Walking with Jesus through Challenging, Uncomfortable Times; NJ Shore Meditation Workshop - September 4, 2019

Interested, but not available? Contact for online offerings.

God is here, now: with Us, with what Is:  Can We Show Up, too?

Wednesday, September 4th - 7:15 - 8:30pm

Trinity Episcopal Church: 503 Asbury Ave, Asbury Park, NJ 07712

God is here, now, with Us.
Sometimes,
It can be hard to not:
- hide, avoid, blame, distance, cover ourselves...
- get lost in the dramas of life, fall into distractions and addictions;
- let another climb the mountain, stay where we are, just hear second-hand about God.

Can we BE here, now, with God?

God is here, now, with what Is.
Sometimes,
It can be hard to not
freeze - numb, paralyze;
flight - run, separate;
fight - battle, attack...

Can we BE here, now, in God, with what Is?

In this meditation workshop we will learn and practice:

Going Deeper into our Real-time Soul Experience of Jesus
- Open our Ears to Hear, Eyes to See, Heart to experience our Oneness.
- Together, exercise and validate our walk with Jesus, Today.
- Trust our Soul Senses, and the Presence of God, that much more.

As you allow this practice to transform you,

your experience of your Dance with the Divine, in this world, can deepen.

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In this Meditation, you will have the opportunity to:

• Learn and practice some basic meditation techniques.
• Share your experience, if you choose, a couple times during this session.
• Mostly, quietly enjoy letting-go and experiencing your inner world.

Please come, whether a beginner or advanced meditator:

Open to the transformation of your experience of
- your Relationship with Jesus,
- Being Still and Knowing God, and
- Being with what Is.

Especially when it is challenging, uncomfortable.

in Life, Wendy

Psalm 139

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Is this workshop for you?

• This workshop is targeted to folks from a Christian foundation, and ALL are welcome.
• Whether this is your first or your millionth meditation, you can profit from this workshop.

Logistics

• Space is limited. Please register on Facebook, or Email me that you are coming.
• Freewill Donation - this workshop is usually $30, please give as you are led.  Half of all donations will to go to Trinity's Food Justice Program.  
• Bring a snack to share if you would like.

• You can come at 7:15 for workshop - come through parking lot, and enter silver and glass doors.  Come into hallway, turn left, room is on left.  I will arrive when Mass is over.
• OR You can come at 6:30 for Worship/Mass (all are welcome) - come in main church (red) doors, to the chapel in the front right of church. 

• Can’t make this?  Please join my infrequent newsletter, and I will invite you to future workshops in-person and online.
• Please invite your friends for this sweet and nourishing opportunity.
• Plan ahead - check address, if you have questions or need assistance, contact me ASAP - I am not available after 6pm on Wednesday, I will be in church and then in the workshop.

Deconstruction is an Invitation to go Deeper in our Spiritual Journey

What folks call deconstruction - of the bible, religion, church, etc

For me, it felt like the process I went through
was a deconstruction of ME,
of who i thought I was, along with who I thought God was.

Even tho this was almost 35 years ago,
I remember exactly where I was focused to start:

I called it the big 5 questions:

- Is there a God

- If there is a God, what is God like?

- Does God want relationship/communication back and forth with me? and if so, how?

- What about Jesus, and is he God, what does this all mean? (this is less clear biblically than it may seem)

- What about the bible, and how do I relate to it, understand it?

.

Meanwhile, I am a mystic,

so I was having spiritual experience
- as much as I would allow -

but muddy and confusing
(becasue so much as muddy and confused within me ; )

At the time, it felt like mystical experiences
just made things worse (the current and past ones),

becasue it felt at the time
like it would have been SO much easier,

to (again) walk away from this spiritual/God crap

- becasue it was SO hard and confusing.

Better to let my intellect win, and fall into

-> This God crap is all stupid,
a delusion and a waste of attention.

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I realized early-on in my 'deconstruction' process,
that I had 'bought the package' -

I had authentic expereince of spiritual reality
and dancing with the living God.

