All posts by Kaye

Soul & Solace January 2018

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It’s a fresh year. We’ve begun it here in Austin with a snapping chill in the air—and with flurries of snow. The days are shorter, the nights longer. Perfect for reflection and anticipation.

My new year’s reflections landed on a snippet of a psalm: “I will solve my riddle to the music of a harp (Ps. 49:2).” The line struck me like a gust of winter wind. “Yes!” I said through chattering teeth: “That’s why A Spacious Place exists. It’s our hope for each person!” So, with our best hopes for you in 2018, here are some ideas for your soul’s riddle solving.

  • Ask. What question presses on your soul as you begin 2018? You might have a whole fleet of questions. Flesh them out in the shape of written words. Look at what you’ve written: these are the riddles of your soul. They’re yours to solve—in tandem with your highest allegiance. Take a long, pondering look.
  • Create. Once you’ve fleshed out your riddles(s), apply a bracing dose of creativity. Harp music was the natural expression for our psalmist. Writing’s my native tongue: longhand with a pen whose ink flows onto the page. Yours might be sewing or painting or cooking or doodling. Find what works for you. Then paint or plant or plait your riddle. Let your creative work ask the hard questions. Honesty’s the only way to solve your soul riddle.
  • Wait. Last, give yourself some grace and your puzzling some time. Riddle solving’s a process: processes take a while. You may greet 2019 still puzzling this one out. But, once you’ve set your riddle to a tune uniquely yours, you’ll be attuned to its solving throughout the year: as the days grow longer and warmer, and then snap back to bracing cold.

The delight of a riddle is in the work of its solving. We, at A Spacious Place, wish for you in 2018 a year such challenge and eventual delight.

How do you solve the riddle of your soul? We’d love to read your thoughts.

Soul & Solace: Hardship’s Crucible

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Hardship, aka tough times, aka One Big Mess. Whatever we call it, a time of trial can work like a crucible. We get tossed in the beaker with a variety of volatile ingredients, the fire’s laid on, and things start churning and bubbling. In time, the dross burns away, and we’re left with the precipitated amalgam: potentially stronger, cleaner, and clarified. In other words, hardship, blast it!, can show us who we are and what we value.

A recent leadership change in our daughter’s liberal arts college elicited a major policy change. Graduate students found themselves tossed into hardship’s crucible. It’s been a fiery trial, especially for young people living in near poverty and working/studying 24/7. Below is Arielle’s post, written in the crucible. I share it because 1) the piece reflects A Spacious Place’s values applied in a real-world situation; 2) the piece demonstrates the power of creative and reflective thought, thus demonstrating the importance of arts and soul education; and 3) I’m mighty proud of her.

Just one last word before Arielle’s piece. We have a single task in a crucible time: to remain in the beaker till the flame has done its work. A few screams are not only to be expected—they may well be efficacious.

From Arielle McKee’s Facebook Post
I have been struggling for some time with how to put words around recent events at my university, and have finally come to this (and it is the best I can do at this moment):

The liberal arts matter exactly as much as the other colleges at ours and other universities, just as each component discipline is just as necessary and valuable as the next. Education is not, it cannot be about dollar value, deliverables, or ambiguous innovations. Nor is education a business; indeed, to measure the “success” of an education in such terms is to not only fundamentally misunderstand education’s power and purpose, but to effectively hinder, and at times even to thwart, an educator or educational institution’s ability to challenge and nurture well-rounded, creative, and critical thinkers. Thinkers who can change the world for the better.

In CLA we are trained to ask questions and to critically examine the world; it is our duty as scholars and as humans to query received narratives and to use our training to imagine new, creative solutions. Not a single one of us should be a tradeoff; we are people with lives and dreams and voices, and we are stronger together. We are stronger because, if we value each other and each other’s work–refusing to accept that any one person is worth less than any other–then we will finally have between us a staggering force for radical change. As liberal arts scholars, our particular call is to imagine and create alternatives, rather than to accept the limits we are told to hold to–particularly when those limits harm or devalue another human life.

I find myself lucky enough to work alongside friends and colleagues who believe in and will bravely fight for our education and for the education of our students and fellows. I am continually in awe of the bright and compassionate hearts and minds I see around me. To me you truly embody what the Liberal Arts are and should be, and I am proud to know you.

July 2013 Soul and Solace

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Funk & Foul Ups

Our “Crazy Dreams” Creativity Camp has me thinking… We’ll explore the lives of folks who changed the world in myriad ways: politics, visual arts, music, literature, computing. Some of these crazy dreamers had harsh life experiences. All made their fair share of foul ups.

