What's Next After St. Martin's?

Some years before I came to St. Martin’s, I attended three cooking classes taught by Christina Pirello, the host of WHYY’s Christina Cooks. In these classes, I learned how to cook in what Christina calls the “whole foods way”. “Cooking the whole foods way” means using fresh vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes, and avoiding processed food. I was excited to be in Christina’s class because it took me back to my childhood days when I used to watch my mother cook. Interestingly, I learned that my mother also cooked in the whole foods way. You might say that Christina’s course was an advanced version of, what for me is, back-home cooking. So her class enabled me to refine my cooking skills. In particular, I learned different ways of chopping vegetables, how to
use my intuition when combining ingredients to make a recipe, and how to use appliances like a pressure cooker. I was also excited by the abundance and diversity of vegetables and legumes: so many colors, shapes and sizes with which to experiment. My choices of ingredients expanded. I now include leeks, rutabagas, parsnips, turnips, collard greens, kale, quinoa, flax seed, and many other ingredients in my recipes. 

Christina has inspired me since I took her classes. When she was 27 years old (some 30 years ago) she was diagnosed with terminal leukemia and did the most courageous thing. She opted to forego conventional treatment because, she told us, she saw how her mother suffered as she underwent chemotherapy. Around the same time of her diagnosis she met her future husband, Robert, who introduced her to Macrobiotic cooking and the macrobiotic lifestyle. A major part of her treatment was a matter of nutrition, and she credits her healing to eating in the way Robert taught her. She went into remission after a year and a half! As a nurse I was amazed by her recovery and by her trust in the power of nature to heal. Our body has the capacity to heal itself. We all have a healer-within, if we but trust in the power of our body to heal itself. 

I’ve heard and read similar courageous healing stories like Christina’s that inspire me and my husband to adopt their eating lifestyle to complement the traditional treatment he is receiving.

Some of you asked me about what I am going to do when I leave St. Martin’s. Well, I am going to take some Sabbath time and cook. I am going to cook like I’ve never cooked before. That is, I am going to devote more time to cooking than I ever did in the past. I have a collection of recipes from a stack of cookbooks that have been on my shelf for quite a while now just waiting to be cooked! These recipes are calling to me. And I plan to create some of my own recipes as well.

Lately, I have been spending much of my time in the kitchen when I’m home. I have come to consider my kitchen a sacred space in which I prepare holy food for nourishment and healing. Cooking has become a prayer exercise in which I thank God for the abundance God has given us and I ask God to bless each ingredient I am using for that meal. I also ask God to bless the fire, the pots and pans, and my hands.

I am looking forward to new possibilities during my Sabbath time and beyond. God willing, all will be well.

- The Rev. Harriet Kollin

The Rev. Harriet Kollin, Associate Rector, is leaving her employ at St. Martin's at the end of June. We'll celebrate her ministry with us these past three years, and wish her a blessed and fond farewell at the Pentecost worship services on Sunday, June 8, 2014.

A Door to Inner Life

For a long time I struggled to understand what my inner life or soul-life is about. Part of the challenge was setting aside the time to cultivate and tend to my interior life. My usual routine of praying the Daily Office and attending Sunday services was just not enough; I needed time to be engaged by God in silence. But part of me feared the unknown and was afraid to take risks.

There came a time, however, when God’s invitation to “come and see” became more persistent and louder, and I was no longer able to ignore it. So I mustered the courage I needed to accept the invitation. And that is how I came to enter my inner life--taking one little step at a time.

In the mid-90’s I participated in a facilitators training conference on a program called Women of Vision, a leadership curriculum that was developed by women in the Episcopal Church to raise women leaders in the church (and beyond) and to affirm their gifts. One of the gifts I received from this training is the question “WHAT STANDS OUT FOR YOU?” From that time on this question has become a very practical tool for reflection. It has become my regular practice to ask myself this question.

I have been making literal and mental notes of words and quotes that jump out from my readings or sermons I hear from others; of thoughts and feelings that arise from activities like gardening, knitting and cooking; and, images that arise in my dreams and elsewhere. I have come to see and understand these occasions as invitations from God to look within. I have found a home for these thoughts, feelings, and images in my heart. And I have found that I may return to them there from time to time. Surprisingly, each time I turn within in this way, I discover how my life has changed and in so changing, these thoughts, feelings, and images reveal new and deeper meaning. I become aware of the differences they have made and continue to make in the way that I relate with God, others, myself and the rest of creation.

- The Rev. Harriet Kollin

A Place for the Soul to Speak

By NOAA's National Ocean Service (Iceberg Uploaded by Jacopo Werther)
[CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

For the most part in our culture we are not accustomed to speaking about the soul. I find this very  interesting because we say that we are body and soul and yet we focus most of our attention on the needs and wants of our body. Our soul is very much a part of who we are. In fact, it is the larger part of our being. An image that I learned from a friend which illustrates this point is that of an iceberg. The part of the iceberg that is visible is only the tip of the whole; it represents the body. The larger part is not visible, at least immediately, because it is underwater; it represents the soul. One has to dive in in order to see it. I can understand why it is easier to deal with what we can see and more challenging to deal with what we cannot see. In the case of the soul one has to dive in, as it were, to get to know it. And so for the most part we don’t ordinarily speak about our soul. It is too risky.

My passion for soul work grew out of my discernment process towards seeking ordained ministry, but it continued to expand as I sought to discern who God is creating me to be. Discernment is part of soul work. Early on I misunderstood discernment to be the work of ordained people like those seeking ordination to the priesthood. As it turned out I realized that discernment is actually a gift that all of us already have and all of us can exercise. What I have discovered in my discernment is that I feel freed up when I untether myself from unnecessary attachments; opportunities open up for me to expand, freed from the constriction created by the external demands to be who I am not. Letting go of my attachments is not easy. But I know that when my soul is untethered I feel a sense of liberation accompanied by a sense of gratitude.

Among the many living saints from whom I get inspiration in my soul work is Parker J. Palmer. I met him once at a conference 6 years ago and I am continually learning from his writings. Three books in particular have found a home in my bookshelf—Let Your Life Speak, The Promise of Paradox, and A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward An Undivided Life. These titles struck me at first glance. I learned some time ago that when a word or phrase or image tugs at my heart the Holy Spirit is inviting me to discern where God may be leading me. So anything that stands out in my experience is food for my discernment. One image that stood out from Mr. Palmer’s writings is that of the hospitable place for the soul to speak. Mr. Palmer points out that the soul is shy and vulnerable and so she/he needs a safe place to speak. In my experience with psychotherapy, in spiritual direction, and in small group work I have found this to be true. While the process has been slow it is now bearing some fruit. One cannot hurry the soul after all. It needs to be treated gently and patiently.

A number of small groups at St. Martin’s provide a hospitable place for the soul to speak. A few “Circles of Trust” have formed out of the larger Women Connecting group as a place for participants to continue their soul work. “Spirituality of Aging” formed out of the Wellspring Lenten series of the same name; it is an opportunity for older men and women to reflect on their process of aging, the joys and challenges they meet at this point in their lives. And, “Nurturing Your Creative Soul” focuses on Benedictine spirituality using the book “The Artist’s Rule” for reflection.

On December 18 Wellspring will offer a small group spiritual direction for anyone seeking a place to gently start soul work and seek God with others. Subsequent meetings will be on the 3^rd Wednesday of the month. For more details visit Wellspring at St. Martin's online or contact me at hkollin@stmartinec.org or at 215.247.7466 x108.

- The Rev. Harriet Kollin