Late Entry Tonight

My weekly entry is a few days late this week. I have been focusing on a favorite spiritual practice for the past 5 days or so - utter relaxation!
After an intense summer in both academic and heart awareness terms plus the ongoing development of my own ministry direction, I was ready for a break. I took the Labor Day holiday literally - there are many forms of labor, as a friend said - and extended it by a couple of days.
I visited several friends, talked and laughed, spent a joyful hour on the phone with my son on the other side of the US, listened to great music (thanks again to Phish and a techno-savvy pal), went out to lunch, sipped margueritas under the coolness of the misting system another friend has hooked up at her place, went to the movies, toured a Greek Festival with yet another friend...
I mainly ignored email, school or dishes... even this blog.
I read a whole novel and I slept in once or twice.  Ahhhh. Good practice.

About my developing ministry, it is called The Wisdom Bridge; A Home for Intercultural/Interfaith Harmony and Celebration. I am interested in promoting dialogue across different belief systems. The inaugural Wisdom Bridge events are a series of workshops and classes exploring the realities of Muslim life and religion in the US and abroad while exposing the huge amount of misinformation currently being circulated.
Next iteration of this work takes place this Sunday, Sept. 11. After my Sunday noon talk for Center for Spiritual Living, Davis titled "Many Paths to Wholeness" I'll facilitate a two hour workshop called "Embracing Muslim Lives." We'll read and discuss several scenarios from real Muslim American lives, using these as vehicles to understand various human levels of meaning as well as some metaphysical inplications.
Next, this Wisdom Bridge work will show up as a 3 week course in October through the Experimental College, the student-run independent learning institution on the University of California, Davis campus. This expanded presentation will have time to explore the many cultures of Islam globally.

The one unifying idea I can find between the two sections of this blog entry is this. Take time off. Have lots and lots of fun doing things that you won't regret later. That spiritual practice will nourish the helping and healing work you do the rest of the time.