Nov
8
to Nov 10

MEDITATION & *BIG* EMOTIONS: VIRTUAL WEEKEND RETREAT

You’re Invited!
Edit: We know the results of the presidential election now. I’m riding the waves of a wide range of emotions, sessions, and thoughts, taking refuge, and I’ve heard and see that many others are as well. You too? Sometimes I feel strong, convicted in Love, open. At other times I feel angry, tearful, vulnerable. My offering and longing is the same - let’s be together. My mom and I have a favorite Rumi (Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī), the Sufi Muslim poet, writing that keeps repeating in my mind:

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep.

Let’s be awake together and rest in Love together too. Hope to see you soon. ———————————————————————————————————————
No matter the result of the upcoming presidential election, I imagine we’ll be riding the waves of some BIG emotions. Let’s be together with whatever comes up! We’ll practice pausing, feeling into our emotions and sensations, getting curious and expressive, and allowing our feelings to flow through and change. Emotional awareness and regulation are crucial skills for healthy and loving relationships with ourselves, others, and the wider circles of our inner and outer worlds. These skills are also helpful, dare I say crucial, for making grounded, connected, value-based decisions in our personal and collective lives. No matter who “holds the crown,” we’re responsible for our emotional lives. Let’s practice taking responsibility together.

A note on meditation: Meditation is not about making yourself peaceful, your mind quiet and free of thoughts (impossible), or becoming a better, nicer person. What is it about? Coming home to yourself as you are and life as it is, relaxing into it, upping your distress tolerance, and feeling yourself become more authentic and courageous over time. As Susan Piver teaches and writes, “You find that you don’t have to be afraid of yourself. And then you soften.” (Start Here Now) And “at the same time you’re just sitting here doin nothin.” It’s a simple, mysterious, alchemy that I trust.

Modes of learning and practice: Guided meditation sessions (7 total), guided writing/creative expression exercises, mini-didactics on meditation and emotions, singing, sharing, playing, committing, and giving the merits away!

When: Friday, November 8 – Sunday, November 10, 2024
Time: 6 pm PT/9pm EST Friday – 12 pm PT/3 pm EST Sunday, more schedule details below
Cost: Free will offering - $50 suggested donation, $0 if you need it to be.
Where: Zoom + retreat location of your choice
Community: All spiritual and religious identities welcome including what exactly is spirituality? Queer-friendly, anti-racist, pro-multiple belongings.
What kind of meditation instruction will I offer? Shamatha-Vipashyana. You can practice whatever you practice during dedicated meditation/spiritual practice time. You can even mute my voice. If you don’t have an established practice, I recommend that you try Shamatha-Vipashyana and stick with it for the weekend. The practice is rooted in Tibetan Buddhism, and you don’t need to be a Buddhist to practice.
Highly recommended texts:
1) Start Here Now by my meditation training teacher and Open Heart Project founder, Susan Piver. I recommend purchasing a paper or digital copy. Alternatively donate $15 to the Open Heart Project through me. Other brief readings and resources will be provided.
2) Love and Rage by Lama Rod Owens.
Accessibility needs or questions? connect@emilylinderman.com
Registration and Zoom Link: register here
Offering options:
Venmo: @Emily-Linderman-SD
CashApp: $EmilyLinderman
PayPal: paypal.me/emilylinderman
Retreat Schedule: find it here

How will it work?

Before the retreat
-Register for the Zoom Link
-Purchase recommended texts – support your local bookstore if you can! You don’t have to read them before the retreat, but purchasing the texts supports the people and teachers who inspired this theme or taught me!
-Find a place to stay where you feel at home and have a significant chance to feel more relaxed. A place where you have access to, at least occasional, quiet, privacy, and a strong internet connection.
-Make arrangements at home, with your family, at work, and with any other communities where you have responsibilities and regular commitments that you’ll miss.
-Go shopping for simple, delicious meals and snacks before dinner on Friday.
-Arrive at the retreat location of your choice with enough time to get settled in and arrive on-time for our opening call.
-You will receive a pre-retreat email from me with more detailed suggestions and instructions.

