One Quote + One Note + One Question January 5, 2024
One Quote
If we believe we are beloved children of God and united with Christ, then we trust our other belongings and unbelongings are wrapped up in a Great Belonging: this most significant and essential belonging in existence because of the love, grace, and mercy God lavishes on us.
- Charlotte Donlon, The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other
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One Note
Belonging to God remains my most significant and essential belonging, but my view of God’s presence has grown over the past five years since I first began writing The Great Belonging. The boundaries blur when I try to discern where God ends and something else begins.
The boundaries may not even exist.
Mystery has grown.
I’ve welcomed mystery into my spirituality for a couple dozen years now, but the unknowingness of mystery has always felt somewhat dangerous.
Although full of mystery, too, letting time hold everything together dulls the sharp edges of the anxiety that arises when hard parts of spiritual mystery become more prominent. Imagining time holding everything together makes me more comfortable with mystery’s discomfort.
Deep calls to deep. Mystery calls to mystery.
Until next time,
Charlotte
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One Question
What do you not know about time?
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One Statement about My Faith That I Share When I Write about My Faith Here
I'm a Christian, but I am not pushy about issues connected to faith and spirituality. I want my readers, clients, and broader audience to know I'm a progressive contemplative Christian, and several of my spiritual direction clients come from other (or zero!) faith traditions. Many people aren't even sure what they believe.
My primary goal for One O'Clock Central--and all of my work--is to help people notice how they belong to themselves, others, and the world. This exploration of belonging to time is a sort of soulful noticing common to all humans regardless of one's faith tradition or lack thereof.
One Book That I’ve Been Reading This Week
One Photo of Bookish Ornaments from This Year’s Thoughtful Books Etc. Christmas Tree
Yes. We cut up a copy of The Great Belonging to fill those frames! That was one of my good ideas. And I love love love those library card ornaments. Merry Twelfth Day of Christmas!
Charlotte Donlon’s writing and work are always rooted in helping her readers, audience, and clients notice how art and other good things help them belong to themselves, others, the divine, and the world. Charlotte is the founder of Thoughtful Books Etc.™, One O’Clock Central, Spiritual Direction for Writers® , Spiritual Direction for Belonging™, and Parenting with Art™. Her first book was The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. Her next book on Spiritual Direction for Writers will be published by Eerdmans in 2024 or 2025. Charlotte’s essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and a certificate in spiritual direction. To receive Charlotte’s latest updates, news, announcements, and all kinds of good things, subscribe to Thoughtful Readers Etc. + Five Good Things.