Linwood House Ministries

Seeking Beauty: Post Journey Reflections

a word from Sue Todd

Today is the last day of April. This morning as I sat in my quiet spot looking out the window at the rain pouring down, I thought how deeply I was going to have to look to find beauty outside today. Everything around me just varied shades of grey.

 

Life feels like that sometimes. My journey, right now, stretches me everyday to dig deep to find the beauty, the hope. 

 

Maybe that’s true for you too?

 

Just over a week ago, we wrapped up our April Journey with ten amazing friends from the Downtown Eastside and our growing team at Linwood House.

 

As always there were so many beautiful moments, both planned and spontaneous – deep sharing together in The Circle, pampering of both the body and the soul during our spa Wednesday morning, shared meals at lavishly set tables, pj’s and a movie Tuesday night, gardening with Luise, art with Billie, and even an impromptu bannock-making lesson with our wonderful friend and wise sage grandmother Marie.

 

But one of the highlights for me was our Circle Tuesday afternoon, as we settled in and got to know each other a little better. Beauty draws the heart to hope, and beauty is easy to see when it’s sunny and the flowers are blooming everywhere. But we all agreed that it’s difficult sometimes to see the beauty when the weather – when life – seems gloomy, grey and bare.  If we don’t focus in, don’t hone our vision, train our senses, peer really closely, we’ll miss it. It takes work, practice, awareness to be fully engaged to see the beauty in and around us. 

 

And so we practiced.

 

With cameras in hand, the women headed outside to practice capturing the beauty that was there, waiting to be found on a gloomy day in Roberts Creek.

 

As we shared our pictures with each other the next day, I was reminded first that beauty really is all around. Waiting to be noticed, inhaled, experienced, consumed and then passed on.  Second, I was reminded again of the beauty within each of our amazing friends and every woman they represent. Every woman who was ever oppressed, abused, cast aside, dismissed, objectified, written off- bares within her creativity, hope, potential, and a beauty just waiting to be engaged.

 

Thank you for journeying with us, for hoping, for believing. May you peer deeply for the beauty that is also around and within you.

 

April Journey starts TODAY

“Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?” -Isaiah 43: 18, 19

This morning we are at Linwood House in the final stages of preparation for our spring Journey, which is set to begin this afternoon. A team has assembled here busying themselves to create a welcoming, sacred space for our friends from the downtown Eastside. Cakes are baking, flowers are arranged, cleaning is finished, pillows are fluffed, and prayers are being whispered that these next three days together will be rich with rest, friendship, healing and the touch of God.

Spring, the earliest moments of this season, invite us to really look closely at the tiniest beauty unfolding around us. Life - our stories - call us to do the same. To train our hearts and minds to see and experience the beauty in our brokenness, “bouquets of roses instead of ashes”. 

This week we invite you to journey with us, as we journey here, looking closely for the beauty in each other, in our stories, and in ourselves.

Check back for some post Journey reflections, but until then, we are so grateful for your encouragement, support and prayers.

Sue Todd

image via erin_love http://instagr.am/p/IU3Ukbs_b4/ 

Gethsemane Redeemed

Every one needs a circle. A safe place where you can be, where you can feel, where you can cry out to God and to each other. A place where you know others will sit with you in holy silence, will hold the space with you as you journey.

 

Last week in the Great Room, as the calendar drew our hearts and minds to Holy Week, we reflected on one of the last circles Jesus found himself in. The Garden of Gethsemane - the place where Jesus went to pray, beg and wrestle. Even Jesus didn’t want to take that journey alone, and asked those closest to him to sit, to pray, to offer the gift of comfort through their presence. We all know what happened. They betrayed him, disappointed him, abandoned him when he needed them most. 

 

As we sat in our own circle that day, as we processed and talked about this part of the story of Holy Week, talked of what it means to really journey with someone, a beautiful thing happened. The story came alive, played out right before us in the safety of our very own circle.

 

A very dear friend to all of us for several years has been journeying through Post Traumatic Stress and the pain of childhood abuse with incredible courage and bravery. This particular week had been a difficult one of flashbacks and memories, all perching precariously on the surface. On this morning, she needed to be out of her home for the day due to work being completed there, but knew she was too vulnerable to be out in the community. And so she made her way to the Great Room. As our circle began and we went around the room to check in with each other, she boldly shared what was happening for her in her journey. No shame, no fear, just her truth. And then she said that she needed, on this day, to be in a place that made her feel safe and grounded, and the Great Room was that place for her.

 

Typically Jen or I would invite others in the circle to speak into what was shared, to honor it and receive it and speak life and love back into the empty space. On this day, it wasn’t necessary. We sat back and watched as these beautiful women each took turns honoring this story, expressing grief for what was done to their friend, removing any remnant of shame and blame, and practically caring by offering to give up their own homes that day to provide safe space for their friend who needed it more.

 

I was overcome with gratitude, awe, wonder. What a sweet moment. 

 

Gethsemane. Reinterpreted. Renewed. Redeemed.