Grow Soul – Page 2 – – Sarah Cledwyn

And We’re Back

I feel like I just got back somewhere after a long journey. Sometimes a move forward in our lives, in our business or any place else takes us on a winding road we never expected. For me this happened when I moved my website to a different platform. The blog capability was awful. It wasn’t made for that. I did some research and learned about all the work arounds, but basically I just didn’t focus my energy there and let it lie for over 2 years. It feels like I’ve been gone for a long time.

Come on in!

Oh dear ones, I …

New Life

by Grow Soul

Opening Day reflection

We have crossed the threshold into a new year of RE, of Spirit Play. Were you ready? I know that getting and being in a state of readiness is something we had to return to again and again in our class yesterday. In Spirit Play we ask the children and ourselves to get ready for class by getting quiet in our bodies, minds and hearts. We help ourselves get ready by sitting quietly (criss cross applesauce) with our hands to ourselves. When our attention strays, we ask each other and ourselves kindly and gently to get ready again. We bring …

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by Grow Soul

Spirit Play Reflection

Joys and Sorrows

This week the moment in Spirit Play that captured me came right at the end of class. Everyone was doing their work. We had about 5 more minutes before it was time to clean up and re-gather on the rug for our closing song. An adult came in the room. I reminded him that class didn’t end for 15 min. but he was a new member who was still on summer service schedule and they had missed church. His son was lagging behind in the hallway, not quite ready to come in. Inside me two things happened.

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by Grow Soul

Spirit Play Reflection- Presence and Absence

Absence and Presence

For the first time this year I missed a scheduled Spirit Play class. I traveled over the weekend to see family and wondered how class would go in my absence. I felt very fortunate that a wonderful sub was found and felt a lot of gratitude that my spirit play friends were being held in the capable hands of others in our community. And the last few weeks of holidays and breaks meant that I have been out of the classroom for several weeks in a row. In our classroom I strive to connect with each person

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by Grow Soul

Spirit Play reflection- Buddha and the Mustard seed

Last week we worked with the story of Buddha and the Mustard seed. In this story a child dies and the mother searches everywhere for a mustard seed from a house that has known no sadness, loss or death in order to heal her child.

There were e-mails from teachers before Sunday, grappling with how they would tell this story. It puts us adults on the edge of our comfort to talk about death, especially with our children. I wonder how it went in your class? I wonder if you had children who said they had been sad at the …

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by Grow Soul

Bringing Mystical Experience to Spiritual Direction

I have been having several conversations lately about mystical experience. For the first time in a long time I launched right into a few of my own stories and experiences with someone who I thought was a safe person. She told me about a Jesuit friend of hers who says, “When someone tells me about something like that, I ask them if they had enough sleep, if they had eaten and if they had a good bowel movement”. I have been processing ever since. If I was with that Jesuit and brought something that I experienced as holy and an …

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by Grow Soul

Black Friday- Story for All Ages 2015 Unity Church Unitarian

Once there was a body. It was beautiful. It was perfect. It was made of many different parts. There were hands and feet and a heart and a mind and there was love. The body was healthy and whole; many members, one complete being. One time the body was so content that the heart thought it would be ok if it took a short nap and it went to sleep. The mind, right away thought it knew what to do next, and it started giving orders. “Right arm,” it said, ” I don’t think you are pulling your weight around …

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by Grow Soul

In the beginning- there was yes

Where we might begin a story is a moving target. Did it start with a particular moment? And what moments led to that moment? How does one decide where to locate the beginning or tell the story of the journey; the arrival at the next journey? Does one start with the feeling of the new, or the small ending that gave rise to that feeling? Or is there a way to speak at all what we know or who we are as the infinite present moment that is all of existence? I suppose this is the unending quest of the …

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by Grow Soul

Spirit Play Reflection- The Ordinary Birth of a Baby

This last story of the year talks about the very old story of the birth of Jesus. It is introduced as an every day kind of story; the birth of a baby, both mundane and miraculous. The story asks us to look into the ordinary until we can find the truth and the magic within it. As I reflect on this fall semester, I wonder at my own journey taking this teaching role seriously as practice. The task itself is quite ordinary. I prepare by reading the story several times and reflecting on it myself. I show up early on

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by Grow Soul

The work- yes to life

As I wandered more fully into my work to release old pain and open myself to joy, things slowly began to shift. Over months I filled my journal, paid attention to my dreaming, walked and practiced yoga and saw my healer and my Spiritual Director. It was like tracing a line back into the shadows or down into deep waters. How far down would we go? Where would it take me? Would I be able to find my way back out? Did I really want to do this? I mean, I had lived without a full experience of joy for …

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by Grow Soul