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 to 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 weeklong 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. This led to my questioning why men are the center of attention in discussions 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 psychotherapy work with a Jungian-oriented therapist.

During these years, I also expanded 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. 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 reflections are under the heading “DARING Faith.” Although some of these 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 methods can be used to expand perspectives in other faith expressions.

Questioning and searching drew me close to several people as they were dying. Nancy’s story turned me toward pondering what MORE there might be after death as well as 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 was drawn 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 imbedded 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.”

I began to know the MORE of the mysterious process we call dying. As a human being, a priest, and a psychotherapist, 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 more people as well as for those who journey with them to the threshold between life and beyond. This is the focus of reflections under the heading “Living into Our Dying.”

If you would like to continue our conversation, you can contact me by email or request a consultation with me at 610-989-9900. Further information is under the Contact/Consultation heading.

© Joy Anna Marie Mills, 2015