritual moment. This may never be published, but I encourage you, like me, to write down what is most precious, tender and treasured so that you can reap the rewards of seeing your own life as a spiritual journey. Talk with me at our next session if you’d like to explore this concept!
I’ll be teaching a class again at Chautauqua Institution this summer on Spiritual Practices. I have taught this class there before and it was such a lovely time with some interesting people. If you happen to be visiting Chautauqua for Week 1, I’m teaching 3-4:30, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, June 24-26, 2025. Join us!
Rev. Sara Lewis and I discuss spiritual direction in this video: “Spiritual Direction for Religious Educators: A Well-Kept Secret.” This video was made for the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) but the message is for all seekers. We try to share the breadth and depth of spiritual direction. I hope you feel more comfortable seeking spiritual direction with our observations.
In spiritual direction, we recognize that our souls unfold, at times blurry, and, at other times in focus. We explore ways to give light to life-affirming moments, sometimes illuminating the soul and sometimes answering our yearnings for clarity, meaning and purpose in life. As we focus and refocus our light, an illuminating process unfolds that actually reminds me of visiting Monet’s Garden in Giverny, France. I had always found such beauty in Monet’s painting, especially his late-in-life paintings where the colors merged into a beautiful whole due to his fading eyesight.
When I visited Giverny, I immersed myself in the reality of how the blue skies illuminated dancing rows of wild-looking, as well as carefully nurtured and cultivated flowers. Surprisingly the flowers and vines were planted mostly in straight lines, showcasing their brilliance to the path walker. This was in direct contrast to my vision of the romantic blurring of details that I saw in Monet’s paintings. This inspired me to think about how we might see our lives as a romantic blurring, yet, upon intentional exploration, we might find deeper patterns and meanings that were otherwise occluded by a more distant view.
Rather than paintings of perfectly placed dabs of paint on a canvas, I was able to experience another layer to Monet’s world when I walked the house and garden in person. Who knew? My surprise that there were also delicate stamens visible in the inner realms of a flower and variegated leaves distinctly proclaimed their glory alongside the expected beautiful and distinctive flowers of Monet’s art gave me such joy! I felt as though I had a secret glimpse at what lay beneath the colorful, expansive Monet paintings that I adored.
Beautiful as Monet paintings are to me, I was yearning to go to Giverny to see for myself what he saw. My curiosity led me to his home and I was inspired by the beauty that surrounded him and his family. What lay beneath his carefully placed layers of paint was breathtaking!
I realized that at Giverny, I was feeding a yearning. My curious yearnings were to see the natural and organic beauty underlying Monet’s gifts. I wondered if his artistry was, like my budding exploration of the soul, a deeper expression of what’s tangible. Perhaps he was impressing distant memories of ancestral lines and childhood memories into his spectacular paintings and I was learning to impress my own familial and cultural imprint more intentionally into my life. Rather than being embedded, we were both bringing our full lives into view, even if not in words or conscious understanding.
This opportunity to bring light and attention to familiar, but blurred scenes, is creating a deeper reality for me. Just as the blurred lines arose from Monet’s fading eyesight, my life had become hectic and unexamined, blurring experiences together so that most were no longer recognizable as memorable anymore. Taking the time to examine my life and bring it more into focus, was like seeing Giverny in real life, versus the impressionist paintings. I could still love the paintings while having a deeper understanding of what brought them to light. I yearned to put my life into focus and understand the layers of my existence, including any inner wisdom that perhaps lay dormant and unexposed to the light. And might this allow me to trust my own outer canvas to reveal the vulnerability underneath, first to myself, and then perhaps to the trusted loved ones in my life?
Back to Monet’s pond–as I was walking across the arched bridge, I felt an unexpected sturdiness to it that held me firmly and didn’t feel ethereal as it did in the painting. Perhaps my inner life, my soul, my connections to the spirit were also stronger than pictured.
And looking out from the bridge was a wildly different view than the paintings of the bridge!
Same pond, yet so much to explore in this serene setting. Like my soul, there are so many ways to reveal its beauty, its memories, its connections. Just as when I looked up from the bridge, and strong branches were distinctly haloed in sunlight. Blue skies were reflected in the pond in a large open clearing just beyond the water lilies whose distinctive sprouts of white lotus blooms were missed but once blended into one gentle whole that filled my visual frame. Bamboo (yes, bamboo!) came alive as incredibly tiny leaves fluttered and hung mightily to their tethers. And the water, the still green water, was now reflecting a Monet-like beauty of blurred trees and flowers, reminding me of the capacity for beauty both on the surface and through a completely different lens of microscopic inspection.
Bringing light to our souls can reveal a beautiful inner landscape, and one that is clearer and ready to be experienced as real and distinct, connected and meaningful. We can find out more about who we are, what we believe and what we aspire to be.
At the same time, one can yearn for more than beauty in delicate landscapes. Seekers who bravely enter the realm of the soul may discover that light unearths challenges otherwise unknown, or experiences vaguely cloaked in masks and costumes. Will these dramas become clearer? Will unmasking or removing our protective cloaks allow us a vulnerability that offers insights into our fears, grief, and shame? Will knowing ourselves and connecting to whatever we find to be greater than ourselves give us heartbreak before leading us to joy?
In spiritual direction, companionship helps to prepare the way to break through persona, whisks away egos that cloud an inner view, and sits with you in awe of your connection to the universe. Light will surely be there to illuminate the beauty as well as the depths of truth. Opening the door, even a crack, to this light that you are, can bring your life purpose, deep meaning, and great joy into view.
I look forward to the honor of companioning you on your own spiritual journey, wherever the light might take you.
My curiosity for Monet and his day-to-day living was likely further inspired by the book and movie, Linnea in Monet’s Garden.
Flowers of Giverny, Monet’s Home in France, Photographed in 2018
