{"id":183,"date":"2011-08-18T12:29:14","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T16:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/insweetcompany\/?p=183"},"modified":"2011-08-18T12:29:14","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T16:29:14","slug":"healing-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/08\/healing-words.html","title":{"rendered":"Healing Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u201cI renew in quietness, meditation, prayer, and contemplation. Renewal feeds action; it\u2019s like the inhalation and exhalation of breathing.\u201d<\/em> &#8212; Sister Helen Prejean, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE<\/p>\n<p>I am often told by people who read my last book, that reading IN SWEET COMPANY is a bonanza of meaningful quotes. Readers are moved not only by what the women I interviewed in the book say, but that the women are so emotionally generous and candid about their inner lives.<\/p>\n<p>As a long time collector of meaningful quotes myself and a great fan of the Collective Wisdom, I relate to the gratitude and relief of finding the right words at the right time. You turn a page, read a blog or flip on the TV and come across the answer to a problem that\u2019s ravishing your mind, and you can hardly believe your good fortune! You find a way through a difficult experience because someone else had the courage to share their pain. It\u2019s an answered prayer.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been thinking about this lately as I work out the final details for my next book, hoping I said things in just the right way, that I captured an experience in words that will inspire, bring insight, make more room for joy in the world. Finding the perfect word is not an intellectual process &#8212; at least not for me. It\u2019s a matter of being present not only to what I\u2019m feeling, but to the holiness of the moment. When I do this, when I make that connection, I find the words come through me not to me; I know what to say because I know what needs to be said, what \u201cfits.\u201d I\u2019m not focused on filling the silence or creating an impression or comforting another or relieving my own discomfort. I hear my note in the symphony of life and I sing it.<\/p>\n<p>It took a while to understand this &#8212; to understand I need to be present to every aspect of my life, not just my writing. It took a while to learn how important it is to get out of my own way so I can let the Universe flow through me. Being present is much more important than being perfect.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s ironic but true: When I rest in the Silence &#8212; quiet my mind and my heart &#8212; the right words, the most healing words, find their way to me.<\/p>\n<p>Your thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI renew in quietness, meditation, prayer, and contemplation. Renewal feeds action; it\u2019s like the inhalation and exhalation of breathing.\u201d &#8212; Sister Helen Prejean, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE I am often told by people who read my last book, that reading IN SWEET COMPANY is a bonanza of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[70,71,72],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collective-wisdom","category-personal-transformation","tag-healing-words","tag-insoiring-quotes","tag-sister-helen-rejean"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Healing Words - In Sweet Company<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/08\/healing-words.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Healing Words - In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI renew in quietness, meditation, prayer, and contemplation. Renewal feeds action; it\u2019s like the inhalation and exhalation of breathing.\u201d &#8212; Sister Helen Prejean, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE I am often told by people who read my last book, that reading IN SWEET COMPANY is a bonanza of&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/08\/healing-words.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-18T16:29:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Margaret Wolff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Healing Words - In Sweet Company","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/08\/healing-words.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Healing Words - In Sweet Company","og_description":"\u201cI renew in quietness, meditation, prayer, and contemplation. 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She speaks and writes about things women care about: how to make our lives and our work be about what we value most; how to navigate challenge and change; how to live with integrity and grace, to look at error in ourselves and others in a forgiving way and view life as an invitation to transform ourselves into instruments for the Greater Good. \"I laughed, I cried, I was silent, I cheered. Most of all, I loved.\" Spoken by a woman at In Sweet Company Retreat, these words express what women experience when Margaret engages them in dynamic, soul-searching conversations about their lives. Margaret holds degrees in art therapy, psychosynthesis, and leadership and human behavior. Her work takes her to universities, to conferences and retreat settings, to living rooms and board rooms -- wherever women gather. Her articles, essays, and stories are featured in numerous magazines; her women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spirituality retreats are held throughout the U.S. Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last book, In \"Sweet Company: Conversations With Extraordinary Women About Living a Spiritual Life\" (Jossey Bass), is a collection of intimate conversations she had with 14 famous women of various ages, faiths, and backgrounds about how their spirituality nourishes them and serves as a steady compass for their decision-making. Olympia Dukakis, Riane Eisler, Zainab Salbi, Margaret Wheatley, Sri Daya Mata, Lauren Artress, and other women artists, activists, religious leaders, and visionary thinkers shared their lives with her. 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