If you’re a high context person, read on. 

I recently went on my first solo retreat in several years and was reminded how much I love and benefit from dedicated time set apart and away from the norms of life including work, my own to-do list, chores, and my usual environment and other community responsibilities and commitments. I needed the retreat rhythm and structure that includes way more rest, quiet, time in more-than-human nature, and time for a wide variety of spiritual practices. All alongside other beings doing similar things. 

For many of us, going away on retreat is expensive in several ways and often out of reach. I have several retreat centers and teachers on my dream list and am not shy about asking for scholarships, but even still. Retreat fees, travel, lodging if not provided, meals if not provided, time off from work and/or away from family, it’s not worth going into more debt for, and yet, there’s a real cost for not taking time away too. 

I’m leaning into my 15+ year retreat facilitation experience and my recent Shamatha-Vipashyana meditation teacher certification through the Open Heart Project. I want the retreat experience including design, skilled and experienced facilitation, and loving generous community to be accessible to more people including financially. 

I hope these virtual weekend retreats will appeal to a wide variety of people and their particular longings, needs, traditions, and practices. And respond to the universal spiritual needs and longings for meaning and direction, quiet and conversation, awe and wonder, human and beyond-human community, rest and creativity, self-compassion and neighbor-love, trust-filled risk and repair as needed.

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PRIDE: A Liturgical Season
Jun
3
to Jul 1

PRIDE: A Liturgical Season

Dear friends, colleagues, and chosen family, 

Marking the 4th anniversary of my ordination a few weeks ago with a queer-centric virtual liturgy and open communion table sparked a desire in me to co-create a multiple-belonging PRIDE liturgical season. The PRIDE parades, the dance parties, the pub crawls, the lectures and other cultural events are all spiritual - they are, or at least can be, sacramental and liturgical! And, I want and crave something more explicitly spiritual and sacramental, something more intimate and facilitated, something that connects our religious and spiritual streams of inheritance and practices to our queerness/LGBTQ+ness in generous, inclusive ways.

Maybe you’re craving something similar? I hope so. If so, this is for you, for us, queer spiritual and/or religious folks who love a good liturgy full of embodiment and ritual.

I’ve set up a Zoom room for the month (register here for the link) and set aside some evening times on my calendar.

(5) liturgies:

Monday, June 3
with Chaplain John Winslow-Rodriguez, Service and Silence as Sacrament
Wednesday, June 12 - The Feast of Pentecost (transferred)
with Dr. Fallon Bushee, The Fire Inside as Sacrament
Wednesday, June 19 - Juneteenth
with Mother Aries Dial, Testimony as Sacrament
Wednesday, June 26 - Remembering Our Ancestors
with Chaplain Amy Shoemaker, Art, Grief, Sabbath, and Song as Sacrament
Monday, July 1
with Dr. Laurel Braitman, Ph.D., Writing as Medicinal Sacrament, Teaching as Spiritual Care

All gatherings are 5:30-6:30 PM PST/8:30-9:30 PM EST. If the spirit moves, they may be
longer and you can come and go as you need.

I’ve invited queer friends and colleagues from various religious and spiritual traditions to join us as this liturgical season unfolds to share a bit about their journey, their pride, what’s breaking their heart, what’s keeping them going, and to lead us in a practice from their tradition(s). Come once, come every time, share the invitation, bring a friend(s). These will be queer-centric gatherings and allies are welcome to join respectfully, participate, and bear witness. 

What to expect: some silence, some singing, some creative expression, much love

- Opening and settling in
- Welcome and check-in
- Remembering why we are gathering
- Sharing from Special Guest
- Transition
- Benediction

What to bring:
-Yourself - however you are, wherever you are 
-Set up a PRIDE altar if you’d like - honoring your unique self, your queerness, your sexuality, your gender identity, your creativity, your ancestors, your lineages, your culture and traditions, your gifts, and your longings. 
-A candle 
-A journal or something to write on and with
-Art supplies in case of spontaneous or invited creating

I hope to see you soon and co-create this space for queer pride, joy, sorrow, and everything in between,

Emily+

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Dec
18
10:00 AM10:00

COME DARKNESS, COME LIGHT: A SPECIAL ONLINE SOLSTICE GATHERING

We are culminating this seasons' "Wild Within" series with a special online solstice gathering. Whether you have joined us for other sessions or not, please come be with Natasha, Sarah, and Emily as we welcome darkness, welcome light, and tune ourselves into communal rhythms of change.

