We are on the threshold of something new!
I had a great chuckle the other morning when as I awoke from a dream, I heard myself proclaiming the words: ‘We are on the threshold of something new’. With all that is going on within Eremos these times, those words were certainly not a new awareness. But the humor for me was in the invitation to ‘Wake up, get up and get going’!
Like most people who find themselves at a threshold, one pauses for a moment before stepping over and through the passageway into what is new and different. Over these past months Eremos has been involved in an ‘organizational audit’. Everyone who wanted to respond to the survey created by Seeds for Change Consulting was given an opportunity to do so. The input from the wider community gave our Consultant and our Board the clarity to take new steps in the organizational structure called Eremos. In other words, we are still in the house called Eremos, but we are rearranging the rooms, redesigning the purposes and opening the windows to the outside world (metaphorically speaking, of course).
It is an exciting time of new beginnings. We will be 15 years old in May. Fifteen years ago in November of 1995 we began the process of becoming a non profit organization. With wonderful leadership and facilitation back then, we have continued to listen, to grow and become the center of contemplative life that we are. People were concerned about what we were doing 15 years ago, and I know there is concern for us now. But a belief in the movement of the Spirit, a conviction that we had a mandate to create Eremos in our world and for our world continues to be our faith stance 15 years later. This is a remarkable threshold and I am excited to be part of this creation. We walk by faith and not by sight, as the old Christian song says. It has been a truth all these years and impels us to step through this threshold—uncertain about what we will find, certain only that it is imperative that we take this step into the future.
We are indeed awake, ready and driven to embrace the new that awaits us. As the Spirit has been the Source of formation of Eremos, so She will continue to be the Movement of transformation into the future.
“Come away to Eremos, (the wilderness, the silence and solitude of intimacy with God) and rest awhile.” Mk 6:31 remains the spiritual direction of Eremos and those who dwell within the Eremos of their lives. Indeed, we are standing on the threshold of something new. We are standing here together and have a choice to ‘Come and See’ or ‘Watch and Wait’. What a wondrous way to begin a new year!
May the threshold of your life bring you peace, joy and hope.
Blessings for a new year!
