Now that we have the busyness of the holiday season behind us but still plenty of Winter ahead of us, perhaps it is finally a good time to lean into the gift that these months can offer us: chances to slow down, to get cozy, and to reflect on where we’ve been and where we are going.  

Last weekend I accompanied our group of High School students to the Winter Retreat at Camp Friedenswald where Sarah Werner was the input speaker for the weekend. She invited us all into a number of different mindfulness practices, including some breathing techniques, some activities for checking in with our bodies, and ideas for processing the events of each day. Perhaps the hardest of these practices involved getting into small groups where one person would talk for 5 minutes straight about something meaningful to them while the others in the group focused on listening without verbally responding in any way. 

It was odd to see young people–who so often have a hard time not talking–struggle to communicate when given the opportunity to be fully listened to. When we discussed the activity and its challenges afterward, the group mostly agreed that good listening often involves asking follow up questions. That is true, but I also think that perhaps it was the prompt that tripped so many of us up. It invited us to skip through “small talk” and go straight to the deeper, more meaningful topics. 

How do we create the kind of space for that level of sharing and deep reflection? 

We closed our discussion of that session with me telling the group that even if that activity was really hard for them, I hope they do all have the people and the spaces in their lives where they feel like they can share deeply and be listened to fully. 

Our congregation has its own neat opportunity for doing this kind of deep reflection coming up during our Winter Seminar on Saturday, January 18. CMC member and Career Counselor Jacqui Hoke will be presenting a seminar she has titled, Grappling with Meaning and Purpose in the Dead of Winter. While Jacqui’s work focuses on career counseling, the seminar will focus largely on deeper issues of meaning, calling, values, and how we make choices to create lives of purpose. 

Lunch will be provided as well as childcare if there is enough need, so we are asking that you RSVP using the form found HERE by this Friday (January 10).