 At the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, we value and celebrate the power of story. Being able to tell your story to a trusted companion can heal, inspire, nourish, connect, and transform us. The first time I told a difficult part of my story to a mentor, he responded, “Well, everyone sins…”. I spent years unpacking that one. Not only is that not my worldview, but his response could have sent me back into a state of fear and mistrust.
A little while later, with the guidance of both a spiritual director and therapist, I continued to share my stories over and over again - until I got to the point where I did not expect my spiritual director or therapist to be the ones to heal me, inspire me, nourish me. Rather, with self-compassion, I learned to connect with a deep inner teacher that ultimately helped me to see me for who I was and am. That is something to celebrate! One of our current students from our third cohort is an art therapist, poet, writer, and emerging spiritual guide. She recently wrote three poems that we’d like to share with you because they speak deeply to the influence of meeting ourselves again and again through each telling of a part of our story. A Celebratory Chant I am a woman who dances. I am a dance of a woman. I am a dance of the Dance. I am a woman who dreams. I am a dream of a woman. I am a dream of the Dreamer. I am a woman who sings. I am a song of a woman. I am a song in the Song. I am a woman with a story. I am a story of a woman. I am a story in the Story. I am a woman who loves. I am the love of a woman. I am love inside Love. 100 Stories Each Human Has to Tell The story of: loss love fear betrayal failure success labor grace birth worth faith fidelity faithlessness mess illusion confusion hurt healing doubt longing belonging home homelessness mother father lovers children poverty wealth remembering forgetting hunger abundance gratitude complaint grief joy pain illness health stealth time youth aging refusal acceptance internals externals roots culture wildness domesticity ancestry land politics generations history colonization slavery trauma violence peace brokenness wholeness trust distrust anger balance imbalance possessions knowledge wisdom questions change growth seasons hatred loneliness solitude community family tribe war famine harvest song mirth creativity falsity truth dreams beauty cruelty compassion hiding revelation dying greed generosity redemption Each Time I Tell My Story Each time I tell my story, it is different, seen through the hundred different facets or ways of being human. And there is a listening spirit (that some call God) listening to each telling, and all hundred names and ways of God hear and respond, until my story becomes a hundred times a hundred stories, or ten thousand stories. And you, my fellow human, are also listening, and you are hearing and responding with all your stories within the hundred names and ways of being human and my story becomes a hundred times ten thousand or a million stories, just between the three of us, you, me, and God. And I carry within me these million responses, and to each, from all my human ways, I respond within, and so, my story becomes a hundred times a million, or a hundred million stories each of which can then be told 100 ways and be responded to by God’s 100 ways and by each living person’s 100 human ways, times seven billion people, and these responses, can be taken in and lived by me and then stories told from that living on and on until so very soon infinity is reached because the story never was my story. It is always our story. And always one story. The endless and eternal story of All. That being said, now again, let me tell you my story… -Poems by Liza Hyatt
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Companioning Myself by Jeanette Banashak, PhD, EdD  Is there an experience that you have had that you haven’t explored as a spiritual guide for yourself? What are some of the questions you could ask yourself as you explore the depths of your inner world? How might they help you create meaning? I recently spent some time in South Africa, and as is the case with nearly anything I do, I witnessed the land and her people with the lens of an interreligious and interspiritual companion. As a spiritual guide, I am writing this reflection to re-live some beautiful moments in South Africa. As I journeyed across the land, I was not always aware of the interior land that was unexplored without reflective-reflexive expression. In other words, I want to be a spiritual companion for myself. At the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg (originally named Egoli or Gauteng, meaning the place of gold, by the first Africans), I read a quote in one of the exhibits from Nelson Mandela. He said, "The cell is an ideal place to know yourself. People tend to measure themselves by external accomplishments, but jail allows a person to focus on internal ones, such as honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, generosity, and an absence of variety. You learn to look into yourself.” Though I cannot fully comprehend Mandela’s 27 years in prison, it is with his pursuit of goodness that I write this piece. My reflective expression (I chose one experience for the purposes of this blog): What did I feel as I biked through sewage, surrounded by tin "houses" in Soweto? What did I notice in my body as I learned that there are vacant apartments (for the past 8 years!) since Jacob Zuma changed Mandela's vision of offering free housing? What was my response to the children's memorial site that explained how, in 1976, 11-18 year old students stood up to their oppressors? Who am I in relation to the mothers and sons, the sisters and grandfathers? And, to quote spiritual director, Kaye Twining, who do I now know myself to be after such an experience? Throughout the bike tour in Soweto, I felt deep grief, sadness, fear, surprise, amazement, respect. My sadness and grief were felt in my stomach; I felt surprise and amazement in my heart. I got choked up at the memorial site with the famous picture of Hector Petersen after he was shot. And yet, what were the other names of those peaceful protestors who also were shot or injured? At times, I had a difficult time feeling connected to the people of Soweto. I tried to notice when I wavered between pity and compassion, when I felt sorry for them or practiced loving kindness. As I ponder the experience and look back on photographs, I can embrace our common humanity while honoring their historical and cultural context. This is not easy! But, it is my way forward if I am going to have a reflexive expression fueled by compassionate action.   We live in challenging times, divisive times. How do we keep faith and hope alive? How do we continue to believe in the power of good? In the love and reconciliation of which each person is capable?
SGTI co-founder, Jan Lundy, believes it is "important it is that we help one another reorient toward the good, the higher emotion, the life-affirming virtues that we carry within us, especially during challenging times." Read her essay originally published by Spiritual Directors International here: http://www.sdiworld.org/blog/light-candle-dispel-darkness |
About this blogDeepening the understanding, practice and importance of spiritual companionship across traditions. 
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