Episode #12 - Lectio Divina on 1 Corinthians 13: 1-10 with Neil

Hi, everyone, this is Rae. It’s been another full week here, with holidays (Thanksgiving, which I’ve mostly just watched friends celebrate, and Loy Kratong, an important Thai day) and kids, and community work and life. It has been busy in the best ways.

Here’s what to expect in this episode of the podcast:

* We have a new voice in our introduction. Ro is away, so Neil sat with me for the first time and we chatted about the week, including seeds, yeast and treasure, drying fruit, a tonne of compost, building solar dehydrators, lanterns that go the wrong direction, and mini waterfalls.

* Neil guides a lectio divina meditation on 1 Corinthians 13: 1-10. If you want to skip straight to this, it’s at 09:13. 

Here’s the show on iTunes. 

Here’s the episode on Youtube.

Be well this week. If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving, take lots of time to rest and reflect. Wherever you are, really soak it in: you are loved by God, fully and tenderly and fiercely.

Blessings,

~ Rae

**

The podcast will always be free, but you can support us on Patreon.com and get extra audio each month. We're so thankful for your support, which helps our communities to offer this kind of meditation and other Christ-centered practices for free.

More than you can imagine.

Ro in the garden harvesting miraculous fruit that came from tiny seeds.

We had a Devotion Circle on Monday about the kingdom of God. The realm of God, the reality of God. This shining thing that is just behind our eyes, that we sometimes can’t see in the trudge and dirt of everyday existence: the annoying interactions, the misunderstandings, the thousands of bridges we have to build to get to one another. 

We looked at three verses from Matthew 13, about the treasure hidden in a field, the mustard seed, and the yeast exploding in a whole lot of flour. 

As we went around the circle discussing each verse, here are the insights that emerged:

The examples Jesus used are hidden, tiny, not immediately apparent. They involve waiting or time, they are organic, beautiful. They need the right conditions (the seed needs soil, the yeast needs flour), but then they grow without effort. In the case of the seed and the yeast, they are alive and reproduce, they rise. They are common, ordinary examples, or dreamy ones, in the case of the treasure (who doesn’t want to find a treasure?). Each can become more than what it is, effortlessly. 

Dallas Willard says that Jesus was looking at a “God-bathed and God-permated world… in which God is continually at play and over which he continually rejoices.” (The Divine Conspiracy)

The kingdom is always right there, at hand, and we have the chance to step in, to engage in this reality where the tiniest of things burst into God-breathed life. Where small works or moments become much more than they could be, if God’s spirit was not breathing and moving and working around and behind them.

Watering the garden. Cooking meals. Offering money to someone in need. Inviting someone over. I don’t know that I could spend my life on all the little things that take up my time if I didn’t believe that each one is a tiny keyhole into something that God will breathe on and cause to live. Teaching kids. Making tea. A kiss on the forehead. Washing hair. Reading aloud for hours, and hours and hours.

Welcome to the reality of God, Jesus says. It’s right here, but you have to look for it. You have to remember that it is here before you. It isn’t transactional; you don’t get exactly what you put in. It is a whole plant sprouting out of the tiniest of seeds. It is so much more than you can even imagine.

(A post by Rae)

Episode #11 - Lectio Divina on Psalm 13 with Rae

I’m writing this late on a Friday night. In many ways it has been a great week. Today I found a road I had never explored and filled my eyes with the beauty of this valley. But there was a lot of sorrow in the news this week as well, and it caused me to search out the Psalm that begins, How long oh Lord? That’s what I have for you today. 

Here’s what to expect in this episode of the podcast:

* Ro and I chat about the week, including sitting around in offices waiting, thankfulness, rugby kids, sowing flowers, and harvesting roselle. 

* I guide a Lectio Divina meditation on Psalm 13. If you want to skip straight to this, it’s at 09:00. 

Here’s the show on iTunes. 

Here’s the episode on Youtube.

I pray that you will know the gentleness of God’s love for you, all through every day.

