Kimberley Wilde

Prairie Jubilee

Apr 7

Why is Spiritual direction important?

The stories we are shaped by and that we shape are the way we make sense of our lives, the journey to our authentic selves, where heart and mind meet. Our stories are the way we articulate and learn from our life’s journey, our choices and experiences. We are all our own best storyteller, and storytellers need story listeners who can receive, reflect, ask questions, help us take the story deeper into the home inside us. My own experience receiving spiritual direction has been an invitation to a deeper place within myself, where the more authentic story would someday live, if given time and attention.

Sometimes in the spring when the river is flooding
and the winter garbage rises from the melting snow,
and I am sprayed with muddy water
from a too-fast car driving through a too-big puddle,
and the potholes chip my teeth,
I forget that there is more to the story
than this one grey moment.

So, then, for me, spiritual direction is that which helps me find my way home to myself. A spiritual director/companion can hold non-judgmental space for deep listening, contemplative silence, and discernment, who can reflect another’s wholeness back to them, who can ask questions that help others find the answers within themselves.

At first our stories tell us, we are offered life into this day as if Scheherazade were calling each and every one of us to bear witness to a thousand and one ways to live, to choose our hardscrabble, our plenty, our wept sorrows, our fervent callings, our deep loves, our flickering courage, for the moment when we step outside in the day and begin to tell our own tale, and Scheherazade slumps down onto her sofa, pours a well-earned ladle of water over her head and laughs, while fingertips of wind soften her cheek, as if god had blown a kiss through her soul. As if love breathed.

Welcome, you.

In a spiritual direction session, you might come with a question or an issue that you want to explore. Or, like one of the people I worked with, you might invite me to write a poem with you, in which we each listen for the next line until the poem is complete. We might meet somewhere outside, like a park. You might want to meet on zoom, or on the phone, or a park bench. I am open to creative ways to experience the presence of spirit with you!

However we meet, I welcome you. Please know that I have been thinking about you, looking forward to meeting you, to listening to your story, whatever you want to talk about that has come forward from your soul’s journey to be shared this day.

Listen for the heartbeat

As you share, I will listen deeply to your story. When you are done, I will suggest that we both sit in silence for a few minutes, breathing and listening. In this silence, I will receive your story, and we will listen to discern any questions that may come forward to explore this space your story has guided us to.

When we both feel the session is finished (usually about one hour), we will acknowledge this closure and end the session.

Ongoing learnings and Formal Education