Find Your Way Home - week 3


Nashville, TN:  After a long week, I am finally in Nashville and spent my morning at St. A’s for another installment of the “Find Your Way Home” class and discussion.  Recently, it seems as though I forgotten what passion feels like. Spending time reading these principles and hearing how people actually live them out brings me TO LIFE.

But instead of talking about today’s lesson, I want to focus on last week’s class. Though I love immersing myself in the presence of the current discussion, I can go back to a past podcast and listen to it again, slowly and thoughtfully, capturing phrases and images I may have missed the first time around.

Week 3:  Peggy, Ali, Jordan, Marlei, Gwen
In week 3, we were graced with 5 women from the Magdalene community who offered up words from the book and wisdom from their hearts. This blog would be way too long if I transcribed what each woman talked about (though I’ve been know to write a few blog novels every now & again), but what I noticed is that even though these women come from different places (physically and emotionally), there was a common thread that ran through all of them, which made each so very human, so very broken and so very beautiful.

Here are a few snippets from the morning, but you can hear it completely by listening to the podcast… only 30 minutes, plus a little shout out to me in the first 15 seconds (Becca thanks for me for the email I sent her and said I was missed at their annual benefit.   It’s the little things in life that make a girl feel special!).

Peggy
Principle #7: “Make a Small Change and See the Big Difference”
Peggy came to work on finances for St. Augustine’s Chapel and the Magdalene Program, but ended up learning about the way the community ran, which was much different than any other way she had known before. Through its example, she has been able to work on herself and her control issues.

Ali
Principle #3: “Cry with Your Creator”
As a student at Vanderbilt, Ali interned at Magdalene. She was planning on “changing the world,” but once there, she discovered she was actually lost herself and needed to find her own way first. One afternoon, the flood gates broke and tears finally flowed… she discovered she had never lost home; it was just resting inside of her.

Jordan
Principle #4: “Find Your Place in the Circle”
Jordan is a member of the Magdalene community and you get a sense that she is tough and strong willed. But when she talked, her voice was gentle and low and she focused on the topic of love. She says that Magdalene has helped soften her heart and was able to love whole-heartedly again. She laughed and admitted “love” is not specifically what the piece was about, but that is what was on her heart today.

Marlei
Principle #17: “Remember You Have Been in the Ditch”
Marlei is the PR & Development Director of Thistle Farms and spoke directly to my heart.  She says, “We’re bound together by our vulnerability and brokenness.  That’s the way we all begin to heal.  Once you have been in the ditch, when everything in your life that has been together has fallen apart, that is what allows your heart to be so open because there is no one in the world you are going to condemn because you have learned how human you are.   Whether you have lived on the streets for 20 years or in Belle Meade, people learn to connect and it strips everything down to a beautiful place and from there comes powerful strength.”

Gwen
Principle #8: “Let God Sort It Out”
Gwen is also a member of the Magdalene community. She describes home as “allowing myself to be loved and feeling worthy; being able to receive.” The week before, Gwen’s mother died. Until Magdalene, she didn’t know you could “have joy in the midst of so, so much sorrow.” She remembered how much her mother loved and she wants to carry it out and do it herself. Her purpose, simply and sweetly, is to love.

I left, filled up once again with the passion and com-passion I've been missing for so long.  This, my friends, is another step on my path back home.