Blessings

~ Rae

A Poem: Prayer (I) by George Herbert

After reading Rae’s post recently of Adam Clarke’s description of God, I wanted to share this poem with you. I came across it while reading Timothy Keller’s book called ‘Prayer’.

I have been meditating on, reading about and guiding Devotion Circles on the topic of prayer for a few months. I find myself wanting to understand prayer and enter into prayer in a deeper way. It is such an intimate topic, so straightforward in some ways (‘Just talking to God’) but I also find it definition-defying and mysterious.

Here is George Herbert’s ‘Prayer (I)’:

Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,

God's breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth

Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,

The land of spices; something understood.

Some phrases resonate with me so strongly… heart in pilgrimage, Reversed thunder and The land of spices particularly.

How about you? Does anything in this poem echo how you feel or have felt about prayer? What is prayer to you?

(A post by Ro)

Episode #10 - Contemplation of Nature with Chinua

Hi, Rae here. How amazing that we are here at the tenth episode of the podcast! I’m back in Pai, decompressing after many weeks of having a packed schedule. I’ve taken things a little more easy this week and I’m feeling much better. Just the smell of woodsmoke in the air is restorative.

Here’s what to expect in this episode of the podcast:

* Ro and I have a little chat about the week: guiding meditation at a Women’s Retreat, transformation, art meditation, and the intoxicating cool season air.  

* Chinua guides a beautiful contemplation of nature meditation. If you want to skip straight to this, it’s at 08:45. You will need to have a object of nature to hold or look at for your meditation, so take a little walk and find one before you start! 

Here’s the podcast on iTunes. 

Here’s the episode on Youtube.

This week I challenge you to reach out to someone you haven’t spoken to in a while. After a busy couple of months I got to talk to my brother today, and it was so good to connect. I pray for good connections and relationship in your life. 

~ Rae

The podcast will always be free, but you can support us on Patreon.com and get extra audio each month. We're so thankful for your support, which helps our communities to offer this kind of meditation and other Christ-centered practices for free. Thanks especially to our new patron, Matt Tresser! You are wonderful.

Adam Clarke's description of God.

I have been reading a book called Life Without Lack by Dallas Willard, and I came across this description of God, written by Adam Clarke, who was a 19th century Methodist theologian. I know, like all theologians, he was imperfect and skewed by his culture and worldview. But this description is pure beauty. God is:

“The eternal, independent, and self existent Being; the Being whose purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence; he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, the most spiritual of all essences; infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made; illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his mode of existence, and indescribable in his essence; known fully only by himself, because infinite mind can only be fully comprehended by itself. In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived, and from his infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, and right, and kind.”

Just reading it fills me with peace.

Illimitable in his immensity.

Indescribable in his essence.

Infinite goodness.

Eternally just, right, and kind.

I think I’ll keep reading it slowly, all week.

Episode # 9 - Lectio Divina on Zephaniah 3:14-17 with Ro

Hi! I’m away at a women’s retreat so this episode is going out a day late. Sorry about that! The time here has been beautiful and restorative, though. I’m thankful for every bit of beauty in the gardens around here, for weather that is cooling down and for so many beautiful people in the world.

Here’s what to expect in this episode of the podcast:

* Ro and I have a little chat about a Very Special Visitor, a worship circle, the extra audio for this month, part singing, and weeds like trees (again.)  

* Ro guides a Lectio Divina meditation on Zephaniah 3: 14-17. (If you want to skip straight to this, it’s at 10:18)

Here’s the episode on iTunes. 

Here it is on Youtube.

I pray that this week you would notice the beautiful light of morning each day. Be well, dear ones.

~ Rae

Episode #8 - Imagination on Luke 10:25-37 with Neil

Hi everyone. The sky is full of lightning this evening, with warm, wet air blowing through my window. 

Here’s what to expect in this episode of the podcast:

* I give the introduction on my own, since Ro is away for a couple of days. I talk a bit about the past week, including Christmas-size lunches, unconditional love, a few useful words, more weeding, and a bake sale. 

