Gunilla Norris
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Window
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Window
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
If we have been out in the dark, how comforting to see a lighted window; if we have been shut in, how refreshing when the light finds us. Without windows a house is a tomb. We need light and air. We need the new day to enter our homes, to bring us out of the night’s slumber and o…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Roof
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Roof
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
To have a roof over our heads is to have a home. Days of storm, days of intense sun, gray days, pleasant days—the roof is there and we are sheltered. How easily we take that fact for granted, yet all around us there is homelessness—a roof-less population. In appreciating that we …
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Staircase
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Staircase
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
Most days we use the stairs of our homes without a thought about their possible meaning beyond enabling us to climb. And often we don’t even think about that obvious use. Yet stairs and ladders have always been powerful spiritual images. Humans have forever wanted to transcend th…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Wall
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Wall
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
Many people who meditate sit facing a wall—facing a limit in order to find the limitless inside. Many pilgrims have traveled to stand beside the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem or to be witnesses by the walls where the names of the dead are inscribed. We need walls to help us with memo…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Floor
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Floor
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
We don’t seem to pay attention to the floor unless it is missing, unless it has a spill or an obstruction on it. Mostly we are confident that the floor is present and we merrily step upon it. Many things become floor-like to us—certain steady relationships, certain habits, certai…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Door
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - The Door
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
We enter our dwellings through a door. When the door closes we are within the protection of our home. Yet we do not always want to be enclosed and protected. We also want to let the world in, to crack the door, to set it ajar, to invite that which is new into the trusted and fami…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Dwelling
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - Dwelling
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
To dwell is to live in a place, to remain in it. Any space we truly occupy becomes, through dwelling, a home— becomes, through time, a sanctuary. There is, in the word dwell, a sense of repose. When we really inhabit our homes we gain a sense of time, and are then more able to kn…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Sleep
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Sleep
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
It may seem strange to some of us to think that entering into sleep could be prayer. Many of us say prayers before we turn off the light, but we seldom think of consciously giving ourselves over to the losing of our daytime awareness for the mysteries of sleep and dreams. Attende…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Walk
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Walk
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
We both walk away from things and towards them. We speak of a person’s walk of life. We admire those who walk their talk. Whether in protest or in praise, walking implies intention, direction, and purpose. Walking has been used as a way of devotion and prayer for thousands of yea…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Touch
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Touch
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
In the courtesy of beholding, and with a certain kind of respectful distance, we can come to know that everything and everyone has a vast solitude within. Quite often we do not want to feel this essential aloneness. It is fearful. We want to touch and be touched. We want to be ve…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Speak
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Speak
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
We often forget that who we are speaks to others all the time, whether we open our mouths or not. From time to time our being may be silent and still, yet it emanates. It speaks without words. For some this awareness leads to self-consciousness. They feel too exposed, too vulnera…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Hear
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Hear
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
We can close our eyes, but we cannot close our ears. Without ear-lids we are in a sense always open to the world, to its noise and joy, its confusion and its deep cries. Our eardrums cannot but resonate with what is around us. We thrum, whether we like it or not. Sometimes we dro…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To See
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To See
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
We see with more than our eyes. This is a mystery. We know that even a blind person can see in that larger sense. To see with carefulness and love is a great act of faith. So often we are too lazy or too distracted to see with care. Images come into our retinas, and our minds hav…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Breathe
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Breathe
by SPCK - Gunilla Norris
When we are born, we are born into a relationship with air, with breathing. How closely the words wind, air, life, and spirit are linked in human thought. We are creatures into whom life is breathed. A word we have for inhaling is inspiration. When we are fully inspired, not only…
Simple Ways - Towards The Sacred - To Be Embodied