April 29, 2018

Fifth Sunday Reflections: It's been a long winter

April 29, 2018/ LeAnne Nesbitt

When there are five Sundays in a month, I take a break from my weekly mandala making to contemplate my learnings from the practice and take a look back over my life since the last fifth Sunday reflection.

Since beginning this practice, fifth Sundays have occurred a maximum of every three months. This time; however, we have a four month span to cover, which feels like a metaphor for what seems to have been an eternal winter.

December 31, 2017

Sunday Morning Mandalas: Evolution of a Practice

December 31, 2017/ LeAnne Nesbitt

When I began creating Sunday Morning Mandalas, I did not imagine that I would sustain the practice for an entire year. As I approached the one year mark in October, I thought I would take a break after and maybe begin anew in January. But, golden maple leaves flagged me down on the side of the road that first Sunday in November, and I could not resist bringing them home - not only to my physical home, but the home poet John O'Donohue was referring to when he wrote "when we experience the beautiful, there is a sense of homecoming." His book Beauty: The Invisible Embrace elucidates better than I ever could why this practice impacts me and others the way it does.

October 29, 2017

Sunday Morning Mandalas: One Year Later

October 29, 2017/ LeAnne Nesbitt

I spent the final days of October last year in three days of solitude and silence atop Monteagle Mountain as I've done every Autumn since 2010. While there, I made the first of what would be many natural mandalas from materials I found while out walking.

September 10, 2017

If the Weather Holds

September 10, 2017/ LeAnne Nesbitt

As I walked and gathered items for this week's mandala, Irma was on my mind. She seems so symbolic of the times in which we are living. As we grapple with questions of immigration and the reality of climate change, our country's literal borders are being beaten back by the hands of mother nature. Across the nation, many of our number appear to be struggling to maintain our footing in the swirl of chaos and fear surrounding us. It is not surprising that some have wondered aloud if we are not at the end of days.

July 30, 2017

A Careful Grounding

July 30, 2017/ LeAnne Nesbitt

My fifth Sunday practice is to take the day off from my usual mandala making to reflect on the practice and whatever life has happened along the way. Indeed, life happened. Lots of it. My usual habits and routines were completely disrupted over the past three months, with May being a time of celebration and life transitions.

June 21, 2017

On Labyrinths, Love & Learning

June 21, 2017/ LeAnne Nesbitt

On the 27th day of May in the year 2017, at nearly fifty-two years old, I became a bride. My beloved and I met in 2004, but neither of us were ready for what love required. In spite of a deep connection and affection for one another, we couldn't make it work. After a couple of years our paths diverged in seeming opposite directions.

May 21, 2017

In the Conversation with Amy Lyles Wilson

May 21, 2017/ LeAnne Nesbitt

Amy Lyles Wilson lives just over a half hour drive away from my home in Middle Tennessee. Our paths never crossed until we arrived at Kanuga Lake in Hendersonville, North Carolina as new students in the Haden Institute Spiritual Direction program. We were assigned to different cohort groups, but when she introduced herself during our first gathering as one whose call is to "work at the intersection of creativity and spirituality" I knew I needed to get to know her better.