Most of us have developed a fairly extensive vocabulary for describing pain, as though the journal were a doctor requiring much detail to make the correct diagnosis. The roundness of the spiritual journey cannot be expressed without developing an equally extensive vocabulary for talking to ourselves and others about the nature of wonder, joy, ecstasy, love, transfiguration.

Christina Baldwin

Millions of people are joined in the knowledge that writing brings insight and calm in the same way that prayer, meditation, or a long walk in the woods does. They have discovered that writing allows the racing mind to move at the pace of pen and paper or the pace of typing on the waiting screen - that journal writing is a spiritual practice.

Christina Baldwin

prayer spiritual moving

Forgiveness is the act of admitting we are like other people. We are prone to make mistakes that cause confusion, inflict pain, and miscommunicate our intentions ... The only choice we have is to reconcile ourselves to our own flaws and the flaws of other people, or withdraw from the community.

Christina Baldwin

forgiveness pain mistake

Words are how we think; stories are how we link.

Christina Baldwin

links stories thinking

We need a revolution in the West: not violent overthrow, but a willingness to take responsibility for the course of history being set forth in our names. We need a revolution determined to activate broad, inclusive social change.

Christina Baldwin

responsibility names peace

Writing bridges the inner and outer worlds and connects the paths of action and reflection.

Christina Baldwin

bridges reflection writing

To work in the world lovingly means that we are defining what we will be for, rather than reacting to what we are against.

Christina Baldwin

spiritual work mean

The purpose of life is not to maintain personal comfort; it's to grow the soul.

Christina Baldwin

purpose soul comfort

In the midst of overwhelming noise and distraction, the voice of story is calling us to remember our true selves.

Christina Baldwin

voice self noise

Spiritual empowerment is evidenced in our lives by our willingness to tell ourselves the truth, to listen to the truth when it's told to us, and to dispense truth as lovingly as possible, when we feel compelled to talk from the heart.

Christina Baldwin

empowerment spiritual heart

Contact with the sacred occurs in the stillness of the heart and mind. If there is any real destination to the spiritual quest, it is this point of silence, the middle of the spiral, the center of the self. ... The only map that does the spiritual traveler any good is one that leads to the center.

Christina Baldwin

real spiritual heart

Story is the mother of us all. First we wrap our lives in language and then we act on who we say we are. We proceed from the word into the world and make a world based on our stories.

Christina Baldwin

mother stories world

Despair is our chance to wrestle with fire and come through.

Christina Baldwin

despair fire inspirational

History is what scholars and conquerors say happened; story is what it was like to live on the ground.

Christina Baldwin

conqueror scholar stories

When you choose to write using yourself as the source of the story, you are choosing to confront all the silences in which your story has been protectively wrapped. Your job as a writer is to respectfully, determinedly, free the story from the silences and free yourself from both.

Christina Baldwin

silence writing jobs

How we remember, what we remember, and why we remember form the most personal map of our individuality.

Christina Baldwin

maps individuality memories

Wonder is not a Pollyanna stance, not a denial of reality; wonder is an acknowledgement of the power of the mind to transform, to notice, to decide what experience shall mean.

Christina Baldwin

inspirational mean reality

Wonder and despair are two sides of a spinning coin. When you open yourself to one, you open yourself to the other. You discover a capacity for joy that wasn't in you before. Wonder is the promise of restoration: as deeply as you dive, so may you rise.

Christina Baldwin

two-sides joy promise

Ritual consists of the external practices of spirituality that help us become more receptive and aware of the closeness of our lives to the sacred. Ritual is the act of sanctifying action - even ordinary action - so that it has meaning. I can light a candle because I need the light or because the candle represents the light I need.

Christina Baldwin

light practice ordinary

With compassion, we see benevolently our own human condition and the condition of our fellow beings. We drop prejudice. We withhold judgment.

Christina Baldwin

judgment prejudice compassion

Story is the mother of us all, for we become who we say we are.

Christina Baldwin

mother stories