* Neil guides an imagination meditation on Luke 10:25-37, the story of the Samaritan who stopped to help an injured man. (If you want to skip straight to this, it’s at 09:03)

Here’s the episode on iTunes. 

Here it is on Youtube.

This week I pray you have a glimmer of excitement about the days to come, like when you were a little kid watching the rain. 

~ Rae

***

The podcast will always be free, but you can support us on Patreon.com and get extra audio each month. We're so thankful for your support, which helps our communities to offer this kind of meditation and other Christ-centered practices for free. Thanks especially to our new patron, Matt Tresser! You are wonderful.

Community is like an ox.

I love the birds near my house. They wake me up every morning with singing. Or squawking. Or crowing. They remind me that I am in a living world, that it flies, creeps, crawls, and sings with life. 

I have other reminders. The snails in the kitchen, the ants in a line along the wall. Mold on the baskets, moss in my motorbike seat. A little white dog, snores from my family members. Plants that need water, white flowers falling from the tree. All of this is life. Life that changes, grows, moves, bursts, buzzes, lifts, explodes. 

One of my favorite verses is “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” (Proverbs 14:4) It reminds me every day that messes are from life. Misunderstanding is from life. Life breeds, smears, and eats all the cheese. Life finds the chocolate stash. Life rains and wakes you up too early. Life accidentally steps on your new sprouting lettuce when it was playing a game with a lot of other chubby lives. 

Where there are no oxen, no life, no explosive, inconvenient growth, you do not have to buy new shoes or take the kids to the dentist, or apologize, or make amends, or try so hard to understand someone from another culture, or stretch your brain to empathize, or wait, or cook food day in and day out. 

An empty stall is clean and peaceful. And… empty. Nothing is happening, nothing is making a mess but nothing is coming back at the end of the day snorting and dancing its way into the stall, bringing in the sheaves, spilling its food, bringing stories and songs and a rich harvest.

Community is the ox, the life…it is better to have the ox. A good rule about life is that if it is messy, it probably means it is full of life. 

~ Rae

Episode #7 - Imagination on Luke 8:22-25 with Miri.

I just drove a car load of teenagers to a youth retreat and now I’m recovering from a very chatty four hours in the car, posting this in a quiet space. (Aaahhh.) I love those kids.

Here’s what to expect in this episode of the podcast:

* Ro and I chat about the last week, including community lunches that have been full to the brim, dance meditation, planting seeds, forgetting about the sun, and a beautiful Devotion Circle.

* Miri guides an imagination meditation on Luke 8: 22-25. (If you want to skip straight to this, it’s at 09:13)

*Also, during the introduction, I talked about an art piece that my fourteen-year-old daughter did in response to a dance meditation this week. Here it is:

Dreamy.

Here’s the episode on iTunes. 

Here it is on Youtube.

Here’s the podcast and blog Facebook page.

I pray that you feel scads of joy this week, wherever you are. 

~ Rae

The podcast will always be free, but you can support us on Patreon.com and get extra audio each month. We're so thankful for your support, which helps our communities to offer this kind of meditation and other Christ-centered practices for free. 

theRiver Gathering

Last week most of us Shekina Communities people joined another 70 or so folks in Chiang Mai for theRiver Gathering, for communities like ours from all over the world. We had friends there who are living in Israel, the USA, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, India, Scotland, The Netherlands, Germany, Canada, England and more. Folks running hostels, farm stays, ashrams, meditation spaces, mobile communities, and other creative communities.

It was beautiful to connect with so many people who have a similar heart to us, making spaces where travellers can connect with Jesus' life and teachings, in a welcoming environment. 

We sang and prayed together, had sessions and panels and interviews about life in community, rhythms and practices, sharing Jesus, mentoring volunteers, and pilgrimages. We worked out loads of creative ways to stay connected with each other and help our traveller friends meet each other too, in other spaces along their journeys. And I may have caught the travel bug again, hearing about all the amazing places and practices that these amazing people are making happen all around the world!

(a post by Ro)

(photo by Scion)

Episode # 6 : Lectio Divina on Psalm 126 with Rowan

This week I’m posting from theRiver Gathering in Chiang Mai. It has been such a full week, so full to the brim with goodness and thoughts and connections that we are overflowing. 

