Word for Today: Stillness The Desert Mothers and Fathers valued their monastic cell as a vitally important place. As with all things, they view their cells as a way to experience stillness and as a place to quiet their inner life. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: Can you stay present to the storm of your emotional life, all those feelings, thoughts and voices you do daily battle with? Can you make space to feel your grief and to welcome in your feelings of helplessness, your rage at injustice? Next

Word for Today: Mystery When you explore thresholds, it’s about resting into mystery. Learn to live in the liminal space where the old is released but the new hasn’t come into being. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: How do you respond when you find yourself in this mysterious space of unknowing? Do you try to analyze, order and make sense of the experience? Or do you surrender into the mystery, living in God’s time, rather than your own? Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download

Word for Today: Threshold [The Desert Mothers and Fathers] journey into the desert was the crossing of a threshold towards an intentional awareness of God’s presence and recognizing that worldly pleasures bring little long-term satisfaction. The aim was to experience God in each moment and activity. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: What can you do to simplify your life so that each moment offers a window on to the Divine? Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily words here.) Use the hashtag  #soulofapilgrim when

Word for Today: Essence Anytime we have a desert experience in our lives, something is stripped away. It may be loss of possessions, loss of identity, or loss of a loved one….This stripping away forces us to return to the essence of things. We are thrust into the arms of what is most sacred to us. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: How can you practice this kind of letting go every day?   Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily words

Word for Today: Beauty If we’re really honest with ourselves, in a world where terrible things happen there must be room made for doubt. We must give ourselves and others space to wrestle with the essential questions of our lives. Believing in times of beauty and transcendence leads us to the idea there must also be room for something bigger than what we traditionally call faith or belief. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: What are the unknown shores beckoning to you? Might you yield your resistance and desire for

Word for Today: Simplicity The invitation from the desert elders is to practice simplicity first. When we find this simplicity, they believed, we find true life. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: What brings you to life?       Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily words here.) Use the hashtag  #soulofapilgrim when sharing on social media. Join the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group to share your art and writing with others. Name your commitment to creative practice in the comments at this post (and