Judy Walsh-Mellett (she/her/hers)

City: Mount Rainier

State: MD

Languages: English

Personalized Affiliation: Christianity

Spiritual Spheres: Christianity, Eco/Nature-based, Interfaith

Affinity Groups:

Category:

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 3019272015

Website: http://www.stillplacemd.com

Focus Area: Children/Teens, Ecospirituality/Nature-based, Immigrants/Displaced, People with Disabilities

Social Media:

Profile: The description of contemplation that I most love is: “A long, loving look at the real.” My own spiritual life contains a yearning to know the Holy in the real and ordinary moments, people, and experiences before me each day. I believe that spiritual guidance is a companionship whose intention is the deepening of this kind of daily living. God is the true guide and we pray together for openness to God’s direction and presence. Joan Chittister writes:“The purpose of spirituality is to gather equally committed adults for a journey through earthen darkness to the dazzling light that already flames in each of us, but in a hidden place left for each of us to find.” These words could also easily describe spiritual guidance. I experience spiritual guidance as a space set aside to be open to what God has to reveal to us with comfort and consolation, with challenge and growth. I have felt graced by remarkable companions as well as experiences that have marked and shaped the course of my life and spirituality. I continue to live with the creative tension of an activism which wants to do good in the world, to dwell in proximity to those pushed to the margins, to encounter God in the people who come into my life and to tend an interior life that experiences God in more hidden ways; in the beauty of nature, in silence, centering prayer and solitude. Retreat and contemplative prayer leadership as well as spiritual guidance have been part of my life for many years. I remain grateful for The Shalem Institute's "Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups and Retreats" as well as Richmond Hill's RUAH School of Spiritual Guidance trainings. These experiences encouraged me to create Still Place: An Urban Retreat in 2019 to welcome individuals and small groups into our home and garden for rest, reflection, quiet and prayer. I am the mother of three now-adult children and a delighted grandmother. I have long tended an urban organic vegetable and pollinator garden around our home. I enjoy making meals from that homegrown produce, singing, writing poetry and prose, practicing yoga and painting with watercolors.