Author: Dana Young
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The heavenly party (for Kristen)
My friend Kristen Dellaporta left this world on Friday, December 18 after living with metastatic breast cancer with wit, passion, love, and courage. Her motto up until the end, and inked on her arm was, “In grace, in love, be relentless.” French author Émile Zola’s famous pronouncement, “If you ask me what I came to do…
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Lighting the darkness
This is the first week of Advent, a time of spiritual darkness as we await the coming of the One who will set our hearts alight from within with his love. This is a hard time of year for many. Old grief resurfaces, broken relationships break us open, and the increasing darkness as we move…
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Listening with the Spirit
At the end of September, I attended my first week of residency in the Certificate in Spiritual Direction program at Columbia Theological Seminary. It was an intense, emotional, and illuminating time spent with lay people and clergy who, like me, felt our ministries could benefit from training in the practice of sacred listening. When we listen…
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The impostor in the garden
Sweaty, pulling up ivy and stubborn weeds, I tried to get to the bottom of the unease I’d felt all morning. Truthfully, I’ve been feeling this way for a long time. My answer when I don’t have answers is to do some manual labor in the garden. In another life, I would have made a…
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Cryptic Stars (a poem)
This, then is how I want to pray things well: for days of long evening shadow on bright dewgrass; or the metallic clatter of geese. To pray things well is the difference between an enclosure and an embrace, or whether flesh yields before stone. This, then, is why the hawks – all five of them –…
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Throwing a rock
My heart is filled with sorrow with the news that a grand jury indictment was not ordered for Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson, accused of killing Michael Brown, a young and unarmed black man. Whatever the facts of the case are, we are left with a family, a community, and many people in our…
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Walking the labyrinth
This weekend, my family attended our first church retreat at Calvin Center, a conference and retreat center about 45 minutes south of Atlanta. Situated near the edge of their lake is a large stone and sand labyrinth used for walking contemplation and prayer practice. I walked the labyrinth soon after arrival, which helped to distance me from my usual daily concerns and…
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Immersed in Spirit
I had the opportunity to attend the Immersion Experience: An Invitation to a Deeper Spiritual Life weekend course at Columbia Theological Seminary earlier this month. This is a foundational course for the Certificate in Spiritual Formation and future Certificate in Spiritual Direction offerings, but can be taken on its own for anyone interested in learning…
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Asking for help is not weakness
I’m in the middle of a 21 Day Self-Healing practice that Reiki practitioners may be asked to complete as part of their training. I require this practice of my Reiki students, and I will periodically “re-commit” myself as well. Although I have a daily practice, it’s good to do an occasional intensive to dust away the cobwebs. I…
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The open door
Recently, a small bird got into our porch through a small hole in the screening. I discovered it while taking out the trash and left the back door open, hoping it would find its way out. Five minutes passed, then ten. The little bird flew around frantically, banging against the screens and the sliding glass…
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