Here’s what to expect in this episode:

* Ro and I talk a little about the gathering, including dance meditation, wrestling contests, new and old connections, and amazing worship. 

* Ro guides a Lectio Divina meditation on Psalm 126. (If you want to skip straight to this, it’s at 08:30)

Here’s the episode on iTunes. 

Here it is on Youtube.

We have a Facebook page up if you want to follow us there.

May all the love and mercy you need flow freely to you and through you this weekend. Much love.

~ Rae

***

The podcast will always be free, but you can support us on Patreon.com and get extra audio each month. We're so thankful for your support, which helps our communities to offer this kind of meditation and other Christ-centered practices for free to travelers and spiritual seekers from around the world.

Episode #5 : John 14: 1-7 with Joshua

How exciting to already be on week 5 of this little podcast. (This is Rae.) It has been a hot, sticky, busy day here in Thailand and it feels good just to take a moment to send this out. 

Here’s what to expect in this episode:

* Ro and I talk about our week, discussing Devotion Circle, a successful surprise, friends who are in town from around the world, and what is happening next week! 

* Joshua guides a meditation on John 14:1-7. (If you want to skip straight to this, it’s at 08:30)

Here’s the podcast on iTunes. 

Here it is on Youtube.

We have a Facebook page up if you want to follow us there.

Many blessings for the weekend, wherever you are. Remember God’s mercy, flowing all around you.

***

The podcast will always be free, but you can support us on Patreon.com and get extra audio each month. We're so thankful for your support, which helps our communities to offer this kind of meditation and other Christ-centered practices for free. 

Holy and dearly loved.

I’ve been reading Colossians a lot lately. Over and over again. Today it’s this verse.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved,

Deep sigh. Going into the day with a hug all around me, loved. The sparkle in a friend’s eye when they delight in me, the cries of my children when I arrive home after being away, an arm around my shoulders, God standing behind me- what does it mean to be holy and dearly loved? Set apart, not flailing in an impossible sea. Held. Unarmed because I am already protected.

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Today I put on fisherman pants and one of Chinua’s T-shirts. Then those got wet on the motorbike when I drove through a rainstorm. So I changed to leggings and a top that used to be really beautiful but is now rather faded and a little torn. Clothe myself. Put on compassion. Pull it on, really think about it, really get ready for the day with kindness like a pair of pants, with humility like my glasses that I wouldn’t leave the house without. Gentleness. Patience. I’m ready for anything now. Ready to look around the world at my brothers and sisters and really see them.

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 

This reminder carries the tiniest, gentlest bite. Forgive how? As the Lord forgave you. Bear with one another… how? Why? He bears with you and more. He listens when you are being a total jerk. He doesn’t walk away during your rants. So you can bear with one another. It’s possible. You just need to tap into being dearly loved…

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Love is the superhero cape that you tie on last, or the cloak that swirls around you, protecting you. When you truly love someone, you smile at their ridiculously beautiful tiny human ways. You love them, you love them, you love them. When you love you enter into the warm realms, the Kingdom of God, a place so rich with belonging that everything else fizzles and falls away.

And it doesn’t mean that the warm realms don’t have hard things, hard truths. Not even belonging can keep regular human consequences away. But God will be there, and we can do all things with him in our midst.

I pray that today you know you are holy and dearly loved.

Episode #4 : Imagination meditation on the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' robe, with Rae

(Rae here.)

We’ve been so busy with life but one of the gems right now is being able to guide meditation. I hope today’s meditation speaks to you.

Here’s what to expect in this episode:

*Ro and I have a short chat about life right now including rainbow salad, contact dance, city life, and being glad to be home. 

*I guide an imagination meditation based on the story of the woman who came and touched the hem of Jesus’s robe. (She was so brave.) (If you want to skip straight to this, it’s at 07:05)

Here’s the podcast on iTunes. 

Here it is on Youtube.

We have a Facebook page up if you want to follow us there.