Using silence, song, poetry, and lightly structured connection, we are sure to experience what we always do—that it is good to be together in darkness and light.

Register here.

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Sep
18
10:00 AM10:00

The Wild Within: Third Sundays

Sarah, Natasha, and I come together again to facilitate a drop-in space for you to learn to be at home in your own body, listen to yourself and others, and cultivate the inner knowing that gets us through hard times. You can register HERE.

These events are the third Sundays in September, October, November, and December from 10:00 am-11:15 am, free, and don’t require you to come to all of them, though they do require registration (same link each time). So if you come to one, but aren’t coming to others, there is no need to check in with us or “cancel” anything, though of course, we will miss you whenever you are not there!

You can expect some quiet, some guided meditation, some light theme that we do a reading on, and some time to respond in the large group or quick breakout groups with whatever is percolating in your mind and heart. Our experience, whether we are together actually or virtually, is that there is music to be heard when we tune into it! This is a chance for tuning in.

Often these experiences are even better with a friend—they can register here. Or they can appear with you on your screen!

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Sep
13
to Dec 12

The Quaking of America, Book PRACTICE Group

INVITATION for Virtual Practice Partners in White Bodies 

What: Book Practice Group. Flow in, flow out. No Fee. As Resmaa Menakem says, “you don’t read my books, you DO my books.”

The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating Our Nation’s Upheaval and Racial Reckoning  by Resmaa Menakem

“All adults need to learn how to soothe and anchor themselves, rather than expect or demand that others soothe them. And all adults need to heal and grow up.” (My Grandmother’s Hands, Resmaa Menakem, 197)

“The most important thing [white bodies] can do to unravel white-body supremacy - and to heal your own historical and second trauma around race - is to notice what your body does in the presence of an unfamiliar Black body, and then learn to settle your body in the midst of that presence.” (MGH, 212-213)

Why: 

  • We need HEALING, I need healing

  • All bodies have nervous systems that need healing and we have a shared communal nervous system that needs healing

  • White bodies have particular healing work to do so we don’t “blow” our WBSC through Black bodies, bodies of culture, and fellow white bodies. (R.M.)

  • Collectively, we experienced an attempted coup in the United States on January 6, 2021 by folks who experience belonging in white-body supremacy culture. Overtime we want to build a healthier, more life giving culture to belong to for all bodies. 

  • Personally, living out my call and my life-long commitment to Somatic Abolition, co-creating an embodied, anti-racist culture as a human participant in a white body and when appropriate as a white bodied faciltator. I want to be a hospice chaplain for white body supremacy culture (wbsc). 

How: Gather, attune, and practice over and over via Zoom as your life and commitments allow

When: 6:55a-7:30a+ PST/9:55a-10:30a+ EST, starting Tuesday, September 13 —>
keep meeting until we’ve practiced our way through the group

Who: Everyone who longs to heal and can commit to the container we create together, coming in and out as their schedule allows. I feel empowered and called to do that for white bodied folks.

How Long: 50 weeks (numbers of book chapters), or as long as it takes
No meetings in August, second-half of December + breaks as needed

Format*
6:55 - Call opens and gathering music
7:00 - Morning greeting
7:02 - Ground, Orient, Hum/Sing
7:07 - Chat Check-In 
7:10 - Solo/Parallel Body Practice time from book chapter
7:25 - Journaling in the form of what Resmaa calls Soul Scribing and/or Chat Check-Out
7:30 - Singing Goodbye

* inspired by and based on the work of Music that Makes Community and Resmaa Menakem’s book, My Grandmother’s Hands

Long-Term Hope and Vision: Multiple generations from now the anti-racist culture we know “is possible, and on her way” is realized and ongoing. All bodies and especially Black bodies, Indigenous bodies, and all bodies of culture are safe and FREE. 

