Greetings Friends,

I am writing this June edition of Whale Spouts while visiting Lake Champlain. We are staying at a cottage that my great grandfather built almost 100 years ago! Some of you may have heard me share stories about him (a Methodist Circuit Rider) and his trusty horse, Tiddlywinks! Sitting by the lakeshore watching the sun rise was absolute bliss! Silence amidst the never-ending noise of life can be so hard to find.

If you are looking for a little bit more silence and stillness this summer, I'd love to have you join me for the 3 day/3 night silent retreat guided by the book of Jonah (July 7-10) at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Cleveland, Ohio. (It's only about 10-15 minutes from the airport for those coming from afar!) Registration deadline is this Friday JUNE 7.

And.... drum roll please... I'm so excited that JULY is Manda-palooza month - an on-line celebration of Belly of the Whale's 10th Anniversary!! See more of the fun details below - including free mandalas, online contemplative coloring and a prize for sharing pics of your Manda-palooza mandalas!

In addition to all this good stuff, here are a few other things you will find in this month's newsletter...

• Spouting Off Blog - Kaleidoscope of Butterflies
• 3-Night Silent Retreat - July 7-10 (Registration Deadline - June 7)
• Manda-palooza - 10th Anniversary Celebration!
• Ignatian Spiritual Exercises - coming this fall
• Reflection for the Season by Richard Wagamese

I am delighted to be able to send this month's newsletter out to you a day early (usually it's several days late!!). I thought about waiting until June 1, but am eager to share this all with you so... here you go! May the sunshine of summer fill you with sacred love and light.

With strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Sharon

Sharon Seyfarth Garner, Founder & Director

Belly of the Whale Ministries

sharon@bellyofthewhaleministries.net

Please feel free to forward Whale Spouts to anyone you feel would find it meaningful.

Thank you so much for helping to spread the word!

SPOUTING OFF BLOG

Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

Last month, my daughter-in-love, Jordan, and I were hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains along the Deep Creek Waterfall Loop trail when we noticed butterflies... not just one or two, but a whole slew of them! We were amazed by how many there were!

"What do you call a group of butterflies?" we wondered.

The answer has been delighting me ever since Mama Google informed us that a plethora of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope. We were walking in a kaleidoscope of butterflies! I love it! Whoever came up with that name gets an A+ in creativity in my book - a perfect way to describe the beauty of a bevy of butterflies!

Kaleidoscopes have always intrigued me... the way that light, colorful glass, mirrors and movement dance together to create such unexpected and ever-changing beauty. What might seem at first glance to be an unremarkable pile of ordinary bits of broken glass shimmers to life with a little illumination! It is the light that opens our eyes to see the extraordinary amidst the ordinary.

We are entering what is known as Ordinary Time in the Christian liturgical calendar. It can be tempting to down-play this simple season in between the "biggies" of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. However, as I ease into Ordinary Time and the dog days of summer, I want to keep my eyes open for God's presence that illuminates the extraordinary amidst the ordinary bits of my everyday life - reading in the hammock, gazing at the stars, savoring butter-drenched corn-on-the-cob, and holding tightly to the hand of someone I love. Where might you see the extraordinary amidst the ordinary this summer?

If you just so happen to see a butterfly flitting about your yard, remember the kaleidoscope. Be assured that God's light shines in, through and beyond us all ... allowing us to see the extraordinary, sacred beauty amidst the ordinary, broken bits of our lives.

"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:5

3 DAY/3 NIGHT SILENT RETREAT

Registration Deadline- June 7

Might you be in a position to help cover the cost of this meaningful retreat for

someone who wants to attend but needs a little extra financial assistance?

Your generosity would be such a wonderful gift!

As my father was known to frequently say,

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"



Click here to make a donation to the retreat scholarship fund.

Manda-palooza

A celebration of Belly of the Whale's 10th Anniversary

To show my deep gratitude and appreciation for our shared ministry over this past decade, I am thrilled to offer the gift of 5 free prayer mandalas throughout the month-long Manda-palooza celebration this July!

Every Monday in July (there are 5 this year!), a new prayer mandala will be uploaded to the Belly of the Whale website. Each mandala is available for just one week before the new one replaces it the following Monday. So you'll need to visit the website once each week in order to download all 5 of the fabulous Manda-palooza mandalas!

To make it even more fun, send me pics of your colorful prayer mandalas or tag me in posts of the pics and you will be entered in a drawing to win a palooza-tastic contemplative coloring kit full of all kinds of goodies!

Finally, to kick everything off, on July 1 at noon I will be doing a Facebook LIVE contemplative coloring circle so that we can launch into the Manda-palooza celebration together! More details will drop in a few weeks!!

INVITATION TO THE IGNATIAN SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

September 2024 - May 2025

This fall I will again be offering the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises Retreat in Daily Life (sometimes referred to as the 19th annotation retreat). I have space to accompany 5 individuals on this 32-week, intensive journey of daily prayer (Scripture reading, spiritual practices, journaling) and weekly meetings for spiritual direction.

I don’t think it is an over-exaggeration to say that the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises radically renewed my personal relationship with Jesus and clarified my call to embody God’s love in every layer of my life. If you feel the Spirit is nudging you toward this deep dive into spiritual renewal through the lens of the life of Christ, I would be delighted to talk with you more about it.  

Spaces typically fill quickly, so let me know sooner rather than later if you are interested. Pastors can receive 4 CEUs for their participation in this intensive spiritual formation experience.

To learn more, fill out this Inquiry Form and we can connect to explore whether diving into the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises is a good fit for this season of your faith journey.

To learn more about St. Iggy, check out a hilarious - yet surprisingly informative!- little video about his life (just 20 minutes long) by clicking here or on the image below.

It would be a joy and an honor to share this journey together with you.

A REFLECTION FOR THE SEASON

by Richard Wagamese

I don't know the word for it, that space between seconds,

but I've come to understand for myself that it's the punctuation of my life.

Between each word, each thought, each moment is where the truth of things lies.

The more intent I am on hearing it, seeing it, feeling it, incorporating it,

the more precise the degree to which I'm focused on my life and the act of living.

I want to dive into those small bits of silence.

They contain the ocean of my being and our togetherness.

So if I don't respond quicky, excuse me.

I'm busy allowing the surf of consciousness to break over me

so that I can stand on the coast of our unity and be more.

Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations, Richard Wagamese, Douglas & McIntyre, 2016, page 32

Photo Credit: Windy waves on the shore of Lake Champlain, May 27, 2024.