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Go Ahead and Look in the Mirror: The Divine Sees Your Beauty body image inner beauty mirrors outer beauty May 20, 2024

Sometimes we ignore the body when talking about the soul. Maybe it’s because a lot of us don’t like what see in the mirror—regardless of one's gender—even if we’re okay with what’s inside. Shoring up one’s self-image is surely spiritual work. I believe...

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You Are Not Alone loneliness psalms May 12, 2024

I cried myself through church recently. Actually I cried myself through the sermon as I was so unsettled I couldn’t sit still another minute and so lit out before communion. The reasons I was crying don’t matter, really, and I’m not even sure I can put them into words....

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Portals to Presence Apr 26, 2024

Portals to Presence are everywhere. We don’t always need a burning bush; sometimes burning toast will do. Anything that gets our attention and makes us stop and receive the radical isness of the moment. Anything that breaks through our ordinary perception and causes us to stop and turn...

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Wisdom Tree Collective Spotlight: Meet Dr. Robbie Pinter centering prayer robbie pinter spiritual direction spiritual formation wonder Apr 05, 2024

Many of you know Robbie Pinter, but it’s likely that few at Wisdom Tree Collective know the extent of her service and experience.

Recently retired after teaching English at Belmont University for forty years, Robbie has certainly a earned  few years on the porch, admiring her...

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Regarding Resilience lent resilience spiritual formation Mar 27, 2024

A friend recently remarked on my “buoyant spirit.” It’s true: I can feel all kinds of dread, sadness, regret, guilt, grief, anger, fear, and agony, and then, right in the midst of it, I can bounce back to emotional equilibrium. I can’t help it. Wind in the branches, a...

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Ringing True Feb 28, 2024

Into a chilly February day suddenly blew a sleet storm that set my wind chimes ringing wildly. I love it when this happens, for as I hear those bells cut loose in the wind, my whole self settles into a kind of wholeness that I can’t really describe.

I started this bell collection at...

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Ash Wednesday at the YMCA annika gordon ash wednesday lent Feb 14, 2024

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and marks the beginning of forty days of reflection, prayer, and penance leading up to Easter. In the Christian tradition, Ash Wednesday invites us to consider the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as well as acknowledge our own mortality.

“I...

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On Centering Prayer: The Art of Returning Feb 09, 2024

I’ve been dabbling with Centering Prayer for several years now, coming full circle after a disastrous first try when I headed up the mountain to a nearby spiritual center for an introductory three-day retreat, only to find most of the participants were seasoned sitters. They also got a memo...

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Wisdom Tree Collective Spotlight: Meet Instructor & Mentor Bill Campbell Jan 17, 2024

My love of nature began when my mother kicked my brothers and me out of the house so she could get some peace and quiet. From exploring the field and woods just beyond our backyard, to hiking trails across the United States and Europe as a Boy Scout, a campus minister leading students, and as a...

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Join Us at the Table: The Power of Story and Dreams Jan 10, 2024

For information on Wisdom Tree Collective’s new Certificate in Dreamwork, please go here.

Laura Huff Hileman is Wisdom Tree Collective’s Director of Dreamwork and Spirituality.

I wanted the t-shirt that said, “A Story is the shortest distance between two people,” but they...

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The Spirit of Christmas Dec 23, 2023

Unlike many of my childhood friends, I clung to a belief in Santa Claus long past any appropriate developmental timeframe. I liked the idea of a jolly person wandering around the world handing out gifts, and I didn’t see the harm in continuing to entertain the possibility even after smelly...

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Your All-Purpose Tool for Peacemaking through Dreamwork Nov 25, 2023

Last week in my Lectio Divina circle, we were given a set of four short lines: one from Psalms, one from a gospel, one from the Quran, one from Thich Nhat Hanh.

The idea was to hear peace wisdom from an array of spiritual paths in light of the conflicts across the world, especially in the Middle...

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