We have an experience. This experience could be anything.  

Maybe a strange dream from the night before that we cannot shake. 

Maybe an unexpected turn in a relationship, our health, or the workplace.

Maybe a feeling or a set of feelings that we cannot account for.

Maybe a longing or desire or need that wants our attention. 

Having a person as my spiritual director means that I have a person, a time and a place where I can go and ask the question of any of these things and more: what does it mean? That person will hold space with me so that I can explore the question.

Asking what a thing in our lives means can be both an enticing and terrifying question. It can also just be a genuine curiosity. We thrive on meaning in so many ways from how food and drink taste and affect us to the plot of a drama on television or in a book, to the nuances of any relationship that we are a part of: with human beings, with animals, with plants and the whole of nature. We move and interact with life in all in particularities and, mostly, often silently, we find meaning there. 

Comfort. Direction. Sensibility. Joy. Grief. Love. Humor. Wisdom. Courage. 

If each of us pondered just for a few minutes the most meaningful events of our lives, we could confirm and add to that list above. That’s why such a simple question cannot only entice us into its dance, but touch our daily curiosities and at times, terrify us. We don’t say it much or often, most of us, but human beings are meaning makers. On some level, all of us wake up each day, and we begin our search for meaning.  Grand. Miniscule. Mundane. Outrageous . . . meaning. It all counts.

And spiritual direction ensures that if at no other time in our lives, we have a person, a time and a place to ask the question out loud and open to our personal response: what does it mean?

What does your search for meaning look like? If you think spiritual direction is something you want to try out, go here for help getting started. 

~Robert Patrick