BUT, along with that was So much BS
- beliefs and community standards and ethics
and how its done and relationships a certain way,
and what stuff means, etc, etc.

We know this drill ; )

Originally I had chosen a PART of me
to move forward into the Christian game,
and it was a good Honeymoon for a couple years!

But by necessity, I had left big parts of myself behind.

I didn't know how to do it any other way...

Some obvious stuff, I left behind on purpose

- some of my intellect,
some of my sexuality,
and therefore some of my honesty...

And a lot of not-obvious stuff

- of course my 'shadow',
but also my free-will,
some of my open-mindedness, etc

God and my deep self - my soul -
neither of us would stand for it, in the long-run.

So the hell began
- and it effected my mental health, my identity,
my relationships, my ability to function well in the world, etc etc

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From my current perspective, spiritually:

- Wholeness, Oneness, Connection, Love is the truth.

- God (and our deep self - soul)
want us to experience the Wholeness that we are (that ALL is),

the expereince of ALL of ourselves IN God consciously.

... So, I went through the mill ;)

Anyway, I am writing this to say

my very long and very tumultuous times,

letting go of all the 'extras' of my walk with God
eventually showed so much fruit:

- just God,

- just deep, real spiritual connection and love with God.

- letting all the BS fall away...

From here:

- a solid place to stand, within my own soul - in the storm this life/world can be

- being love, joy, peace, that is real and i can bring in the world

- Dancing in this world in concert with Spirit; in wisdom, truth

- Life Abundantly!

more and more

To really start enjoying the fruit of the deconstruction
took me a longggg time, hardddd road;

- I am Very slow and resistant!
I tend to make stuff Much harder than it has to be!

- IN the process, I have learned how to allow shift to be easier as I have gone along,
and I have found tools that help me shift in my soul, which helps a lot!

- But I want to validate:

This process had to go all the way to the depths of my soul

(i think anything else is just rearranging chairs on the Titanic ; )

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From my experience, the fruit of this process
(and therefore the process that we take to get there)
is SO Good, and ever deepeningly Delicious.

I believe the process of Deconstruction (or whatever we call it)is an Invitation to go Deeper in our Spiritual Journey, our Soul Evolution
- allowing ourselves to go through the stages of our spiritual life/development.

Maturity = Teleios = Becoming who we really are
= Becoming the Oak hidden in the Acorn ; )

Deconstruction is a spiritual process,
and 2 things I have found that help a lot:

1 - I believe going beyond intellectual and social issues in this process,
and going down into the soul to allow shift.

A spiritual (I don't mean religious) practice is very helpful.

There are many, I am served by a form of meditation that is powerful for me
(PM me, I am happy to share)

2 - understanding that we are on a Spiritual Journey
- and that our spiritual practice

is much more important

than our rational religious beliefs.

I really like and have been served by this book:Putting on the Mind of Christ: The Inner Work of Christian Spirituality

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I hope all of us enjoy Much Much fruit
from our challenging processes of Deconstruction,

which i believe take us ever deeper into God
(truth, love/oneness, light, life, our unique way in God)

- even when it looks like the opposite
(maybe especially then ; )

thanks for reading
what is your expereince?

in life,

: )Wendy

{Guest Post} Realizing we are Priceless Precious Valuable

{Guest Post} by Pamela Maddock,
originally written in response to this Facebook post 

During some very low times

Feeling worthless was always present

I came in contact with a person 
who had a different eyes view of my situation.

We talked consistently

One day I was shown something in a sketch

A ladder 
a stick person on a ladder taking their first steps
like a little child trying to reach up for the first step.

At the top 3 rungs with these 3 words

Priceless

Precious

Valuable.

Then this person said

That's you.

The tears were many

The answer was up to me 
to look at my life and rise above everything else

Focus

Focus on me

I said I feel selfish

Reply

Be selfish for a while and heal me.

I am forever grateful.

....

