Next In-person walk: Saturday, Oct. 10, 9-10 a.m.
Covenant Presbyterian Church back parking lot, 2222 at Mo-Pac, Austin
Next Zoom discussion: Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, 10:30 AM Central Time (US and Canada), Zoom link is here.
By Janet Davis
Walk In: Losing our Lives by Opening the Door of Ourselves
How to Listen
Listening is a form of worship,
but you don’t have to kneel
on the floor with folded hands
or mouth the perfect prayer.
Just open the door of yourself
to another, become the space
they step through to show you
who they are. This is holiness:
two people seated together
on the pew of the park bench,
at the altar of the kitchen table.
Even if no one says a word
for a while, receive the silence
until it’s like a new language
only the two of you can speak.
James Crews, Poetry at Round Top , 2024
Questions
Sometimes, the first and most important person we need to listen to is ourselves.
When was the last time you took a good, long listen to what is stirring within your own soul?
Do you find resistance to the idea that listening to yourself might be important?
What parts of you do not want to hear from other parts of you?
What practices, thoughts, or ideas might help soften or lower that resistance?
Center: Meeting the Holy One as God Listens Deeply to You
When Someone Deeply Listens to You
When someone deeply listens to you
it is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.
When someone deeply listens to you
the room where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote
your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It is as if gold has been discovered!
When someone deeply listens to you
your bare feet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you.
by John Fox
“Prayer is the way God listens Godself into the depth of our hearts.”
Questions
There is something about this poem that brings tears to my eyes. The experience of being deeply listened to is almost universally healing, an emptying that we experience, surprisingly, as a filling.
When, where, and with whom have you been deeply listened to? Can you recall the impact that experience had within you?
What does the Rowan Williams quote above say to you? When have you felt deeply listened to by God?
What realities within you now need a good “listening to?” Pain or hurt from past or present? Fears? Hopes and dreams? Stories of transformations? Desires? Disappointment? Anger? Contempt? Sadness? Joy? Celebration? Courage? What practices might welcome this experience into your life more frequently?
Walk Out: Saving Our Lives by Listening to Autumn Around Us
Listening to Autumn
Autumn is slipping through summer’s branches
and I am listening,
I am listening to the dying
flowing forth from autumn’s being.
I am listening to the life
hidden in the dying.
I am listening.
I am listening to the trees taking off their lush
green garments.
I am listening to the leaves turning, turning, ever
turning.
I am listening to the burning bush of autumn.
I am listening to the falling of this season.
I am listening
I am listening to the song of transformation
to the wisdom of the season,
to the losses and the grieving,
to the turning loose and letting go.
I am listening to the surrender of autumn.
I am listening.
I am listening to the music of the forest’s
undergrowth
to the crunch of leaves beneath my feet,
to the miracle of crumbling leaves
becoming earth again.
I am listening to the beauty and the fragility of
aging.
I am listening
I am listening to the wheel of the year turning,
to the cycle of the seasons,
to the call for harmony and balance.
I am listening to the circle of life.
I am listening.
I am listening to the days growing shorter,
to the air turning crisp and cool,
to the slow waning of the light, to the stars that shine in cold, dark nights.
I am listening to the growing harvest moon.
I am listening.
I am listening to happy harvest cries,
to hearts overflowing with thanksgiving,
to tables laden with gifts from the earth,
to baskets overflowing with fruit.
I am listening to the bountiful gift of autumn.
I am listening.
I am listening to a call for inner growth,
to my need to let go of material
possessions,
to my need to reach out for invisible gifts,
I am listening to a call for transformation.
I am listening.
I am listening to the death of old ways.
I am listening to the life force turning inward.
I am listening to the renewal of the earth.
I am listening.
I am listening to summer handing over autumn.
I am listening to the poetry of autumn.
I am listening
From The Circle of Life: The Heart’s Journey Through the Seasons by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr. 2005
Questions
What do you hear as you listen to the season of autumn around you in the broader ways of wisdom the poet offers us?
How might you sit with autumn in a new way this year? What might you hear if you listen?