{"id":74,"date":"2011-02-22T18:12:25","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T18:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/insweetcompany\/2011\/02\/going-the-distance.html"},"modified":"2011-02-22T18:12:25","modified_gmt":"2011-02-22T18:12:25","slug":"going-the-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/02\/going-the-distance.html","title":{"rendered":"Going the Distance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>&nbsp;&#8220;What I say to you now I say without feeling sorry for myself: I have had many very difficult times. I got through them because &#8230; I held on tightly to God, and because I knew that eventually, things would change. Change is a law of the universe. Nothing ever remains the same.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/i> &#8211; Katherine Dunham, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE<\/p>\n<p>I came upon this poem, &#8220;The Cricket and the Rose,&#8221; by Mary Oliver, some time ago and stored it away for when the time is right. It seems to me that that time is now &#8212; when we start to grow impatient with snow that lingers far too long and our need for personal and global transformation reaches the point of noncontainment. I hope this poem bring rest to your heart.<\/p>\n<p>The Cricket and the Rose <\/p>\n<p>In fall the cricket<br \/>beneath the rose bush watches <br \/>as the roses fall to the very ground<br \/>that is his kingdom also. So they&#8217;re neighbors, <br \/>one full of fragrance, the other<br \/>the harper of a single dry song. <br \/>We call this time of the year the beginning of the end<br \/>of another circle, a convenience<br \/>and nothing more. For the cricket&#8217;s song<br \/>is surely a prayer, and a prayer, when it is given, <br \/>is given forever. This is a truth<br \/>I&#8217;m sure of, for I&#8217;m older than I used to be, <br \/>and therefore I understand things nobody would think of<br \/>who&#8217;s young and in a hurry. The snow is very beautiful. <br \/>Under it are the lingering petals of fragrance,<br \/>and the timeless body of prayer. <br \/>~ Mary Oliver ~<\/p>\n<p>Your thoughts?<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&#8220;What I say to you now I say without feeling sorry for myself: I have had many very difficult times. I got through them because &#8230; I held on tightly to God, and because I knew that eventually, things would change. Change is a law of the universe. Nothing ever remains the same.&#8221;&nbsp; &#8211; Katherine&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-transformation","category-spiritual-journey"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Going the Distance - 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\/02\/going-the-distance.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Going the Distance - In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp;&#8220;What I say to you now I say without feeling sorry for myself: I have had many very difficult times. I got through them because &#8230; I held on tightly to God, and because I knew that eventually, things would change. Change is a law of the universe. Nothing ever remains the same.&#8221;&nbsp; &#8211; Katherine&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/02\/going-the-distance.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-22T18:12:25+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":"Going the Distance - 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\/02\/going-the-distance.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Going the Distance - In Sweet Company","og_description":"&nbsp;&#8220;What I say to you now I say without feeling sorry for myself: I have had many very difficult times. I got through them because &#8230; I held on tightly to God, and because I knew that eventually, things would change. Change is a law of the universe. Nothing ever remains the same.&#8221;&nbsp; &#8211; Katherine&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/02\/going-the-distance.html","og_site_name":"In Sweet Company","article_published_time":"2011-02-22T18:12:25+00:00","author":"Margaret Wolff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/02\/going-the-distance.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/02\/going-the-distance.html","name":"Going the Distance - In Sweet Company","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-22T18:12:25+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-22T18:12:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#\/schema\/person\/9e1d77d12de19dd0d4fbc84d1f7fc52a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/02\/going-the-distance.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/02\/going-the-distance.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2011\/02\/going-the-distance.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Going the Distance"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/","name":"In Sweet Company","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Margaret Wolff","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#\/schema\/person\/9e1d77d12de19dd0d4fbc84d1f7fc52a","name":"Margaret Wolff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/673\/67331f0571f27a0987e8cbfde3e832b4x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/673\/67331f0571f27a0987e8cbfde3e832b4x96.jpg","caption":"Margaret Wolff"},"description":"Margaret Wolff has a gift of luring people into becoming who they really are. 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. You can too!","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/author\/mwolff"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}