8 Ways to Get Through Winter

Winter can be a long tiring experience - both natural and spiritual winters. Whether you are experiencing natural winter right now or not, these suggestions from Bronwen are a great way to work on getting out of a slump or focusing on shifting to a "springtime" state of mind. -Editor

The winters will drive you crazy until you learn to get out into them. —Parker J. Palmer

Last winter I almost cracked. In addition to recovering from a surgery, the kids having more than 10 days off school, and the power outages, it felt like too much. So many people around me were trying to be positive and yet also really struggling with the length and intensity of the winter. Although seasons are to be expected in the Northeast, they can also be difficult. Of course it isn't just a physical winter I'm talking about, but also dark times in our lives when we feel there is no life, nothing thriving or growing, no hope. I find myself eager to make a plan for the winter (on whatever level it arrives) so that I could do more than just survive. Maybe with a good plan, I can actually thrive. So after talking to a few friends who'd had a similar brush with despair over the winter, I created the following list of To-Do Winter Ideas.

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Shitty Days and Living in Integrity

Bronwen shares honestly about her personal struggle to integrate her spiritual ambitions with the reality of falling short. Her story is relatable in both the hardship and the hope. -Editor

I have recently been challenged to examine the authenticity and integrity of my life. Let's face it. It is a career hazard. I work in ministry, currently producing a book titled The Path of Integrity, which would compel anyone to do some self-examination. I have in fact read this book three times in its editing process. And on many levels it has been exhausting in how it has forced me out of comfortable places into waters I'd rather not tread. I have been reflecting recently on what it means to live in integrity. How do I integrate the person I really want to be (mom, friend, daughter, wife) with the person I am? I sigh and often wonder, is it possible?

The book features the Biblical narrative of Joseph who goes through incredible hardship. It is a story I have known since childhood, and yet the treatment in this book compelled me to look deeper. I was really struck by the gentle and persistent message in the book to get centered with who I want to be, to examine my current surroundings and choices, and to see what concrete steps I can take to move these two into alignment. I wanted to share some of my reflections here as I've been meditating on authenticity and integrity in my life.

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Why Swedenborgians Need to Pay Attention to the Emergent Movement or Similarities Between New Church and Emergent Church

Bronwen became aware of the Emergent Movement in 2010. She brings the reader up to speed on what this movement is and then draws connections between it and the New Church. There is a lot to learn by engaging in this conversation. -Editor.

Being the church is an emphasis found in the emerging church that strongly speaks to me. It reminds me of the passage Divine Providence 101 whereupon arriving in the next world after death “one is not asked ‘What church were you were a member of?’ But ‘How have you lived your life?’” At the same time I find the theological conversations in the Emergent Village to be especially thought provoking and interesting in the context of the impact of the New Church in the world and on Christianity.

In the summer of 2010 I read the book, The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier by Tony Jones. I swallowed this book whole. I read with speed and enthusiasm about an emerging theology that transcended organized and institutionalized religion, and spoke to a Christianity that emphasized being the church. The parallel between this new Christianity and the New Christianity that I had grown up with were impossible to ignore. For the first time I felt that New Church theology was being accepted by other Christians. Is this emerging theology/Christianity a product of the New Church movement?

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