I recently had the privilege of speaking at the graduation of our latest that completed Stillpoint ”The Art of Spiritual Direction” program in Southern California. I started with this poem by Paul Coelho: “Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you so, you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.” I spoke about how this poem reflects what spiritual companions provide—a container when those we accompany can uncover, discover, recover who they are meant to be—the wholeness, the spark of ..read more

By Colleen Thomas Stillpoint Associate Program Director     April is tax season and my God, I’m thankful it’s over. As a part-time employee, part-time contractor, who is partly self-employed, I receive money from various places for various things I “do” - payments from directees, honorariums for workshops and retreats I facilitate, fees for writing submissions. I can write off expenses for retreats I attend, books I purchase, or enrollment for webinars and courses. Yet when it comes time to answer my accountant, “What’s your occupation?” I’m stumped! What exactly is it that I do? Re ..read more

By Elizabeth Morton, Stillpoint Faculty Art of Spiritual Direction Year 1   Photo Credit: Christopher Kelly   “To listen is to lean in, softly, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.” - Mark Nepo I began my two-year internship in the Art of Spiritual Direction with Stillpoint in 2018. This notion of calling spiritual direction “an art form” greatly appealed to me. As a longtime practitioner of the art of acting and the art of writing, this was a framework that I innately understood. In my experience, when an artist trains in her profession, she comes with the gift (alre ..read more

By Rev. Christine Ng, Executive Director (Interim)     The word “community” has layers of meaning. Sometimes we use it to name the collection of people thrown together in a certain geographic area. It also describes a group who gather around shared values and interests. It brings with it visible and invisible threads of connection and relationship, as we feel ourselves part of something bigger than ourselves; those connections expanding to encompass the global human community, the more-than-human world, and the whole earth community. In these days, I cannot use the word “community ..read more

Led by Stacy Parks Senior Spiritual Journey Facilitator   Photo by Cathal Mac an Bheatha on Unsplash   Theologians tell me that the first Chapter of John 1-5 can be interpreted as God speaking creation into life. Let that sink in. God created life by speaking. That message is powerful for me as I think about my work as a spiritual director and about the work of Stillpoint - facilitating the formation of spiritual directors, and sharing contemplative gatherings where others can connect to the Divine and to their communities. As companions we provide a space where our directees can sp ..read more

A Letter from the Stillpoint Board   Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash   Greetings! Today is the Winter Solstice! A day I always await eagerly because daylight will begin to grow longer – more light is coming. Christians have long connected Christmas with the Light coming to us. The work that Stillpoint has been doing for 40 years helps that light spread. Our programs have facilitated spiritual exploration and spiritual leadership. Our Art of Spiritual Direction program has formed hundreds of Spiritual Companions. They, in turn, have touched countless lives. Contemplative, spiritu ..read more

By Rev. Christine Ng, Executive Director (Interim)   Photo of Golden Bridge in Da Nang, Vietnam by Johnny Africa on Unsplash   “Transform yourself to transform the world.” — Grace Lee Boggs Whenever I hear news about all that is going on in our world, I am reminded of the importance of spiritual direction and of what we do at Stillpoint. “Stillpoint exists to nurture pathways to wholeness by encouraging contemplative living, faithful practice, and spiritual activism.” That is the vision statement recently adopted by our Board of Directors. In other words, we transform the world ..read more

By Rick Sforza, The Art of Spiritual Direction Faculty, Year 1    Photo by Rick Sforza   During my daily walk, I saw a maintenance hole cover in the street and wondered why the workers failed to replace it, “correctly” aligning the double yellow lines. My thought was something like, “You had one job!” While it provoked the more nagging tendencies of my obsessive-compulsive nature, it seemed like a relatively simple task: line it up and contribute to the continuity of east-to-west travel in one unbroken line. It bothered me because, unlike the random wonky picture frame hanging ..read more

By Chris Ng, Stillpoint Executive Director (Interim)      In one of our recent programs, a participant challenged our panel of spiritual directors to define “spiritual direction.” Beyond mentioning “holy listening,” we spoke about walking with someone on their spiritual journey, about being a “storycatcher”; one mentioned two boats coming alongside each other in a river, another described being an archeologist excavating stories, and still another described tending a campfire to welcome sojourners in the wilderness. It was observed that none of us seemed to be able to talk abou ..read more

  By Takako Terino, The Art of Spiritual Direction at Ghost Ranch Faculty  Dressed for the Summer Festival in the Shinto Tradition, Takako is on the far right. I write this with a heart full of gratitude for Stillpoint, who has not only introduced me to the art of spiritual direction but also to the ever-growing community of spiritual companions and seekers of contemplative life.  I wish I could meet each one of you reading this blog!   As someone who made a living as a bilingual interpreter and translator, I was always keenly aware of the primary lived experience vei ..read more