Growing a Rule of Life
- Week Six – Day Seven : Do it in PencilDuring this course, we have been exploring the elements of a Rule of Life and how to create your own Rule of Life. Now we come to the exciting bit, which is bringing all the elements together and actually writing… Read more: Week Six – Day Seven : Do it in Pencil
- Week Six – Day Six : BoundariesSo you can’t have openness without limitation, because without limitation then I would say if it is my own limits, and I don’t know my limits, or I don’t (observe) them, then I am just everywhere and there is nothing… Read more: Week Six – Day Six : Boundaries
- Week Six – Day Five : Redirect GrowthWell, I think a helpful metaphor for giving things up is pruning. The reason plants are pruned is to, number one, sometimes give them shape, a better form visually. But it also redirects growth. If you prune a branch from… Read more: Week Six – Day Five : Redirect Growth
- Week Six – Day Four : Companions on the JourneyWe need companions on the journey. We need people who we feel safe with, who we trust. We need to be with each other and to experience the wonders of life, to share them as well as to share the… Read more: Week Six – Day Four : Companions on the Journey
- Week Six – Day Three : What I Shall BeSo a community that has shaped me profoundly before coming to this Society has been a church community called “The Crossing” here in Boston. And a chant that we used to sing at the beginning of worship with “The Crossing,”… Read more: Week Six – Day Three : What I Shall Be
- Week Six – Day Two : Say Thank YouI think I’d start by saying – I’d begin with a sense of deep gratitude for the gift of life itself. That we are, I am, these living beings that God created and the gift of life is a gift.… Read more: Week Six – Day Two : Say Thank You
- Week Six – Day One : When life is very difficultIn this final week of growing a Rule of Life, we’re looking at how we can grow a Rule which will help us through all the seasons of life. I had the great joy of living for several years at… Read more: Week Six – Day One : When life is very difficult
- Week Five – Day Seven : Restoring BalanceOne of the things that I have discovered gardening here at Emery House is if they are always planting the same thing in the same place that slowly but surely the soil is depleted and, interestingly enough, once the soil… Read more: Week Five – Day Seven : Restoring Balance
- Week Five – Day Six : The Flow of BlessingsI think one way I try to keep myself open to the flow of the blessings of the natural world is to be in it as much as possible. I have a kind of peculiar habit of enjoying a cup… Read more: Week Five – Day Six : The Flow of Blessings
- Week Five – Day Five : Being PrunedMy own experience of being pruned is that, though I can present myself in prayer more likely than not as being willing to be pruned, the actual pruning happens out in the world as I am rubbing up against other… Read more: Week Five – Day Five : Being Pruned
- Week Five – Day Four : VocationI think my sense of – my own personal sense of “mission” (I guess you can call it) in the world, something that might be a couple of steps above like a vocation, is this sense that what God wants… Read more: Week Five – Day Four : Vocation
- Week Five – Day Three : The Work of Human HandsThere are a few fairly simple practices or rituals that help keep me in touch with nature, with creation. One of them is I have been living in Emery House for a few months and if I am asked to… Read more: Week Five – Day Three : The Work of Human Hands
- Week Five – Day Two : Simply GazeOne of the exercises that I have engaged in myself, and I have also invited others to engage in, is this practice of focusing one’s attention on an object, any object, something as simple as a table for instance, and… Read more: Week Five – Day Two : Simply Gaze
- Week Five – Day One : Good SoilThis week, we’re going to explore our relationship with creation and one of the parables of Jesus that has really come alive for me is the parable of the sower. And we know that parable about how the sower went… Read more: Week Five – Day One : Good Soil
- Week Four – Day Seven : Grow into Greater LifeSo in this phase we have been thinking about our relationships with others and as we grow a Rule of Life how that Rule of Life might help inform and direct our relationships with others. So at the close of… Read more: Week Four – Day Seven : Grow into Greater Life
- Week Four – Day Six : Receive LoveAs we look for ways that we can love more, love more deeply, all those with whom we share our life, there are certain practices that might help us to distinguish between love and attachment. If we think about the… Read more: Week Four – Day Six : Receive Love
- Week Four – Day Five : Saying NoThere are so many good opportunities and yet I find the hardest thing is to say no and yet it’s also, I find, the healthy thing I am often called to. We have the delight of welcome guests into our… Read more: Week Four – Day Five : Saying No
- Week Four – Day Four : What Worked YesterdayOne of the things that I’ve found helpful for me is that I feel like for some reason I have a remarkable tendency to forget what is actually nourishing. And I would say even if you don’t have a reason… Read more: Week Four – Day Four : What Worked Yesterday
- Week Four – Day Three : ConflictSo for a very long time I was quite conflict adverse and felt that every conflict I had in relationships meant the end of that relationship. And some of that was just from my own experience and maybe also my… Read more: Week Four – Day Three : Conflict
- Week Four – Day Two : ForgivenessI am often painfully aware of how difficult I can be to live with. I think it is really true in my case, I’m my own worst enemy and that can come out in all kinds of ways. One of… Read more: Week Four – Day Two : Forgiveness
- Starting January 5th 2025I am so pleased you are joining us at the start of 2025 for a six week course as together we explore what it means to create and follow a rule of life. The purpose of a ‘Rule of life’ is to intentionally lay out the way you want to live your life.