So before I encourage our campers to accept themselves, warts and all, I’ll try to do the same. I’ll remind myself that I was not put here to fly serenely above all life’s messiness. I’m here to dig in, which means I’ll get messy, and sometimes I’ll make a mess.

Cornell West calls the messiness of life “funk.” I’m covered in funk most of the time. And messy as it is, painful as it is, I’ll take it to soaring unscathed above the funk. Funk is primordial ooze of creativity; funk is life. So I’ll challenge our campers to dream crazy big, and then then to dig in and live their dreams. ‘Cause that’s what crazy dreamers do.

What are your thoughts on funk and foul ups? Share your insights.

May 2013 Soul and Solace

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Gardens & Choices

Much like the story our Young Writers will explore this month, my husband and I started this weekend to resurrect our long-neglected garden. We tilled, we hauled and set limestone blocks, we laid out landscape fabric, we spread mulch. We also engaged in tug-of-war with some mighty determined roots. But it’s not a garden yet; it’s a garden plot. Now we choose: Tomatoes? Okra? Peppers? Garlic?

Gardens, it seems, are all about choice. We chose veggies over the plants that had homesteaded in the space; we’ll choose tomatoes instead of celery. We’ll say “no” to this, so we can say “yes” to that. And through our choices, blended with the magic elixir of sun, showers, soil, and sweat, we’ll grow a garden.

Saying no feels like bad manners, especially if you’ve been raised to be a “nice girl.” But saying no to what is not me clears a space for me to say yes to what is. So this month, I’ll also be tending my soul garden: uprooting what does not provide good nourishment, so I can plant what will thrive in my soul’s soil. Tomatoes, anyone?

How do you choose between no and yes? How do you tend your soul garden? Share your thoughts.

April 2013 Soul and Solace

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ReWriting Our Lives

At present, I’m editing a book published in 2006 for republishing. It’s painful: did I really write THAT? It’s instructive: I’m in such a different place now.

Once we reach adulthood, it’s generally understood that we’ve arrived. Time to sit down and stay put. But reading my writings from years past, I see movement. Once, a seminary professor gave our class an exercise. “Divide your life into decades. Give each decade a chapter title. Then, with each passing decade, revisit your life story and retitle as needed.” As our life lengthens, as we move along, even past events take on a different perspective. They gain new meaning.

Our present constantly rewrites our past and moves us into the future. If we’re awake, if we’re attuned to ourselves and to what is occurring around us, we head somewhere. There’s no need to expect to be who we were ten years ago—or even ten minutes ago: no need to picture our adult selves as spiritual couch potatoes.

How have you changed? How might you write and rewrite your life as you move into the future? Share your thoughts.

March 2013 Soul and Solace

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Numbness Cure

We’ve seen the word, heard the word, said the word, felt the word so much that our natural defense mechanisms seek to sap us of feeling. After all, we can only feel horrified for so long before we go numb. Unless we act. And that’s our invitation to you this month.

Whether it’s someone elbowing in front of us in the check-out lane, giving us the one-finger salute, or opening fire on a crowd, violence tears at the fabric of creation. Some acts make small rips, others open gaping gashes. Each one destroys. Each one matters.

What can we do to make a difference—for ourselves or for others? We can take violence seriously, ponder its consequences—potential or real—and then roll up our sleeves and get busy creating. With creativity as our needle and love as our thread, we can stitch beauty into the tears made by violence. We won’t erase them—Jesus still bears His scars—but we will transform them. The smallest act of love and creativity bears more power than any act of violence.

So whether it’s penning a loving letter or email to a friend, planting flowers for others to enjoy, singing in the shower, or baking some cookies, the creative act bears meaning and merit, centering us and restoring our hope. Share your thoughts about violence, love, and creativity .

February 2013 Soul and Solace

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True North

February is a study in contrasts. In Austin, February’s the month most likely to bring sleet, snow, and sweat—often within the same week. We celebrate Valentine’s Day: balloons, hearts, and bouquets, and Christians observe Lent: silence, reflection, and confession.

By February we’ve had time to get real about those new year’s resolutions we made. What are we really determined to do? Where are we headed? Charles Kimball’s book, When Religion Becomes Evil, encourages readers to think of their life’s journey in terms of a compass, rather than a map. In other words, instead of seeking what specific turns and highways we’re supposed to take, we determine our highest value and, when faced with a decision, make the choice that points us true north.

I can’t control what comes into my life; I can determine my response to it. I can seek to face Godward. When I take a wrong turn, all I have to do is realize it, turn around, and continue north.

