The Mystery of Being Human
Dear friends,
In the fall of 2019, the leadership teams of Ontario, Pacific and Prairie Jubilee met at the Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre near Beausejour, Manitoba. We were gathered for a leadership deepening event with Carol Ann Gotch and Dawn Kilarski. One of the highlights was sitting in the circle reading Carol Ann’s writing called The Mystery of Being Human Through the Triad of Egos. We read in a slow, contemplative way and the whole piece seemed to shimmer with resonance and meaning. Today, we are grateful to Carol Ann for agreeing to share the following excerpt with our Jubilee community.
Beneath enclosed hardened prescriptions
‘do this
do that’
lives another reality
called soul
where boundaries and edges soften
and
a feel for flexibility and movement
leans into freedom
a dynamic exists
a felt experience of affect
brushes against limits and known externals
without the stillness and quiet of soul
we become imprisoned
shriveled and lost
without moorings
OH
TO BE IN THE FELT EXPERIENCE OF THE MOMENT
this attention
is rare and totally sacrificial
it demands
that
we throw away everything we have been or hope to be
to face each moment
naked
stripped
of identity
open to whatever comes
another name for such full attention
is LOVE
Carol Ann Gotch
is a spiritual director, teacher and workshop facilitator. She holds a Masters in Spirituality from the University of California, Berkeley and since 1976, the Enneagram has been foundational in all her work. Carol Ann is involved in pastoral team-work and she has the role of adviser for the Prairie Jubilee program. Since 2016, she has lived at Touchstone, a house of prayer and spiritual retreat, where she devotes much of her time to prayer and writing. You may contact Carol Ann here.
