Announcing: Launch of New Website with Blog
You are the first to know! I have just launched a blog on my website.
I am adding this blog as a way to:
- provide varying perspectives on "leading from a different place"
- include a practice that you can use to act on or embody the insights provided.
- extend my work and ministry to clergy and lay leaders.
- focus on a theme for a series of entries in order to explore that theme with some depth
- provide gradually, for ways to interact with others around some of these themes
It is still in the formative stages I hope you will sign on--and encourage others to do so as well.
The first series of entries will be on the themes: Intention and In-Tension. Future series will be on the themes: "Paying Attention: What's the Cost?" and "Presencing and Leading".
The address for the web-site and blog is easy to remember: www.lawrencepeers.com
Summer Time and The Livin' Is.....
The seasons of nature and the seasons of our lives don't always seem in sync. I often hear from clergy who have found that their summer "relaxation" turned in unanticipated directions. Nevertheless, I hope that this summer season is one in which you might experience at least some moments of what holistic physician, Stephan Rechtschaffen, calls "Time Shifting" : a shifting away from the rushed and future-focused schedules that can often take over in other seasons of the year. "Time Shifting" includes at least these processes: becoming aware of the present, practicing "entrainment"-tuning in to the rhythm and flow of the moment, and rituals that shift the rhythm of our lives. I have one of those deep reclining chairs positioned on my deck--and it is part of my summer ritual to go to that chair. As I relax into the chair, I also relax into a state of being that allows me to surrender my need for activity for those moments. It is a body-prayer, one of surrender and of being suspended for some minutes for reflection and inner re-orientation.
Maybe you have your own rituals, too, for "time shifting"? I long to find ways to not be so determined by my to-do list and the external seasons and rhythms of work and life--so that I can "shift" at any time of year. I said in a scripture study group recently--"I am trying to cultivate the internal summer"--that I can turn to in any season or any pace of life.
Perhaps, you can join me in that task by beginning to think of your own way to complete the sentence: "Summer Time and the Livin' is...." What are the inner qualities and perspectives that represent "summer time" to you? How can you cultivate those qualities intentionally: what practices can reinforce this inner landscape?
Wisdom From One of My Mentors: Parker Palmer
When I was a young adult in my early 20's I had a wonderful mentor for about a year, Parker Palmer, who was then dean of Pendle Hill, A Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation. I was taking a necessary "time off"-as I was seeking to navigate through a challenging period and toward the next chapter of my life. Since that time, Parker's writings have often been a way for me to continue that mentoring that began for me some decades ago. He was, in a sense, my first "coach"--and a spiritual guide as well.
Here are some words from Parker on Summer that I offer to you for your own reflection:
Summer is the season when all the promissory notes of autumn and winter and spring come due, and each year the debts are repaid with compound interest. In summer it is hard to remember that we had ever doubted the natural process, had ever ceded death the last word, had ever lost faith in the powers of new life. Summer is a reminder that our faith is not nearly as strong as the things we profess to have faith in – a reminder that, for this single season at least, we might cease our anxious machinations and give ourselves to the abiding and abundant grace of our common life. (From Seasons, A Center for Renewal)
Writing Project: Request for Your Assistance
I am working on a book, "Leading From A Different Place" that will be a resource for congregational leaders who are seeking ways to recompose their leadership in different seasons, settings, and situations. As the Fall arrives, I will want to do some interviews, some short surveys and a few invitation-only tele-conference calls. Let me know if you have an interest in participating: lppeers@earthlink.net
Closing Prayers
I offer you these closing prayers as a way for us to connect in the deeper place, the Source of our being and becoming, with our God. Many blessings to you in this summer season. -Larry
We are called unto life, destiny uncertain
Yet we offer thanks for what we know,
for health and healing, for labor and repose,
for renewal of beauty in earth and sky,
for that blend of human-holy, which inspires compassion,
and for hope: eternal, promising light.
For light, for health, for hope,
for beautiful, bountiful blessing,
all praise to the Source of Being.
-from Mishkan T'Filah: A Reform Siddur
It is when we are still
that we know.
It is when we listen
that we hear.
It is when we remember
that we see your light, O God.
From your Stillness
we come.
With your Sound
all life quivers with being.
From You
the light of this moment shines.
Grant us to remember you at the heart of each moment.
Grant us to remember.
-from Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace by John Phillip Newell
P.S. Please note that I will be on vaction for most of August, except for a clergy retreat I am doing the last week of August. I still have appointments available in July--and I will be posting September available appointments soon.
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