“While I am looking for something large, bright, and unmistakably holy, God slips something small, dark, and apparently negligible in my pocket. How may other treasures have I walked right by because they did not meet my standards? At least one of the day’s lessons is about learning to let go of my bright ideas about God so that my eyes are open to the God who is. Wild or not, God is a cave I do not want to miss. ”
Questions to Consider
Chapter Five & Six
Barbara Brown Taylor quotes the Jewish German philosopher, Martin Buber when he wrote, “The only way to learn is through encounter.” How has your encounter with this book and the contemplative resources impacted you so far? What are you learning (or beginning to learn) as a result?
In Chapter five, we are reminded about our sense of sight, and in particular, how unknown, uncomfortable, and disorienting darkness can be for sighted-people. As you consider your own life, how has the dark seasons in your life been disorienting? How did you shuffle and grope in the darkness to find your way? Did you have companions? Who helped? Is there anything you learned then that may help you now?
What in your spiritual life has gone dark? What was once clear, bright, illuminated and known? Are there any of the other spiritual “senses” that will help you walk in this dark? (ie. perhaps certainty on some beliefs are not as bright as they once were, and now the “senses” of doubt & faith may help you walk).
Often times walking in the light looks like having the answers. If walking in the dark is not having answers, but holding questions, what questions are you holding in your life right now? (consider open-ended questions that you do not have answers to, and you have little control of what and when the answers might be)
In Chapter six, the author talks about her experience in the cave. This brings to mind the important quote by Joseph Campbell, "Where you stumble, there lies your treasure. The very cave you are afraid to enter turns out to be the source of what you are looking for. The damned thing in the cave, that was so dreaded, has become the center.” What makes you stumble in your life? How could this actually be a treasure? What cave do you dread and are afraid to enter, and how could it be the source and centre of what you are actually looking for?
Take a look at the quote above (one of Christa’s favorites!) What are you thoughts about this quote?
Contemplative Practice
Practice #1
In week one we did a practice called, Audio Divina (Divine Listening). Today, we’re going to be doing Divine Seeing (Visio Divina) by using our sense of sight.
Using the following slideshow of pictures, slowly take in these evocative images and notice what is striking you about each picture, what feelings, memories, images, ideas are emerging and how they might be used by Spirit to bring your attention to something in your life. Some photos might make you feel good, others uncomfortable - all of it instructive and belongs.
With each picture, feel free to ask yourself, “What is God pointing out to me?”, “What might my soul want me to pay attention too, and why?” “What do I need to express to the Divine as a result of seeing these pictures.?”
*There are 6 images here. Use the arrow controls on the side of the images to move back and forth in the images.*
Practice #2
The opening quote in Chapter 5 is taken from the poem called, "The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry. Read the poem 3 times slowly (or listen to the poet read it himself), taking time to notice which words or phrases stand out to you the most. Slowly ask yourself: “why might this word or phrase be striking me right now?”, “What does it have to do with my life?” “Is there something that the Divine is wanting me to pay attention to?”
“The Peace of Wild Things” By Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
This poem is an excerpt from The Selected Poems from Wendell Berry
Interview with Kyndall Rothaus
Throughout the book club, you’ll get to enjoy three short interviews with women I want you to know about. Each are fans of Barbara Brown Taylor and her books.
Next up is Kyndall. (You can learn about the other two guests here).
(Bio from 2021) Kyndall is the author of Thy Queendom Come: Breaking Free from Patriarchy to Save Your Soul (2021) and Preacher Breath (2015). She is a preacher, poet, feminist theologian, queer woman, storyteller, and soul companion. She is the co-founder of Nevertheless She Preached, a national, ecumenical preaching conference designed to elevate the voices of womxn on the margins.
Kyndall is a sought-after public speaker whose piercing insights into the human spiritual condition are delivered with poetic and rhetorical brilliance. She has written for various publications including Faith and Leadership, Working Preacher, Ethics Daily, Review and Expositor, Baptist News Global, and The Upper Room Disciplines. She is an award-winning preacher and spoken word artist. She spent eight years as a Senior Pastor in Baptist churches in Texas, where, among other things, she left a legacy of fighting for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church.
Kyndall is the proud adoptive mom of two rambunctious toddlers and two highly extroverted pets.
You can find her at: http://kyndallraerothaus.com/
Gratitude Practice
Each weekly resource will encourage you to stop, notice, and give thanks for something “dark” in your life. Counter-intuitive, indeed.
Did you know that our brains are wired to get stuck more easily to negative thoughts and images than to positive and beautiful ones? A regular gratitude practice will help to rewire and renew our minds. It’s a true reframe.
GRATITUDE PROMPT:
Consider a darker moment from your childhood. This is not a time to move into old traumas, however, most of us have some difficult, disappointing experiences that have shaped who we are.
Now take the 30 to 40 seconds to focus on who you have become as a result - focus on the areas of resilience, empathy and wisdom that have developed in you because of this childhood wound.
Additional Resources
Still looking for something more? Why not expand your knowledge and experience by feasting on these additional resources.
Do you know what makes your heart sing? Here’s a sermon where Barbara Brown Taylor offers the antidote to anxiety is beauty. Here it is.
And, if you haven’t checked out the Soul Care Kit yet, you may find there are many other contemplative practices and resources that will serve you well.
