by CSW Assistant Director Keely Morgan
I grew up in the Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas, usually in a bathing suit and barefoot. Countless pictures show me squatting near the ground with a new friend Lizard, countless elder Granddaddy Longlegs, a neighbor Nake (Snake), or a sister Tarantula in my hand. I capitalize their names because they were my Teachers long before any pastor in a church.
Not every picture shows me smiling, some capture an intense gaze from being disturbed from my lessons. My parents weren’t church going folk, instead they took me to the woods, which is where I prefer to be. What I learned there was the greatest lesson of all — nothing is to be feared, only to be respected and loved.
Coming up this fall, we have some incredible offerings introducing us to or re-immersing us in Celtic Spirituality. It wasn’t until I discovered John Philip Newell’s book, “Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality” that I could fully make Christianity work for me. In this book, he lays out a theology of the Divine never being separate from the Natural.
I look forward to these upcoming events with you. Don’t be surprised if you find me with my shoes off. I honor the Teachers who will come before us. I invite us as well this season to be with the Teachers always present – to walk barefoot on the earth, to sit with water flowing between our toes, and to kneel (physically or in our hearts) to the Sacred Earth and its healing powers before, around, and under us daily and often.
