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Category: Monk in the World Guest Post Series

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Sarah Pickering

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sarah Pickering’s reflection Creating a way through. Creating, a way through.(because punctuation matters). Spring is happening all around me, the trees are exploding with the limiest of greens and I want to move with the season, I would love to bloom into spring, but I live in winter. I was born on the winter solstice and on the first full day of my life there was a snow storm that brought London to a standstill. I understand

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Sharon Clymer Landis

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sharon Clymer Landis’s reflection on the wisdom and love of a foster dog. I’m fostering a dog named Ladybug. She was caught on a property after her owners abandoned her. The county condemned and burned the house on the property since it was a health hazard. She lived on the land there with another dog, also abandoned, and scavenging for food. As a result, Ladybug was severely under-socialized around humans. I wrote this on day 39 of

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Will Boesl

I am delighted to share am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for Will Boesl’s reflection Nonduality and Nonbinary. For as long as I can remember, I have been told that I am not manly enough. I’ve been picked on, ridiculed, teased. Middle aged men have even used this argument in trying to win over my spouse, saying things like “you could do better.” There’s something about my sensitivity, kindness, and interest in a different kind of expression that throws people off. It’s strange to them that while I

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Jenny Taylor

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jenny Taylor’s reflection “Inspiration on the not-so-wild edge of Suffolk.” Spending nine days on virtual pilgrimage in the company of “dancing monks”, and guided by Christine Valters Paintner’s hypnotic meditations, has stirred something deep in me. As our world yields to the implacable advance of the digital revolution, the real becomes not just more important, but more sacramental. The real is held for ever in the life-giving embrace of the places and stories, the stones and the

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Lori Kellogg

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Lori’s reflection and view her paintings of the archetypes. I am training to become a Creatively Fit Coach, and one of the courses is a meditation and painting course entitled Super Soul Flow. Over the last several weeks, I have alternatively participated in a guided meditation and then painted whatever I receive during the meditations. When I received the last one, I suddenly remembered the retreat on the archetypes that Christine led, and realized that I had received

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Naimi Gonzalez

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Naimi Gonzalez’s reflection learning to be present through lectio divina. I am in the beginning stages of learning to be more contemplative in my everyday life.  The impetus to be more thoughtful and present came after years of struggling with racing thoughts.  From the moment I wake up to the moment my head hits the pillow the noise in my head has been fairly constant. I remember waking up one morning a few months ago realizing that

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Kate Kennington Steer

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kate Kennington Steer’s reflection Heart of Stone. I arrived at February 2023 in a post-viral fatigue fug, feeling beset by depression, with my ‘tank’ utterly depleted.  Thanks to the Abbey of the Arts scholarship scheme, I was able to join a group of monks making a Lent pilgrimage online, exploring what it might mean to make ‘A Different Kind of Fast’, led by our Abbess and a wonderful, multi-disciplinary team  Each week ended with an invitation to practice a creative act

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