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| As an inter-tradition spiritual companion, the best way to tell you a little about myself is to share some influences and ‘teachers’ I have met. |
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Aunty Bride Aunty Bride Connell, my maternal grandmother’s sister, lived with us when I was young. Every day at 4pm she would withdraw into her bedroom and half close the door to say her rosary and prayers - with me watching and forever fascinated. |
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Erskine Chapel At secondary school there was a beautiful chapel that I was drawn to often (although not every day by a long shot!) I would sit in the silence and its ‘presence’ was a balm and quiet inspiration for me. |
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The Cloud of Unknowing In my early 20’s (this was the 70’s) I searched for a more contemplative spirit within the Catholic church and found it on an extramural course on The Cloud of Unknowing. I then knew intellectually that it was possible to experience God directly and not just know about God. |
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Germaine Greer When Germaine came to Wellington in 1972 I was outside the Wellington police station, along with many others, shouting the words that she had been charged with saying during public lectures. This was when I learnt that feminism could be fun before I learnt that it was also hard work. In England a few years later, I began to explore women’s spirituality. |
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James K Baxter The sight of him walking barefoot down Wellington streets in the early 70’s, the stories that the papers loved to write about the commune in Jerusalem, his death in October 1972 and then the communes and ohu that sprang up – these were good years. |
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The Aubert, Baxter Merton, Kirk Family Trust This Catholic lay community had it’s beginnings in 1974 when a group of young people lived together in Wellington. It then had a presence in Huntly and Reikiorangi, before purchasing land in Featherston and formalising its name on the four ancestors who inspired its spirituality. They being Mother Suzanne Aubert, James K Baxter, Thomas Merton and Norman Kirk. I am still involved in this community today. |
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Wat Tham Krabok In 1979 I lived at this Buddhist monastery in Thailand. While at the monastery I became a nun and spent a year there with a monk from England, Ani Jampa, one of the first western female monks in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Here I was able to learn the different meditation practices and teachings of the East. |
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Thinley Norbu Rinpoche Rinpoche was one of Ani Jampa’s Tibetan teachers. Through Rinpoche I learnt a form of meditation and a world view that fed my hunger for more than knowing ‘about’. I also experienced the tremendous value of being with a person who was ‘infused with wisdom and compassion’ and who taught from that experience. |
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Mother Teresa In 1981 I was in Nepal and I went to a talk at the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu given by Mother Teresa. I sat there for two hours with the sweetest tears trickling down my cheeks knowing that I was with a woman who was compassion personafied. |
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Tessa Bielecki In 1984 I met Tessa (Mother Tessa she was then, Abbess of the Spiritual Life Institute ) a Carmelite Contemplative monastery in the States. Tessa pointed out that ‘knowing' God was always part of the Christian tradition and how being an ‘earthy mystic’ was the call to us all. Contemplative practices have been a part of my life ever since. |
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Many others Since the 80’s there have been numerous other influencers that life and work have given me - many of these have been shared over the simple spirituality of a good cup of tea, a chat and a well-thumbed book! |
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