Many blessings for the weekend. Love one another and remember that you are so, so loved.

Sundays at Shekina Garden

We love hosting our traveller friends for Community Lunch at Shekina Garden on Sundays!

We sing and pray thanks for the food in a big circle. We feast of yummy vegetarian food (most of us take turns to cook each week, sticking to things that can be made for big groups like dal and rice, curries, soups, bean bowls, rainbow brown rice salads). I make big batches of kombucha at home each week and bring it to share. Sometimes friends bring other things to add to the meal; Michael from Wales usually brings some fresh fruit.

Then we have a Sharing Circle, where each person has the opportunity to introduce themselves. We usually ask our friends to share a little about themselves and answer an interesting question. This week we asked people to share a story of the worst place they have slept or spent the night…there we stories of camping misadventures, truck stops, bathtubs, train station and airport floors, hitchhiking woes…just what you would expect from 50 world travellers!

After our Sharing Circle we share chai and dessert, and the afternoon rolls on. Usually there is music, often there is dancing. Together we enjoy acro-yoga, contact improvisation, art making, handiwork, jewellery making, good conversation and of course doing the dishes.

It is a very, very good way to spend a Sunday.

(A post by Ro)

Episode #3 of the Podcast! Imagination meditation on John 13:1-17 with Neil

Hi everyone, this is Rachel. I hope you have had an excellent week!

The podcast is live on iTunes, so you can subscribe there if you like!

Here’s what to expect in Episode 3 of the podcast:

I tried something new this week and created this episode without any background music. We normally meditate without music. Let us know what you think about the difference. Music? No music? 

* Ro and I do an update of life around here this week, including uncles, camping dreams, housecleaning, and a quiet week.

* Neil guides us in an imagination meditation on John 13:1-17 (If you want to skip straight to this part, it’s at 08:34.) 

Enjoy!

The Youtube version is here :)

***

The podcast will always be free, but you can support us on Patreon.com and get extra audio each month. We're so thankful for your support, which helps our communities to offer this kind of meditation and other Christ-centered practices for free. 

A Little Breath

Here at Shekina Garden we are taking a little breath.

For two weeks we are halting most of our regular rhythms at the Garden. It is school holidays for the kids. One family is away for a holiday with visiting parents. Jazzy and his Dad Joshua need to go to Laos for a visa run. And we are preparing a Gathering for theRIVER - a whole bunch of communities like ours, coming together in Chiang Mai in a few weeks time. There will be folks coming from all over the world to think about community and faith and travel and Jesus. Just the best sort of gathering!

Soon the season here will start to ramp up, as the rains stop and the weather cools down. Already, friends are starting to return for the part of the year that they live here. We have joyous reunions with friends we see each year. And I realise the sweetness in both the seasonal friendships - where we are apart for half the year and get to catch up on each other’s very different lives; and also the friendships that go all through the year - the ones we cough with during the dry burning season, and sweat with during green season.

We all do different things when we take a seasonal break like this. Some folks like to give their homes a big spring clean (autumn/fall clean?). The kids don’t have school so there are more fun holiday-type adventures to be had. There is a little bit more time for other projects or study, creating or reading. We get together with friends for bible reading circles, or coffee, or board games.

Our regular work is so good. We love it so much! Our meditations, gardening days, meals together, devotion circles. Beautiful practices that require our full selves. But if we keep doing them all year without any break, it can feel like we are on a wheel that never stops, as Rae says. And that isn’t such a nice feeling. So before High Season is upon us, with all its energy and visitors and events, we make an opportunity to take a breath. To look around at all that has been going on. To thank God for what has been happening around us and in us. It is good to stop, and to breathe long and deep.

(A post by Ro)

Episode #2 of the Podcast! Psalm 119:25-32 with Chinua

Hi, Rachel here! Here’s what to expect in Episode 2 of the podcast:

* Ro and I do an update of life around here this week, including pita, a river of people, controlled fells, weeds like trees and bees with knees.

* Chinua guides us in a Lectio Divina meditation on Psalm 119: 25-32 (If you want to skip straight to this part, it’s at 07:33.) 

