listening in stillness | serving in joy

This entry arises from the Sacred Conversations in Contemplative Writing Group’s Ship Island Day Retreat, held on April 18, 2026. This post, submitted by Shane Steinkamp, begins with an reflection of the retreat, photos included, followed by a piece of writing that issued from Shane’s pen (or do you write in pencil Shane?) on the Island, in response to one of the retreat prompts. Seven participants made the crossing, gathering under the thoughtful facilitation of Alisha Johns

Dear SCL community, It is with a much awaited joy that we get to share our new Executive Director, David Prichard, with you. Though our Board chair, Ani Vidrine, knows and values him through their work together at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, for the past three months we, the SCL Board, have been in a deep process of getting to know him too. We have all come to find his contemplative and leadership style a delight and a great match for SCL. Below we offer a

~ by Adrienne Southgate picture by Dewang Gupta on Unsplash.com Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ~Matthew 5:19-20 Perfection. That bar of righteous

~ by Connie Habash "Each separate being in the universe returns to the common source. Returning to the source is serenity." ~ The Tao Te Ching, Verse 16 (partial) Ah, serenity. A state of consciousness that many of us long for. The good news is that it's always available to us, right now, when we Return to the Source. What is Returning to the Source? And how do we do that? As many concepts are in Taoism (and in yoga philosophy), it's very simple, and not easy to maintain.