Healing Light

I spent the day at Pathways Retreat Center for a day of Gestalt Pastoral Training. The yellow maples glowed outside, and juncos flitted around finding food not too far from the building.

There were many moments of light inside as well, ones that I'll come back to in memory, but those are private for the people involved, so instead I'll share a visual. This one fits in well with this past month's themes of light and darkness, and with the past week's recurring theme of leaves. It caught my eye from across the room.

We ended with a song that has become part of our closing ritual and that done with hand movements created by the Assembly dance group, helps us to embody and celebrate what happens with Gestalt Pastoral Care:
        God to enfold you.
        Christ to uphold you.
        Spirit to keep you in heaven's sight.
        So may God grace you,
        heal and embrace you,
        lead you through darkness into the light. 
                        John Bell and Graham Maule, Iona Community

May you also be enfolded, upheld, kept, graced,healed, embraced, and may God lead you through darkness into the light.