I’ve learned to listen to the movements of the Spirit through the spiritual exercises of Ignatian Spirituality.  I treasure the gentle whisper that is God, much like the soft brush of my lips on a newborn’s downy soft head. As I grow, navigating the treacherous waters of life has become normal instead of feeling like some great betrayal. God’s deep compassion is offered so freely and abundantly. I miss it when I’m looking down, listening to the persistant jabber of the accuser.  I feel blessed when I am still and know the truth. God meets me in the dark places and brings light – sometimes a flicker, sometimes astonishing sunlight. And when I am faithful, I reflect that light in the relationships I enter with my fellow wounded around the world. That too is church (see previous post).  That is where I meet and worship and serve my God.

Parker Palmer calls this Active Spirituality, the place where the active life and contemplation meet.  Palmer reaches right into the struggle between work and being, and allows a third space to emerge.  The active life, according to Palmer embraces work, creativity and caring.  An imbalance between activity and contemplation can lead to burnout and projecting our own dark shadows on those we purport to care about.  What about contemplation? Parker writes,

I understand contemplation to be any way that we can unveil the illusions that masquarade as reality and reveal the reality behind the masks. One of the great threats to full aliveness is the sleight of hand practiced by our egos and our culture to keep us from seeing things as they are. Contemplation happens any time that we catch the magician deceiving us and we get a glimpse of the truth behind the trick. Whether it is a happy truth or a hard one, that truth will always quicken our lives.

What a delightful, refreshing view of contemplative spirituality.  Equally though provoking are his views on action.  Parker addresses instrumental action – the type of action where success is paramount.  He writes,

Instrumental action is governed by the logic of success and failure; it discourages us from risk-taking because it values success over learning, and it abhors failure whether we learn from it or not.

In contrast,

An expressive act is one that I take not to achieve a goal outside myself but to express a conviction, a leading, a truth that is within me. An expressive act is one taken because if I did not take it I would be denying my own insight, gift nature. By taking an expressive act, an act not obsessed with outcomes, I come closer to making the contribution that is mine to make in the scheme of things.

To learn more, read Palmer’s book called The Active Life or one of his other books.