The Rope to the Barn

Our weekly Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders and allied organizations. Keep checking back for more of these videos here in our blog.

Just click the picture above to watch the video.

Jean and Sally led us in a quiet, supportive call today, with time for breakout groups, reflective journaling, and poetry. We explored the metaphor of “the rope to the barn,” examining the lifelines within ourselves and our communities that guide us, out into the snowstorms and back again safely.

  • What – or who – are the threads in your rope?

  • What is your knowing about the blizzard in your life?

  • What allows you to hold on to the rope?

  • What sustains you as your center sustains others?

We ended the call with Jean’s reading of a poem by Lucille Clifton (1936 - 2010), entitled “blessing the boats.”

may the tide

that is entering even now

the lip of our understanding

carry you out

beyond the face of fear

may you kiss

the wind then turn from it

certain that it will

love your back may you

open your eyes to water

water waving forever

and may you in your innocence

sail through this to that

Notes and audio recording from this conversation are also available at the link below.

Facilitators:

Jean Richardson, Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center, RCC, Circle of Trust

Sally Hare, Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center, RCC, Circle of Trust

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Holding the Heaviness of the Moment