I see that ladder sometimes

Take a deep breath and climb again.
It's called life and it really sucks sometimes.

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{Guest Post} by Pamela Maddock, in White Serving the Chalice at (her Anglo-Catholic) Church with a visiting Bishop and his wife, a few years back

(FYI I some spaces and bold to Pamela's original - WRW :)

BEing the Love you Want: Let IN the Blessings you Desire - NJ Shore Meditation Workshop - September 6, 2017

BEing the Love you Want: Dare to Let IN the Blessings you Desire

NJ Shore Meditation Workshop - Wednesday, September 6th - 7:15 - 8:30pm
at Trinity Episcopal Church: 503 Asbury Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ 07712

Whether in a long-term relationship or single,

many of us deal with the same issues:

• a story of loneliness,
• unfulfilled desires,
• experience of UN-wholeness.

Our desires are amazingly similar amoung many of us:

• We want to feel complete and connected.
• How do we get someone to love us? validate us?
• What do we have to do, to savor comfortable companionship?

We have been taught and trained to cast about outside ourselves for what we want and need.
But, that doesn't work... at least not for long!

The Secret is: we have to LET IN the Blessings that we desire!

In this meditation workshop we will learn and practice

allowing the love that you are searching for,

INSIDE yourself!

... and then, and only then, magnetize/attract it in your outside world, as well.

As you allow this practice to transform you,

your experience of love and connection in yourself, and with God (and in all your relationships)

can completely blossom.

In this Meditation, you will have the opportunity to:

• Learn and practice some basic meditation techniques.
• Share your experience, if you choose, a couple times during this session.
• Mostly, quietly enjoy letting go and experiencing your inner world.

Please come, whether a beginner or advanced meditator:

Open to the transformation of your experience of Love and Relationships, forever.

in Life, Wendy

Is this workshop for you?

• This workshop is targeted to folks from a Christian foundation, and ALL are welcome.
• Whether this is your first or your millionth meditation, you can profit from this workshop.

Logistics

• Space is limited. Please register on Facebook, or PM me that you are coming.
• Freewill Donation - this workshop is usually $30, please give as you are led.  Half of all donations will to go to Trinity's Food Justice Program.  
• Bring a snack to share if you would like.

• You can come at 7:15 for workshop - come through parking lot, and enter silver and glass doors.  Come into hallway, turn left, room is on left.  I will arrive when Mass is over.
• OR You can come at 6:30 for Worship/Mass (all are welcome) - come in main church (red) doors, to the chapel in the front right of church. 

• Can’t make this?  Please join my infrequent newsletter, and I will invite you to future workshops in-person and online.
• Please invite your friends for this sweet and nourishing opportunity.
• Plan ahead - check address, if you have questions or need assistance, contact me ASAP - I am not available after 6pm on Wednesday, I will be in church and then in the workshop.

the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” (Carl Jung) 

I am hearing more chatter 

and more importantly, more folks are actually coming to me, lately, 

to purposely, overtly deal with their dark-side...

shadow, 

despair, 

deep fear/pain/shame, 

addictions, life out-of-control...

Instead of:

- I want to be fixed, well, happy, successful, abundant...

- Well, what I really want is a silver bullet to make things like they used to be, or better, or great...

Folks these days are more likely to say: 

let's deal with my dark side.

Um GREAT, and Hallelujah.

I see this as a very good sign for them, for me,

and a useful turn going on in our culture.

“The shadow goes by many familiar names: the disowned self, the lower self, the dark twin or brother in bible and myth, the double, repressed self, alter ego, id. When we come face-to-face with our darker side, we use metaphors to describe these shadow encounters: meeting our demons, wrestling with the devil, descent to the underworld, dark night of the soul, midlife crisis.” (Meeting the Shadow)

If we want to be Light.

If we want to shine Light in this world.

If we want to expereince who we really are: Whole and Complete in God.

If we want to really do, what we are here to do - what no one else can do...

Then we must say: hello darkness, my old friend.

