Читать книгу A Companionable Way - Lisa M. Hess - Страница 6

So many hearts have shaped this work, which is now offered outwardly in hopes of honoring and protecting these hearts in the One who called us into companionship. Writing about the transfigurative force of spiritual companionship presents a fascinating conundrum. How do you proclaim the best news and abundance of sacred human belonging you have ever known while protecting the intimacies of soul and learning that were for you alone, both of you, each of you? How do you describe the pattern and power of companionship in an abundance that just cannot be contained while disguising enough detail so that the vulnerabilities risked and shared remain private, protected? These pages are my best attempt to do just that: to be faithful to what we were given, so to share what I learned from each of you, which is needed in our polarized and polarizing world today, overflowing with yearnings and habits of mind not as well met as they might be. What follows here is true to my experience AND where necessary, details have been changed to honor those who risked so much to help me learn, to see and hear me into what I now know.

One Thursday, September 11th of 2008, I began a teaching collaboration with a rabbinic companion willing to make the journeys to teach and learn together in a seminary classroom. His willingness to pursue wisdom across traditions and in unexpected venues transformed my life. My own awakening, my own focus, expanded and deepened in ways neither of us knew would happen. I found myself welcomed into webs of tradition and spiritual practices in far-flung corners of the United States, from my own home in the Midwest. These pages emerge from companionships with men and women in California, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Florida, and various locations in between. This year, on this same significant date, I am surprised and smiling to complete the work that has nested and hibernated from so long ago until now. I bow with deep gratitude to all those at Wipf and Stock/Cascade Books, specifically Charlie Collier and Jacob Martin, for their commitment, publishing model, and faithful willingness to take risks on nontraditional publishing projects. You give authors courage and the world innovation. Thank you.

None of it would have found this form, but for Women Writing for (a) Change, a non-traditional writing school for women and men founded by Mary Pierce Brosmer twenty-five years ago in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a HearthKeeper (which means a graduate of the 2013 Conscious Feminine Leadership Academy) and a regular Wednesday Night writer, I came to voice in countless small groups, and large-group and public readarounds. Women holding space for women to come to words—nameless and unseen work, often, but fundamental to everything that follows here. I wish I could name you all by name and I want to honor the intimacy of our circles. Details about the community, now with affiliate sites across the country, may be found at www.womenwriting.org.

Spirit sent me two tenaciously faithful ones I need to thank by name, as the Trinitarian dance of the three of us has birthed this work. Lisa Dawn Michael Heckaman, close friend and companion in the sacred work that calls us both forward—the work of healing in womanheart-spaces held for both men and women—and Brian Daniel Maguire—husband and friend who has wrestled and grown alongside me as the life of deep feeling overtook us, a choiceless choice we both continue to honor in one another. The willingness and remarkable tenacity in each of you to companion me in this creative endeavor continue to bless me. Thank you. May all our efforts offer merit forward to any and all who yearn for what we have learned together in the One who calls us forth, day after day.

Lisa M. Hess

September 11, 2015