MORE, the essence of life. MORE questioning, reflection, seeking, envisioning, openness, reaching out, living fully.
MORE is not static; it is not accepting life as passed on or proclaimed by others. MORE is mystery, awe and wonder, an awareness of life unfolding before us as we follow where the Spirit leads us. MORE: mindfully, shared in loving relationship with others. Taken so seriously that it is held lightly, lovingly.

MORE is the supple luminous thread intended to weave through each reflection on my website and in each of my blog entries. This thread encourages you to recognize that there is MORE possible in your life than you have yet imagined, dreamt of, or hoped for. Like Nancy, MORE may seem far away until, because you are seeking, struggling and questioning, suddenly it is right beneath your feet waiting for you to look down, pick it up and treasure it as its meaning unfolds.

I identify myself as a white, Western, middle class woman, privileged to have earned an undergraduate degree and taught high school English for ten years. In my thirties I attended a week-long conference which introduced me to the work of Carl Jung in relation to Christianity, discovering that there are more expansive and profound aspects of faith than the beliefs proclaimed during religious services.

Simultaneously, I became passionate about exploring the impact of traditional God language and images. This led to my questioning why Biblical men are the center of attention in discussions and proclamations of scriptures, thereby, obscuring the crucial roles of Biblical women.

I also knew that to move forward in my life, I had to deepen my understanding of my family legacies, particularly my mother’s. As I did this therapeutic work, I experienced the psychological journey to also be a faith journey. Uncovering my history and heritage revealed a fuller sense of who I was created to become as well as the old patterns that stood in the way of my developing spiritually and psychologically. Over the next seven years I pursued in-depth psycho-therapeutic work with a Jungian-oriented therapist.

During these years, I also developed my thinking as I pursued a Masters in Pastoral Ministry, a Masters of Divinity, certification as a Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church. In seminary I was challenged to broaden and deepen my inclusion of the perspectives of other faith traditions, races, classes, and gender orientations. I have continued to re-imagine and re-image the Sacred as well as to reflect intentionally upon this sustaining opening out of my faith.

These explorations are addressed under the website heading “Daring Faith” as well as in future blogs. Although some of the website pieces were initially written from a Christian perspective, just as our culture has encompassed wider faith perspectives, so have I. Many of my Biblical explorations can be generalized to other faith expressions.

Questioning and seeking drew me close to several people as they were dying. Nancy’s story turned me not only toward pondering what MORE there might be after death; I turned toward what MORE there might be during this life.
Nancy’s telling me the story of finding the blue seaglass coincided with my daily visits with a woman who was dying of a terminal cancer. Unusually late one evening, I felt compelled to visit this woman, taking with me A New Zealand (Anglican) Prayer Book. I turned to the alternative version of the Lord’s Prayer which begins “Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,…”; then realized that the prayer was embedded in the “Night Prayer” service. As she lay in the hospital bed in her bedroom, the morphine pump delivering closely timed injections for pain relief, I began reading this short service with her. Absorbed into the gentle rhythm of the words, stopping often to reflect together, it was an hour later when I read the ending prayer “Blessing, light, and glory surround us and scatter the darkness of the long and lonely night.” As we both dried our eyes, she said, “If only I could memorize all those words to carry with me.” In our time together we had experienced that MORE.

I began to know the MORE of the mysterious process we call dying. As a priest, I want to share some of my understandings and experiences of this mystery so that living into our dying can become a conscious process for both the dying and for those who journey with them to the threshold between life and beyond. This is the focus of reflections under the website heading “Living into Our Dying” and will continue to be a thread throughout my blogs.

Many of my blogs will address current experiences of and reflections on these topics as well as refer you to recommended related resources. Your comments and reflections will expand and deepen the conversation. I look forward to a lively and enlivening dialogue as we engage one another through my website and blogs.

I feel blessed to begin this work and send blessings as you read and reflect, Joy Mils