Turn and face the dragon(s) that have been chasing us.

Make friends with our shadow.

In our Soul Evolution on this planet - individually and corporately - After living to the ultimate end of our Logical Consciousness and delving our Soul (Psychic) Consciousness;
On our way to Christ Consciousness and the beauty of Consciously living as One in the Reign (Kingdom) of God;Lies the Dark Night of the Soul - where our darkness is deeply realized and integrated. (my very poor paraphrase of Putting on the Mind of Christ: The Inner Work of Christian Spirituality)

In everyday terms, 

We must Learn from our despair, resistance, hate, hopelessness, doubt, anti-God... 

before we Heal and Grow through it, into Glory.

“The shadow, when it is realized, is the source of renewal; the new and productive impulse cannot come from established values of the ego. When there is an impasse, and sterile time in our lives—despite an adequate ego development—we must look to the dark, hitherto unacceptable side which has been at our conscious disposal….This brings us to the fundamental fact that the shadow is the door to our individuality. In so far as the shadow renders us our first view of the unconscious part of our personality, it represents the first stage toward meeting the Self. There is, in fact, no access to the unconscious and to our own reality but through the shadow. Only when we realize that part of ourselves which we have not hitherto seen or preferred not to see can we proceed to question and find the sources from which it feeds and the basis on which it rests. Hence no progress or growth is possible until the shadow is adequately confronted and confronting means more than merely knowing about it. It is not until we have truly been shocked into seeing ourselves as we really are, instead of as we wish or hopefully assume we are, that we can take the first step toward individual reality.” (Meeting the Shadow)

Where we trip, really is our treasure.

Let's Dig.

When we do, we are blessed.

And our world is also blessed by the fruit of our deep work.

“The shadow, when it is realized, is the source of renewal; the new and productive impulse cannot come from established values of the ego. When there is an impasse, and sterile time in our lives—despite an adequate ego development—we must look to the dark, hitherto unacceptable side which has been at our conscious disposal….This brings us to the fundamental fact that the shadow is the door to our individuality. In so far as the shadow renders us our first view of the unconscious part of our personality, it represents the first stage toward meeting the Self. There is, in fact, no access to the unconscious and to our own reality but through the shadow. Only when we realize that part of ourselves which we have not hitherto seen or preferred not to see can we proceed to question and find the sources from which it feeds and the basis on which it rests. Hence no progress or growth is possible until the shadow is adequately confronted and confronting means more than merely knowing about it. It is not until we have truly been shocked into seeing ourselves as we really are, instead of as we wish or hopefully assume we are, that we can take the first step toward individual reality.” (Meeting the Shadow)

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Spiritually grow into LOVE, with Grace and Ease

Being OK with, and from there Loving, All that shows up

starts with BEing OK, with ourselves

and from there, Loving Ourselves.

Another way to say this is:
Being IN Love, Being Love with my sisters and brothers
starts with knowing I am OK in God
and from there, letting God love me.

For most of us, this is HARD.

Possibly Impossible.

I have found it is easier to be ok with myself, love myself;

when I am standing on a good foundation.

When I am identifying spiritually and in a spiritual consciousness, not merely flesh/ physical.

Another way to say this is:

I have found it is easier to know I am OK in God, and let God love me;

when I am standing on my true spiritual foundation.

Identifying with who I am spiritually, in God; and putting on the Mind of Christ (not merely flesh/ physical consciousness).

.

I interfaced this week with a man who means well,

and identifies as spiritual, as Christian.

But is very spiritually sensitive in certain ways, 
and therefore feels all the lies that people live.

He judges them, and presumably himself, for this very human pattern.

He identifies as someone who dislikes humankind and avoids human society.

Interfacing with him, helped me see, that most of us do this, to a degree 
(but we don't own it like he does ;)

We judge ourselves and others and the world, and God....

because 'how it is' doesn't measure up to our 'pictures'/ beliefs/ concepts 
of how we/ they/ it should be/ behave.

