Belonging to Aloneness

Jane BurnsUncategorized

Twenty years ago, (when I was still married), my husband bought me a painting. It is a portrait of a lone woman standing by a wall and looking out to sea. She is a figure cast in shadow, and we can only see her back. Her mood is no clearer than the ocean that stretches out before her—it may be …

When Even the gods Speak of God

Jane BurnsUncategorized

(This blog entry is a continuation of my last entry entitled Spiritual Loneliness.) David Whyte, in his stunning poem, Self-Portrait, calls our attention to a state of being not unlike what I described in my last blog entry as Spiritual Loneliness, a “fierce embrace” in which “even the gods speak of God.” (Read this gorgeous poem here.) What I am …

Spiritual Loneliness

Jane BurnsUncategorized

I heard a term coined the other day that caught my attention—spiritual loneliness. The term was defined as a period of disquiet that occurs along one’s spiritual path. The point when the coolness of the forest path breaks away and you find yourself trudging across an endless expanse of desert. It is the place on the path where the sign …