So in this month of contrasts, I’m seeking to face Godward, journey true north, and just see where it takes me. What is your true north? What metaphor(s) inform your life choices? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

January 2013 Soul and Solace

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God Magic

Into a season of expectancy and joy intruded an act of devastating violence. What can we, small and distant as we are, do for the parents, the brothers, the sisters, the friends and fellow teachers, the bewildered student survivors of Sandy Hook Elementary?

A Spacious Place takes violence and its consequences seriously. What happened in Connecticut will forever change lives in that community, but also, the very fabric of the universe. We also believe creativity and love bear a deeper, more powerful magic than violence. So we invite you to join us in taking these people into our hearts and placing them in God’s hands (to paraphrase of Madeleine L’Engle’s definition of prayer).

Our Ramah Faith site was created in response to an event which has come to be called the Slaughter of the Innocents (Matthew 2:1-18). Leading up to the anniversary of the nativity celebration, we witnessed the aftermath of a second Slaughter of Innocents.

Our invitation? Begin the new year by putting your powerful magic to work. Read the news stories of those who died—including those who died seeking to shield children—and those who mourn them, then create a prayer—be it a word, a sentence, a poem, a drawing, a photo, or whatever else your faith and your faith tradition prompts you to offer. Email us your prayer (contact@aspaciousplace.com) to post on the Ramah Faith site (www.ramahfaith.com) alongside other responders, thus forming a potent circle of God magic.

They have asked for prayer; let us answer. While our prayers will not minimize or erase what has happened, they will flood a devastated community with love. And that is a needful thing, for, in the end, love alone has muscle enough to bear us up through tragedy.

December 2012 Soul and Solace

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DON’T…give till it hurts

I just finished Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged: an interesting read for a writer/nonprofit director who, as it turns out, works more for love than legal tender. Atlas’s powerful story and philosophy challenges me to think deeply about what I believe and why I believe it. Ayn Rand terms religious leaders “mystics of the spirit” who demand that those who “have” provide for those who “need.” Mystics of the spirit preach sacrifice as superior to happiness.

Is that the message we nonprofits send? When I drive by billboards that prompt us to mark through “be jolly” this holiday season and write in “give to the needy,” I’d say yes. Call me greedy, but I think we can be jolly and generous. Atlas has helped clarify A Spacious Place’s values: what we are and what we are not.

  • First, we honor time, prayer, and creativity as much as financial contributions. Indeed, we’ve functioned for five years doing just that, thanks to our amazing crew of creative volunteers.
  • Second, we’re free-choice fans: we won’t accost people with donation demands as they enter and leave their local pharmacy, or yank on heartstrings with tearful photos of innocents (a practice that disrespects both the photo’s viewers and its subject).
  • Third, we won’t be a black hole of need. I love the story in which Moses asks donations to build the tabernacle and finally begs: “Please stop! You brought more than enough!” Moses articulated the needs for a specific project and then stuck to the plan. Too often nonprofits suck generous people dry by asking support for one project after another. God loves cheerful, not beleaguered, givers.

And there’s the poignant story of the widow’s mite (Mark 12:41-43). I don’t believe religious leaders guilted the woman into “giving till it hurts.” I cannot see Jesus honoring her choice under those circumstances. For whatever reason, the widow chose, as her spiritual practice, to give all she had. And that’s a choice of joy.

We all have need. We all have something to give. This holiday season, A Spacious Place wishes you generosity—and we wish you joy.

What are your thoughts on holiday and charity?

November 2012 Soul and Solace

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Achilles Heel

It’s an ancient story: warrior Achilles was impervious to attack because Mom dipped toddler Achilles in the River Styx. Problem was—she held him by the heel, leaving that one spot vulnerable. You can guess where a poisoned arrow speared poor Achilles. I have an Achilles Heel, too. For me it’s shame. Apply a dose of “I’m so disappointed in you!” or even a raised eyebrow and a shake of head and I’m convinced I am the lowest, slimiest form of life this side of the primordial ooze. I’ve tried to get rid of my heel, but so far haven’t managed a return trip to the River Styx.

Achilles got himself killed either because he didn’t know about his fragile foot or because he thought: “The rest of me is awesome. How important can a heel be anyway?” So recognizing my vulnerability prompts me to seek out some Kevlar boots. Sometimes I find heel support from another person: for instance, Ayn Rand posited that we feel shame when we accept the values of the person trying to shame us. So I can think, “Oh! You want me to be ashamed I did that. But I don’t accept the premise of your shaming. Keep your values and I’ll live by my own, thank you very much.” Other times I protect my heel by not placing myself at the front of a soul-threatening situation. And, if I am assaulted, I permit myself some needed R&R.

What’s your Achilles Heel? Where is your supply of Kevlar boots?