Enjoy!

The Youtube Version is here, if that is what you prefer. 

***

The podcast will always be free, but you can support us on Patreon.com and get extra audio each month. Thank you to new patrons: Alison, Maja, Kesselfam, and Susan! We're so thankful for your support!

Food Forest Glory

Hi, this is Ro writing today. I want to write a blog post about our amazing Food Forest at Shekina Garden, but I've been putting it off because how could I ever do it justice? So let me just give you a little snapshot...

This area out the back of the property, over the last year, has been transformed into a wonderland. Joshua is the mastermind and coordinator of the magical transformation happening in the Food Forest at Shekina Garden, born out of a growing love and knowledge of Permaculture and a passion for beauty and growing the food we eat.

We see caring for the earth as an integral part of our spiritual life. The Divine has gifted us this spectacular planet to care for and live off, to protect and cultivate. We look forward to the day when the whole world will be made new, and the glory of God will cover the earth! Until then, part of our work here on earth is to care for, respect, learn from, and bring back to abundance the little patch of earth we have been entrusted with. Sounds lofty, perhaps, but to me, gardening is holy work.

So to tell a little of the story so far of our Food Forest...

In May 2017 we hired a guy and a tractor to come and level the ground a little. To plough through whatever weeds had survived dry season, and mulch it all up into the newly soggy soil at the start of the wet season. (Wet season starts here in May, usually with some wild, windy lightning storms, then settling into more regular rains in June, which become daily in July and August, trailing off during September.)

We soon threw kilos and kilos of beans and legumes into the soft wet soil to begin a cover crop of awesomeness, fixing nitrogen into the soil and blocking weed growth. Mung bean, kidney beans, pigeon pea, soy beans...

 Then came even more fun... 

A pathway to facilitate a meditative walk through the whole property had been concocted by Heather, Chinua, Leaf and Joshua as part of our Grand Plans for the whole of Shekina Garden. Paths through the soon-to-be Food Forest were laid out by Leaf and Joshua.

Five banana circles were dug and planted. 

Tapioca and mulberries and citronella and lemongrass were propagated. 

Trees were planted! So many kinds! Lemon and orange and lime and mango and cocoa and jackfruit and mangosteen and guava and coffee and pomegranate and Jamaican cherry and dragon fruit and papaya...so many papaya.

Whole coconuts sprouting new growth which will take years to grow into huge palms and bear fruit. 

I sprouted a baby moringa tree from seed that our friends Brian and Katie gave us, and it's grown about 12ft in the last 12 months. 

To protect our baby avocado tree we created an Avocano! An avocado volcano!

We planted and propagated all last wet season, then watered and watered all through dry season to keep things alive. Then this wet season everything has absolutely exploded with life. Every shade of the colour green imaginable. I tell our friends that it's a magical fairy land. And it really is. Wild bees have started a little comb on a tree. Butterflies are in abundance and the soil is full of fat, happy worms.

We've also added aloe vera, pineapples, Thai basil, cannas, Mexican sunflower, sweet potato, zinnias, Queensland arrowroot, turmeric in abundance...and so many more species that are edible and/or medicinal.

I brought dozens of marigold seedlings from my garden at home and planted them along one section of path. 

From one small comfrey, carefully brought from afar, Joshua has spread comfrey plants all over.

Plans for how we can incorporate seasonal foods growing on our property are becoming part of our conversations and dreams for Community Lunches. To feed our traveller tribe fresh organic food from our own gardens - bliss!

Low benches are being made in little shady spots where a couple of people can sit and have a chat together.

Hand-painted signs and bible verses can be found in various nooks.

A plan for a labyrinth is afoot.

Plans for two small bungalows are being drawn up, so that travellers who want to do a dedicated Jesus Retreat with us can stay onsite.

Mmm, really I can't do justice to the loveliness which is this little patch of land at the back of Shekina Garden. You'll just have to join us one Thursday for Community Gardening Day and get your hands dirty with us, to fully appreciate it! Consider that an open invitation!