Centering Way

The latest from Tending the Soul: this time Suzuki shares insights from her work at the potter's wheel...

"All this time while you are contemplating, pulling, shaping - you can never forget to stay centered, never let your mind wander too far ahead to the finished piece."

Tending the Soul: Centering Clay When you throw clay on a pottery wheel, before you work it into any distinct shape, it must be centered on the wheel.

The latest from Tending the Soul.

"The story of Jesus, read as the story of God and the world, moves ever toward intimacy in the tumultuous way that love stories do."

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Tending the Soul: Touch Me I take the story of “God and the world” to be a love story. I’m very aware that this way of reading God and the world entails a particular act of faith and trust. There are other ways of reading. Some other readings might even make more sense to logic and observation - so I’m not inclined to

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"Lately, I've also been invited to pay attention to the tempo of my life. "

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Tending the Soul: Tempo After last fall's Camino de Santiago week-long walk, I've been trying to live in the way this walk trained us. I'm watching daily for the signs, markers and arrows that God uses to point the way for my unique journey or life path. Lately, I've also been invited to pay attention to the tempo

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"It is impossible to numb selectively. If we numb ourselves to the sorrows of life, we will also numb ourselves to the joy."

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Tending the Soul: Incarnation It was a cold morning. A few passersby glanced at us, some confused, others clearly offering compassion and sympathy. We were gathered in the driveway of my neighbors, where they had lost their son to an unexplainable act of violence only a week earlier. It happened on Halloween. He was han

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"There is beauty hidden in plain sight—
hidden by our obsession with “light.”"

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Tending the Soul: You Only See the Stars When It's Dark Stephanie was showing everyone at Kids Club the painting she had made in school that week. She said that it had a deeper meaning than I was probably assuming. She explained, “It shows that the darkness is really hard sometimes, but it’s only when it’s dark that you see the stars.” I knew th

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"A tight string sings; In so doing, it reveals not only its string-ness – worthy enough - but something about everything."

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Tending the Soul: Christ Plays “Christ plays,” wrote the great Victorian poet and classical scholar Girard Manley Hopkins in 1877, in “As Kingfishers Catch Fire.” Years ago I took notice of the poem’s title since the kingfisher, a creek-diving bird with bright colors, was a prized sighting on my childhood wilderness forays.

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"The woods were my spiritual home, my monastery, and I was the silent mystic – when I wasn’t doing irritating things like chores or riding the school bus."

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Tending the Soul: Playground "Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his." - Girard Manley Hopkins   I am in love with my own city, and cities. I love my city’s skyline with its cash register and cranes, and its quirky grid of diagonal streets. I love the homes that

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"The centering way is a way that helps me become more aware of those lies so that I might be free of them - so that I might begin to catch a glimpse of the true answer to the question of who I am."

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Tending the Soul: The Elusive "I" Eminem got his big break in the hip hop world during my freshman year in high school. I instantly fell in love with his music and image, which eventually led me to cut my hair very short and bleach it blonde in an effort to communicate to those around me that I had an inner “Slim Shady.” The

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"Sometimes I unclenched gently, willingly. Sometimes a dark event arrived as a war hammer to the midsection, jarring my hands and heart open."

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Tending the Soul: Releasing Life Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last. - Luke 23:46 As we talked together about parenting our girls, a friend asked, “At what age did you start releasing control over your daughter’s life?” I t

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"Christ carries the disgrace of a squatter,
A trespasser, under the threat of eviction.
In the words of Jesus in Matthew's gospel:
I was a stranger and you did not invite me in."

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https://www.centeringway.org/blog/2017/4/7/tending-the-soul-movement-to-the-margins

Tending the Soul: Movement to the Margins “God is at home. We are in the far country.” - Meister Eckhart “Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make people holy by his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.” - Hebrews 13:12-13 In every society, in every city, in every neigh

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"That’s the nuance I felt as I talked with Jasmine... she now finds herself on a tumultuous journey through the wilderness — a journey she would never have chosen."

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Tending the Soul: Jasmine's Pilgrimage     Jasmine’s 33rd birthday was the next day. We were laughing and talking about the joys (and pains) of getting one year older, and she told me with excitement about her plans to celebrate with her daughter. But her excitement quickly faded as she began telling me about her upcoming court

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"Today, March 24, marks the anniversary of the death of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador."

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Tending the Soul: Oscar Romero, the Listener     Today, March 24, marks the anniversary of the death of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. There will be many observances around the world. In 1980 when he was assassinated by a death squad, I had never heard of Oscar Romero. I was unacquainted (except in the abstract) with the poo