me defined

Susan Rose -- [noun]: A beat poet working the streets 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

As it turns out, I do have a few minutes to check in during this busy week. Thanks to Sister Christer for the self defining toy. My other options (I kept trying again) were "benevolent to a fault," "a person who likes to steal cans of tuna," and "like in nature to a kangaroo."

We had good classes this week at our intercommunity Novitiate program. We're had our 2nd of 5 sessions on Personal Integration. This week we focused on liminality and resistance. Liminality is living betwixt and between where transformation can take place. In this context, novitiate is like the 40 years in the desert in the exodus experience. And while in the desert, one is likely to experience some resistance. You want to change, but as our presenter said resistance illustrates that our desires often do not have feet.

The cumulative effect of the past two weeks has been the recognition that all the crazy thoughts, feeling and emotions of the past few weeks are not only natural, they are to be expected. We all experience liminality. Changing jobs. Moving to a new town. But the Novitiate is a particular created liminal space. The uprootedness is not only a natural feeling, it is an intended one. It is the uprootedness that allows the transformation to take place. I now understand why a wise soul I was sharing with the other day laughed when I said that Novitiate feels like being in exile, but I suppose everyone should go through an exile experience at some point.

So much to reflect upon. Who knows, maybe it will even give me some context to share some of my non-bloggable novicey thoughts. After further reflection of course, not to mention our next 3 classes. Stay tuned ....