{"id":81794,"date":"2020-03-31T15:33:12","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T21:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/?p=81794"},"modified":"2020-10-06T16:46:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T16:46:31","slug":"lets-walk-carefully-through-this-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/2020\/03\/31\/lets-walk-carefully-through-this-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Invitation: Let's Walk Care-Fully THROUGH this Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

How will we get through this?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Entering April, 2020 with a global pandemic and social distancing, we are likely encountering uncertainty, anxiety, fear, perhaps even dread, all triggered by our past experience of suffering and sorrow. To get through<\/em> this painful time, to come out on the other side with wisdom and resilience, we would be wise to deal with<\/em> our pain and our fears during this time.<\/span>
\n“There are two ways of dealing with suffering,” writes Almut Furchert, PhD.. “One is to give into despair. The other way is to give into the suffering, by noticing it, and by tenderly leaning into it…”<\/span>
\nOf course, we could, and often do, deny our sorrows and fears, stuffing them into the shadows, masking them with schmarmy positivity (also known as toxic optimism). But that is like wrapping a gaping wound in sparkly ribbons and leaving it to fester, or like ignoring a virulent cancer while it proliferates, untreated.<\/span>
\nTo deal with\u00a0<\/em>the inevitable sorrow of being human, we have to acknowledge truth. Life is beautiful and joyful, but that coin has a flip side. Life is also painful and tragic. We experience hurt; we need comfort.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only way out is through<\/span><\/h2>\n

Almut Furchert\u00a0has been trained and degreed, at a German University graduate level, in psychology and psychotherapy. She holds a PhD in philosophy of religion, and is an internationally published scholar on S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard. She reminds us that he wrote this in his comforting notes to the sufferer:<\/span><\/p>\n

Though it might feel that your suffering <\/em><\/span>
\nis going right through you, <\/em><\/span>
\nit is you who goes through the suffering. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The path to sweet consolations, my friends, is through<\/em> our pain. We need to visit our places of sorrow. We also need to guard against falling into despair, which is what happens when we get lost and mired in suffering. We are approaching Holy Week, a liturgical journey through suffering to new life. April 5-11 offers an opportune time to take an inward journey\u00a0through\u00a0<\/em>the mystery of life. In this mystery we\u00a0accompanied by great beauty and tender mercy, and suffering leads us into renewal.<\/span>
\nI’m inviting you to join me (virtually) next week for a 6-day retreat featuring J.S. Bach’s glorious, musical masterpiece, the\u00a0Passion of St. Matthew.<\/em>\u00a0You can choose to spend as little as 15 minutes daily, or any number of hours, meditating on an Aria, recitative or chorus from the passion, along with “some tender guidance” from our\u00a0retreat facilitator (who is also my dear friend) Almut Furchert.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bach’s Passion of St. Matthew Offers the Consolation of Divine Mercy<\/span><\/h2>\n

This online retreat, born of \u201csheltering in place,\u201d and compassionately, skillfully facilitated by “Frau Doctor Almut,” \u00a0will assist us as we tend to our sorrows in the presence of the Divine, consoling power of Bach\u2019s Passion. <\/em>Through Bach’s music, accompanied by Almut’s expertise in\u00a0philosophy, which is the love of wisdom<\/em>, we will\u00a0seek comfort, healing, and resilience.<\/span>
\nIf this speaks to your heart, please join me in building a community of connection and comfort. Let’s create bonds where renewal and resilience can flourish.\u00a0Let’s Walk\u00a0THROUGH<\/em> this beautiful, sacred time together. In compassionate, communal\u00a0connection, the path of suffering and the path of love become the same path.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s walk care-fully\u00a0through<\/em> this together: an invitation to participate in a consoling online retreat<\/span><\/h2>\n

Read more from Almut Furchert about what to expect from this life-affirming retreat.<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

Register for this online retreat, a gift from Almut Furchert, for all who need consolation in these troubled times.<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How will we get through this? Entering April, 2020 with a global pandemic and social distancing, we are likely encountering uncertainty, anxiety, fear, perhaps even dread, all triggered by our past experience of suffering and sorrow. To get through this painful time, to come out on the other side with wisdom and resilience, we would …<\/p>\n

Invitation: Let's Walk Care-Fully THROUGH this Together<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,95,96,192,265,570,662,1082,1085],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81794"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}