The Art of Onward — Way Station Three: Presence

recording of the second gathering in our series

We just finished our third synchronous gathering of The Art of Onward, where we took up the practice of presence. The recording is available below, along with a few additional links.

So grateful to have had the chance to talk to Arianne Braithwaite Lehn of Monday Manna. Arianne is a wonderful visual artist and author of a beautiful book of prayers called Ash and Starlight. She’s also mother to three busy kids in preschool/ gradeschool, so this topic is dear to her heart but also not something she approaches with easy answers. We talked about how to incorporate presence as a practice, why it matters, and how presence helps us take purposeful action when the world is roiling with so much turmoil and trauma.

A couple resources we mentioned:

• Here’s the poem we opened with, from Stephen W. Smith of the Potter’s Inn, How to Listen. Perfect.

• Arianne’s spouse Jeff took up the practice of holy indifference in this podcast episode. (I’ve written about this practice before!)

• Francis Weller, author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow, talks about grief as a necessary practice as we move through the decades to come in this podcast.

art by Arianne Braithwaite Lehn

If you’d like to access the recording below but are unable to pay, please get in touch. Members and friends of Trinity Presbyterian, Herndon are eligible for complimentary gift subscriptions; just ask.

Oh and hey! Maybe you’d like to do the Art of Onward with a friend for support and accountability. If one of you subscribes, I’ll comp the second one.

This is our last synchronous gathering for a while—with Holy Week, Easter, and a pilgrimage to Scotland in May, our next couple months will be posts rather than gatherings at a specific time. Our next synchronous gathering isn’t until June!

Click here to view the complete Art of Onward schedule and to access previous posts

Steady on.

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