This is how most of us operate on the physical, in our everyday consciousness.
Judging that we do this doesn't help.  
It does help to note this is garden-variety human behavior ;)

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BUT
It IS missing the mark.

Much more IS possible for our lives!

for our ability to BE with ourselves, others, this reality, God...

We can choose a trajectory that helps us get out of our own way:

• to BE
• to BE with
• to BE in compassion
• to Love
• to DO sweetness in the world, from there...

BTW,
This is not possible from a physical consciousness and identity.

Let me say it again:

This is not possible from a physical consciousness and identity.

The best the flesh/body can do in this direction, no matter how well-meaning, 

is strive to act 'good', pretense, hypocrisy = wearing the mask.


If one Believes God is Love, Another way to say this is:
the mind of the flesh is hostile to God...
Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. 
Romans 8: 7, 8

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BUT, meanwhile, it is very possible, as Spirit:

We can allow ourselves to 

Grow SPIRITUALLY into LOVE, with Grace and Ease.

Another way to say this is:
In the Spirit walk ye, and the desire of the flesh ye may not complete; 
for the flesh doth desire contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit contrary to the flesh...
And the fruit of the Spirit is: Love, joy, peace...
(from my favorite chapter of the Bible, since my teens) Galatians 5 (16, 17, 22)

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From a spiritual perspective,

as we grow into a spiritual consciousness,

and we learn to identify as spirit in flesh...

(not just an evolved animal run by thoughts, beliefs, feelings, experiences, other people's programming, etc.)

We can grow into consciously being

OK with, 
and from there Loving All Our Relations

... including ourselves.

.

May we allow ourselves to 
May we allow God to

Spiritually grow us into LOVE, with Grace and Ease.

Amen, 

Wendy

... I think it is all about receiving Love spiritually,
and letting it pass through us to others...

kind of like spiritually, beholding and reflecting the Glory,

but a different spelling is:

spiritually, beholding and reflecting LOVE.

BTW, this post is one response to this FB post.

Trusting God or mammon

It is hard to stay focused on God,

when stress is high,

when time is tight,

when to-do's mount up,

when money is challenging...

What wins?

Physical reality, and its exigencies

OR

spiritual reality - the reign/kingdom of God/Heaven.

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When stress is high, I most need to keep my eyes on God.

But it is hard, as a human, caring for a body.

Money challenges have been very close to the bone for me for the last year

- and for much of my life.

SO, let's say hello to this, for a bit, today...

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mammon

"the treasure a person trusts in" 

- the idol of riches, money, possessions

13 No servant can serve two masters:
for either he will hate the one, and love the other;
or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.- Luke 16

This is as important today, as it was when Jesus talked about it

The worship of money, if anything, has increased.

And us bringing the will of God on earth as it is in heaven... suffers

.

Meanwhile we need money, 

we live in this World, in this reality, 

in the current economy.

It's kind of like having to learn subtle cues and balance and agency from within us, spiritually.

For something like, say, food addiction.

Because in that we need to learn to eat well and healthy,

but not to make food the center of our lives, 
not be driven by food, not to 'live to eat, instead of eat to live'. 

So we have to find a way to be aligned with ourselves and with God around food,

because we can't just avoid it.

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Similarly, around money;

which has so much to do with survival,

as well as looking good, and power in the world, success, etc.

It's so complicated, and it's so intense.

Utilizing our relationship with money,

as a way to understand how we're living,

and how much were really focused on God;

And the how much were following God step-by-step...

this is really useful stuff, IMO/E.

Being secure in the arms of Mammon 

feels so much easier than

just trusting God...

that what I need will come, in time for when I need it.

For me, the answer always lies in the scripture below.

It can be a challenging road,

to trust, to allow my need to be met,

not what I think my many needs are ; )

and in God's time...

aye!

Yet, this is what I really want, really choose:

31 seek ye the reign of God,
and all these things shall be added to you.
- Luke 12 (from the section 'do not worry' ;)

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what say you?

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