Preparing for the Journey

An online program invitation and an audio recording

A “stopping stone,” or tomeishi, tied with black string, is commonly used in a Japanese tea garden to gently advise guests to pause and not continue on the path where it rests. This one is placed at a Japanese tea house entrance that is not open to guests.

In the pause between what is no longer and what is not yet, we might discover our greatest need … is for time and space where we can dissolve our old ways of being, … [where] we are able to let go of old structures and wait a while for the new ones to emerge … [a place] made of the relationships, elements, and interactions that will support and protect our becoming.” (From Trusting Change, by Karen Hering, “Preparing for the Journey, pp. 135-155.)

This month’s focus is on Preparing for the Journey by pausing to honor the important wisdom we carry within while letting go of “luggables” — old ways of being and doing that may not serve us well in the unknown terrain that awaits us as we live through change. If you’d like to explore this in an online session of embodied practices and guided writing, reflection and conversation, please register for “On the Cusp of Change: Preparing for the Journey,” on Tuesday, July 9.

Registration through the Christine Center and Prairiewoods retreat centers is open to all. Paid subscribers to Threshold Times can register using the link below, where you’ll also find this month’s audio recording from Trusting Change. Both are benefits of a paid subscription; if you are a paid subscriber, be sure to scroll down to receive them.

Take good care, friends. I hope to see some of you online next week.

Karen