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This announcement was written my Bridget Liddell, a scholar at DePaul University. Bridget identifies as an independent earth spiritualist.

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On behalf of DePaul Interfaith, we are in the process of establishing a new student group, Engaging Nature in Spirituality (ENS), which will provide a space for students of all backgrounds, faith traditions, and philosophies to intentionally include nature in their lives. Although some of us, myself included, are grounded in a nature religion/spirituality, we share this world.

Everyone is welcome. There will be a planning meeting on April 26^th from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. – meet on the western couches on the third floor of the Lincoln Park student center. Make sure to join ENS on Facebook!

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This post is by Bridget Liddell. She is a senior at DePaul finishing up her degree in Philosophy, Theater Studies, and French. She is serving in her second year as an Interfaith Scholar. This article is a reflection of the most recent meditation retreat. The theme was revolution.

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Revolution as the throwing-off of oppressive systems through the determination of a people to be free – Cairo and Libya were at the center of my thoughts when I chose the topic for the most recent overnight retreat. Taping our ideas onto the eggplant colored fireplace, we made a visual definition for revolution in all its forms. Not only is it political release (or terror), it can mean life turning forward, a rotating wheel. As an earth spiritualist, circular symbols are at the core of my tradition, and in a sense political upheaval is a turning forward, a “shift”, as someone wrote. Continue reading →

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Today’s guest blogger is Dana Coffey, a junior at DePaul pursuing a double major in Theater Studies and Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies. This article was originally posted in Dana’s blog which can be viewed here.

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This past Friday night I went on a night long meditation retreat. The theme of this retreat was darkness and how to embrace the parts of our life that may be in darkness.

This retreat was not something that I was 100% on board with the minute that I heard about it. Quite the opposite actually. We were finishing an interfaith cafe meeting and people were making announcements. Somebody invited us to the meditation retreat. My gut reaction to this was not positive. I actually recoiled a bit. The thing about me is I am a grade A, well practiced compartmentalizer. I tend to store anything overwhelming in a cobweb infested part of my brain until eventually, I run out of cobweb infested spaces and it all spills out together in such a rush that I can’t remember what it was about in the first place. I am trying to change this, but any compartmentalizer will tell you that old habits die hard and sometimes, it is just easier to fall back on that. Any compartmentalizer will tell you that meditating is the last thing that we want to be doing. We hate those spaces where your mind can simply flow. The stuff that we have stored might come out if we let our minds get too free! Continue reading →

I was sitting in his small hut, in the middle of the forest.

It was a very cold winter night.

It was snowing…

Snow, snow, snow, everywhere.

I was sitting beside the window, and I couldn’t see except what the moon’s light has shown up from that dark forest.

I was thinking… Continue reading →