In the very near future: white bodied folks will connect with other white bodied folks through this group to form ongoing, life-long trios/quartets (click for link to Psychology Today article)

All along the way: healing and more space in our individual and collective nervous systems.

There is no fee to participate. Financial contributions are appreciated & encouraged to:
Education for Racial Equity
Music that Makes Community

Contact info for more questions: connect@emilylinderman.com

Zoom link registration:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0uc-CsqDMiH9ZLwnI0i2JI16XjD74RHXlk 

Who is Emily?

White-bodied human, godmama to four precious humans, palliative care chaplain, and grateful member of MMC’s Monday Morning Grounding community as well as one of MMC’s My Grandmother’s Hands reading and practicing 2022 cohort co-facilitators. In 2021, I participated in a 9-month Communal Consultations cohort for white-bodies through Education for Racial Equity with Resmaa Menakem and Carlin Quinn that is still changing, healing, and moving me towards new ways of being and belonging. Through that experience, ERE connected me with three other white-bodied folks and our quartet continues to meet and practice monthly. In July 2022, I went through ERE’s Foundations for Somatic Abolition course again as a refresher. You can read more about me and my work in the world here.

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Apr
26
7:00 PM19:00

The Book of Forgiving: Intro to 5 Week Series

Dear FCCPA congregation + community far and wide,

"There is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and there is no one undeserving of forgiveness." Do you believe it? Desmond Tutu does. His daughter and fellow priest, Mpho Tutu does too. I believe it or I at least want to believe it, most of the time. Sometimes I struggle to surrender to the "nothing and no one" in this declaration.

Tutu goes on to say, "There have been times when each and every one of us has needed
to forgive. There have also been times when each and every one of us has needed to be forgiven. And there will be many times again. In our own ways, we are all broken. Out of that brokenness, we hurt others. Forgiveness is the journey we take toward healing the broken parts. It is how we [remember our] whole[ness] again."

This is the part that gets me, that keeps me on the path to surrender. I believe in and desire healing for myself, my loved ones, our local communities, and the world writ large. I have experienced healing by both offering and receiving forgiveness. And still, I want and need more healing and more healing is needed in our communal lives.

The Tutus suggest a fourfold path:

  • Telling the story

  • Naming [and feeling] the hurt

  • Granting forgiveness

  • Renewing or releasing the relationship

Like Tutu, I don't believe the work of forgiveness is ever finished, but I do believe that as we mature in life and faith, we develop a more sensitive, embodied knowing when forgiveness is required and we become more willing to take the first step sooner depending on the hurt.

In honor of Desmond Tutu’s memory and legacy, this Easter season, I will be leading a five-part series through this path, and I'm inviting anyone willing to walk the path of forgiveness with a hurt in mind. This series is also open to anyone who is willing to pray for the willingness to be willing.

The series will be based on Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Rev. Mpho Tutu's, The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World as well as Dr. Fred Luskin's work (director and founder of the Stanford University Forgiveness Project), and others.

If you would like to walk the fourfold path of forgiving yourself or another person(s) in a prayerful, community environment, please join me as we walk this path together. Sharing the details of your story with others may happen but is not a requirement.

If you are interested, more logistical information is below.

God's peace,
Emily

When and Where:

5 Tuesday evenings, 7:00-8:15 pm PST on Zoom

  • Tuesday, April 26: Opening and Introduction

  • Tuesday, May 3: Telling the Story

    Tuesday, May 10 – Break

  • Tuesday, May 17: Naming and Feeling the Hurt

  • Tuesday, May 24: Granting Forgiveness

  • Tuesday, May 31: Renewing or Releasing the Relationship

Cost:

Free.

If you are moved to make an offering please consider donating to the The Forgiveness Project or FCCPA if you’re not already a pledging member.

