A bouquet of lavender, pink and red & gold tulips is arranged in a handmade vase with a clouds & rainbows motif. The vase sits on a wooden table in an old cottage kitchen with a bright yellow ceiling. Springtime sunlight beams through the glass doors in the background. A tall, blurry pine tree peers inside to view the scene.

“HOPE”
MONTH OF MINISTRY, DAY 28

Hope is brave, radical, & dangerous.
Hope is necessary and appropriate.
Hope will lead us to despair
If we confuse it with expectation.
If we remain open and patient,
Hope will reward us with miracles.
It always does.

Thank you for joining me for #monthofministry!

Creative expression is the most potent spiritual practice, and when you work with me, you will come to realize this truth more deeply than ever before:

Creativity IS spirituality.

#monthofministry #creativityisspirituality

…letting your own answers emerge from within your own heart. If you need to feel heard and understood, I simply listen to you.

#monthofministry

A small, faded old handmade sign that reads “WARNING! DO NOT ENTER” is slowly being swallowed into the center of a tree trunk in North Omaha, Nebraska.

“OPENNESS”
MONTH OF MINISTRY, DAY 25

The most powerful antidote to despair is openness. My favorite flavors of openness are:
💫 suspense of judgment
💫 willingness to be incorrect
💫 expectation of miracles

They’re rare, but the good news is they can be cultivated with effort.

#monthofministry

Wisdom - Chris Booth Ceremonies #MonthofMinistry Day 22 In Buddhism, wisdom doesn’t just mean having a lot of knowledge or understanding. Instead it’s about having an insight or realisation about the true nature of reality. This is ...

#MonthofMinistry Day 22 - WISDOM
In Buddhism, wisdom doesn't just mean having a lot of knowledge or understanding. It's about an insight or about the true nature of reality, the realisation that all things are deeply interconnected - "emptiness".
More: chris-booth-ceremonies.earth/mom22

When I allow my mistakes, I accept the errors of others more readily, too. It is a portal for both atonement and forgiveness.

Radical imperfection has been the practice behind my most prolific seasons as an artist and my most potent work as a pastor.

#monthofministry

There it was. Grief— unaddressed, unadulterated— ready for me to notice it. I finally allowed grief to happen. It hurt, but when it was finished, I was free.

#monthofministry

People see big bad news as a mandate to inform ourselves and others. We make a bigger difference if we took bad news as a signal to care more deeply for ourselves and others, for our health and our world.

#monthofministry

We may even manifest war. War lets us justify our refusal to honor the sacred. We can hate ourselves until it kills everyone and everything around us.

Death will find us all anyhow, but heaven forbid we face the intimacy of that.

#monthofministry

Uncertainty forges a divine path. Certainty forges an illusion.

#monthofministry

I get to play an active role in the most unique and personal weddings. Recently, a beloved client asked me to write a tea ceremony centered around grief. My favorite ceremony I’ve ever written was on belonging in community.

#monthofministry

Light and Darkness - Chris Booth Ceremonies #MonthOfMinistry Days 17 and 18 In Quaker circles we talk a lot about the “Light”. It’s one of the commonest words we use to point at the sense (beyond all words) of good and loving kindness within ea...

#MonthofMinistry Days 17-18 LIGHT & DARKNESS
I’m troubled by the identification of “light” with what is good, and “darkness” with wickedness and death. Don’t we need both dark and light? Is it time to begin reclaiming darkness?
chris-booth-ceremonies.earth/mom17-18/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZZ9...

Day 18 of #monthofministry
Prompt: darkness

#interfaith #interspiritual

When we find ourselves in sorrow, she is the soil, protecting our hearts like tiny sprouting seeds.

#monthofministry

The moon glows at the center of its bright halo, joined by several planets and stars in the night sky.

“LIGHT”
MONTH OF MINISTRY, DAY 17

Dimming my light was always a far more available option. I am choosing instead to shine my light as brightly as I can, just in case someone else can use it to light their path, too.

#monthofministry

Still getting used to posting here so been missing for several days but here’s yesterday’s #monthofministry: #REVERENCE

Intention - Chris Booth Ceremonies #MonthOfMinistry Day 14 How do we find balance between “surrender” and “intention”? The latter sounds like a focussed act of will, the very opposite of “Give over thine own willing, give over thine ow...

#MonthOfMinistry Day 14 - INTENTION
We are foundering in a stormy sea of competing demands to address the challenges of cultural collapse, rising fascism, genocidal greed, our very planet burning around us? Setting clear intentions is a guide on the way.
chris-booth-ceremonies.earth/mom14

…your stories,
Your journey,
Your obstacles,
Your miracles,
And for all that you overcome.

What a privilege to bear witness to it all.

#monthofministry

The nameless, formless source of all life and existence claims no such division from us. Instead, our Creator beckons us to notice how connected we truly are.

Simply put, that is Love.

#monthofministry

I hold my intentions loosely. Like truth, they are subject to interpretation, and open to the effects of fate.

Nevertheless, I hold them.

#monthofministry

“PATH”
MONTH OF MINISTRY, DAY 13

There is a path.
Heart, you are lost,
But there’s a path
From the lover to the soul,
Secret, but visible.
Worlds blaze round you -
Don’t shrink:
The path’s secret,
But yours.

-Rumi

#monthofministry

…when most people say they want peace, what they really want is vengeance, avoidance, or obedience.

My favorite lesson of all was that the opposite of violence is not peace, it’s creativity.

#monthofministry

#MonthOfMinistry Day 11 SURRENDER
A difficult word: how can we give up the struggle when the forces of greed, hatred, fascism (not a term I use lightly, but which seems accurate) are hell-bent on destroying all we've created to care for one another and our planet?
chris-booth-ceremonies.earth/mom11

…the more capacity I have for reciprocal love, care, and attention.

#monthofministry

Quakers in Britain Quakers are a faith group committed to working for equality and peace. We try to live in truth, peace, simplicity, and equality, finding God in ourselves and those around us. Our meetings offer a welc...

#MonthOfMinistry Day 10 - CHURCH
I don't belong to a "church", but I guess our Quaker Meeting is the nearest equivalent. If you're used to going to church, it might be a little different to what you expect!
chris-booth-ceremonies.earth/church-month...

#MonthOfMinistry Day 8 - FAITH
Imani, faith, can come like a spirit
Spirit come like walking on air.
Take a step and trust in the path and
Mother Imani meet you there.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pHj...

chris-booth-ceremonies.earth/faith-montho...

Presence - Chris Booth Ceremonies #MonthOfMinistry Day 9 Presence – the still place where we experience being fully here, in the world, in the present moment, and remember that we’re all interconnected in a deep way. The place where, ...

#MonthOfMinistry Day 9 PRESENCE
We experience being fully here, in the world, in the present moment, and remember that we're all interconnected in a deep way. As John O'Donohue puts it, we "experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder". chris-booth-ceremonies.earth/presence/

Church is where we find ourselves committing to a pattern of ritual without any question of its worth, knowing that truth awaits us there to hold us again and again.

#monthofministry

For me, I rely on nature, creativity, and close relationships to BE HERE NOW.

How do you cultivate a better sense of conscious presence?

#monthofministry

We are dying. Suffering, in its dark inevitably, is the ever-available trial of our faith.

Hope is in every sunrise. In this, my faith is unwavering.

I beckon you here when I pray.

Do you want to be here, too?

#monthofministry