Thursday, August 1, 2013
Elizabeth Nordquist on “Talking the Talk”
Elizabeth Nordquist, on her A Musing Amma blog at Patheos, says one of the gifts of summer is “leisurely time for sacred conversation.” She is grateful for such times of talking with friends through travels, through visits, through phone calls, or through sitting together or taking unhurried walks together. It’s so important that we look for— and treasure— such opportunities for deeply sharing with one another in this ultra-busy age in which we live. Elizabeth is talking about such times of rich, deep conversation both personally and in her ministry. “In my call to be and practice of being a spiritual director,” she writes, “I notice how often the people with whom I sit just want an opportunity to have these sacred conversations that help them locate where and how to be attentive to the presence of the Holy One in their lives. Someone tells me that she has no other place to talk about holy things in her otherwise demanding life.” Others tell her of issues they are wrestling with in everyday life or are looking for a safe place to ask questions without fear of being judged. (I agree with Elizabeth in the value she puts on such times. I’ve often said that one of my ideas about the joy of heaven would be having unlimited time for talking with my friends in God’s presence, without ever having to rush away to the next thing on my to-do list, or worrying that I was keeping them from the next item on their to-do list!)
