Compassionate Listening

People often ask me:  What exactly is it that you DO in spiritual direction?

For 20 years, I have spent several hours a week sitting with someone who is committed to becoming more conscious about her or his life’s journey.

I sit with women who have lost children, and grandmothers who want to make peace with their faith.  I sit with mid-life men who wonder if they’ve lost their way, or how to find it again.  With people who have lost partners, and people who are discovering the joy of retirement.

I hear questions like this, almost every day:

• Who am I, really?
• What is my purpose?
• How do I make sense of the bad things that happen to me?
• What does healing look like?
• Where do I find joy?

The Irish poet and thinker John O’Donohue gifted us with the expression, Anam Cara, which is Gaelic for “soul friend.”

Ideally, this is what a “spiritual director” is – a confidante, a listener, someone outside the normal flow of our lives who can hold space for our doubts, unanswered questions, desires, mistakes, and wonderings.

It is hard to make the spiritual journey alone, especially in a world so obsessed with control, dominance, and material success.  It is hard to be transformed without a conversation partner, a witness, sometimes a goad.  Hard to navigate without a map drawn with care, and in reverence of, the unique humans that we are.

A long-ish answer to the question.   You can find more information about my work at this link:

https://kathleenhirsch.com/spiritual-direction/

If you are looking for a spiritual director, SDI International offers a useful directory of practitioners and connects them with seekers all over the world.

https://www.sdicompanions.org