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Posted: May 31st, 2007 at 2:42am By: Anne E. Ulvestad
I'm trying to figure out whether I should go for the six- year Environmental Studies Ph.D. in an accredited university, but not start until next summer, or get a doctor of ministry from a university which is licensed only, but takes less time.
Then I realized that at the heart of everything I do is the desire to heal the heart of the Beloved. So my next step should have to do with healing — including healing the womb of the Great Mother and the essence of all beings. I believe at the center of this healing is a creative energy that offers love, receives beauty and vibrates peace. It is creating this kind of environment and opportunity that I am most interested in.
I've been saying that I want to create an environment — that has been the premise of the "Our Place in the Universe" presentations — one in which people can feel safe enough to notice, and remember being loved, so that they can give love and receive beauty. The learning objective of this series is to provide a forum for discovering one's own worldview in relation to the web of life and the Great Mystery. This can facilitate an environment that is sensitive to the awe-filled moments of grace and love that support the Great Turning and our original nature.
The first class I would take for the doctor of ministry would be Arts and Healing. The pre-class assignment is to read "Creative Healing," by Michael Samuels and Mary Rockwood Lane. There is a series of guided imagery lessons in the book, asking me to think of how and what I need to heal. It has also made me remember that one of the first things I did when I turned 50 was to create a website called "Healing God's heart, in order to heal our own."
What is healing anyway but a centering, getting back the right vibration, uniting mind and body centered on our original purpose and direction — in other words, being One with the Beloved. When we "create" an environment, therefore, all we are really doing is reflecting the Creator, bringing joy and beauty into the world.
Pondering this, I realized that is also why the source of our greatest joy is often the source of our greatest pain. The Heart of the Beloved has been sorrowful ever since we decided that we were more important than the whole, ever since we stopped seeing beyond the limitation of our immaturity, ever since we stopped wanting to put out the effort to grow and change.
What made us want to stop growing? We thought we already had it all. We picked the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and ignored the tree of life which is our desire fulfilled. Looking at it rationally, it doesn't make sense, but then when is desire rational? And we've been justifying our choice ever since.
When we finally become vulnerable — when we put it all out there — that is when love and life truly begin. Some people believe that this openness will in reality lead to control. If I open to a belief, I will be controlled by that belief. If I open to love, I will be controlled by that love. If I open to God, I will become a zombie, controlled by a mindless faith. On the other hand, we can be just as susceptible to a controlling fear of intimacy and continue to limit our choices and our life.
The counter to this, which also helps us see beyond our limitations, is the very principle of the cosmos itself, or Cosmogenesis. Thomas Berry sees this creative activity of the universe as comprised of three parts: integration, differentiation and communion. Glenys Livingstone calls it Creative Triplicity. It also can be described as origin, division, union. In other words, the Source opened, becoming vulnerable in all and sundry, myriad parts with the intention of uniting again and again as the universe unfolds and evolves.
The healing necessary in life now was not meant to be caused by what has become the pain and grief of our separation. Instead, a transformation would have been celebrated when the death of the old brings about the birth of the new, when the emergence of the unique leads to deeper and more diverse relationships rather than divisiveness and conflict.
This is the power of our creativity, the innate gift that God, in His openness and vulnerability, bequeathed to us as His children. With this resourcefulness we can heal the world.
— — —
Anne E. Ulvestad is a free-lance writer residing in Maryland. She has her masters in earth literacy, and is available for public lectures and group presentations and rituals on Spirituality and the Environment. Anne can be reached at {email anne@ourplaceintheuniverse.com}anne@ourplaceintheuniverse.com{/email}. © copyright 2007 by Anne E. Ulvestad.
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I'm trying to figure out whether I should go for the six- year Environmental Studies Ph.D. in an accredited university, but not start until next summer, or get a doctor of ministry from a university which is licensed only, but takes less time.
Then I realized that at the heart of everything I do is the desire to heal the heart of the Beloved. So my next step should have to do with healing — including healing the womb of the Great Mother and the essence of all beings. I believe at the center of this healing is a creative energy that offers love, receives beauty and vibrates peace. It is creating this kind of environment and opportunity that I am most interested in.
I've been saying that I want to create an environment — that has been the premise of the "Our Place in the Universe" presentations — one in which people can feel safe enough to notice, and remember being loved, so that they can give love and receive beauty. The learning objective of this series is to provide a forum for discovering one's own worldview in relation to the web of life and the Great Mystery. This can facilitate an environment that is sensitive to the awe-filled moments of grace and love that support the Great Turning and our original nature.
The first class I would take for the doctor of ministry would be Arts and Healing. The pre-class assignment is to read "Creative Healing," by Michael Samuels and Mary Rockwood Lane. There is a series of guided imagery lessons in the book, asking me to think of how and what I need to heal. It has also made me remember that one of the first things I did when I turned 50 was to create a website called "Healing God's heart, in order to heal our own."
What is healing anyway but a centering, getting back the right vibration, uniting mind and body centered on our original purpose and direction — in other words, being One with the Beloved. When we "create" an environment, therefore, all we are really doing is reflecting the Creator, bringing joy and beauty into the world.
Pondering this, I realized that is also why the source of our greatest joy is often the source of our greatest pain. The Heart of the Beloved has been sorrowful ever since we decided that we were more important than the whole, ever since we stopped seeing beyond the limitation of our immaturity, ever since we stopped wanting to put out the effort to grow and change.
What made us want to stop growing? We thought we already had it all. We picked the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and ignored the tree of life which is our desire fulfilled. Looking at it rationally, it doesn't make sense, but then when is desire rational? And we've been justifying our choice ever since.
When we finally become vulnerable — when we put it all out there — that is when love and life truly begin. Some people believe that this openness will in reality lead to control. If I open to a belief, I will be controlled by that belief. If I open to love, I will be controlled by that love. If I open to God, I will become a zombie, controlled by a mindless faith. On the other hand, we can be just as susceptible to a controlling fear of intimacy and continue to limit our choices and our life.
The counter to this, which also helps us see beyond our limitations, is the very principle of the cosmos itself, or Cosmogenesis. Thomas Berry sees this creative activity of the universe as comprised of three parts: integration, differentiation and communion. Glenys Livingstone calls it Creative Triplicity. It also can be described as origin, division, union. In other words, the Source opened, becoming vulnerable in all and sundry, myriad parts with the intention of uniting again and again as the universe unfolds and evolves.
The healing necessary in life now was not meant to be caused by what has become the pain and grief of our separation. Instead, a transformation would have been celebrated when the death of the old brings about the birth of the new, when the emergence of the unique leads to deeper and more diverse relationships rather than divisiveness and conflict.
This is the power of our creativity, the innate gift that God, in His openness and vulnerability, bequeathed to us as His children. With this resourcefulness we can heal the world.
— — —
Anne E. Ulvestad is a free-lance writer residing in Maryland. She has her masters in earth literacy, and is available for public lectures and group presentations and rituals on Spirituality and the Environment. Anne can be reached at {email anne@ourplaceintheuniverse.com}anne@ourplaceintheuniverse.com{/email}. © copyright 2007 by Anne E. Ulvestad.
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