Required pre-work:

Buy or borrow a copy of The Book of Forgiving. We will work through the book together. No need to read ahead of time, but you can!

I encourage you to buy the book from one of your local bookstores. I’ll be working with Books, Inc. Palo Alto to obtain copies of the book for purchase.

This journey is for you if:

  • You have a hurt in mind that needs to be forgiven

  • You are willing to walk the path of forgiveness with this hurt in mind or you are willing to pray for the willingness to be willing.

  • You’re curious about forgiveness as an ongoing spiritual practice and you’ve been looking for guidance and a place to start

  • You could commit to the Circles of Trust® Touchstones based on the work of Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal

What you can expect:

Silence, song, guided reflective practices, journaling prompts, opportunities for sharing. A facilitator who welcomes laughter, tears, and everything in between with the well-being of the group in mind.

Who is Emily?

I am a UCC minister and member of FCCPA who serves as a part-time chaplain and consultant at Stanford Health Care on the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) team and a part-time Palliative Care chaplain at UCSF. I also have a private practice as a spiritual director, community educator, and consultant. I love creating spaces for embodied reflection, learning, healing, and growth.

Register here:

Zoom registration link

It will be helpful for me if you register by Tuesday, April 19. Registration is limited to 24 participants.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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Apr
26
10:00 AM10:00

My Grandmother's Hands Book Practice Groups: Intro to 8-part Series

Read and practice your way through My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem in community with me - Emily Linderman (White body, she/her), Charlotte Moroz, and Music that Makes Community on alternating Tuesdays starting April 26 and concluding July 28. If that day of the week and time don’t work for you MMC is offering two other options. More information and registration link below.

From MMC’s newsletter:

”Almost two years ago, Music that Make Community began a more intentional journey toward building anti-racist culture. And we continue to ask: what does it look like to move beyond simply talking about representation and diversity? How can we center and celebrate BIPOC experiences, stories, and culture with hospitality and care? And, building on the work of Resmaa Menakem and others, how can we help support individual and communal healing from the racial trauma held in our bodies and structures?

In that spirit, we invite you to join our next My Grandmother’s Hands book study*, beginning the week of April 25, 2022. We're so grateful for Conie Borchardt journeying with MMC for the third time, shaping eight sessions exploring Resmaa Menakem’s book and practices, including singing together as a way to anchor our bodies and support the mending of white-body supremacy and racialized trauma.

Register and fill out our schedule survey here!”

*I’ve heard Resmaa Menakem say, “you don’t read my book, you do my book!” Join us as we do the work of healing and tempering our nervous systems and tuning our collective orchestra of vagus nerves and psoas muscles.

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Apr
24
10:00 AM10:00

PREACHING: SOUL FRIENDS

Join the FCCPA UCC congregation including me for our second Sunday in Eastertide service. You can find the Zoom link here. Of course you’re always welcome to join us in person as well.

Inspired by Diana Butler Bass’ writing on the significance of the Maundy Thursday Table, I’ll be preaching on and exploring what it means that in the Eastertide gospel stories, Jesus never went back to the place of his crucifixion or suggested that his friends should either. They chose to spend their precious, limited time sharing meals and walks and glorious proximity with one another instead. What does this mean for how we spend our time together now, as friends, as Christians?

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Mar
6
10:00 AM10:00

THE WILD WITHIN: Intro to 4 Part Series

Sundays in March
3/6, 3/13, 3/20, 3/27
10-11:15 am PST/1-2:15 pm EST

with Natasha Burrowes, Emily Linderman, and Sarah Murphy-Kangas

For most if not all of us the pandemic has been a journey into the unknown, stretching us to edges of ourselves and our lives together in different and overlapping ways. There has been an intensity of undulating emotions and questions. In the wake of these waves, the three of us have turned to our spiritual practices and each other among others. We keep going as parents, partners, consultants, facilitators, anti-racist educators, spiritual coaches, and health-care workers by staying connected to our inner worlds and the natural world even when we don’t want to or feel like it. We take turns creating and receiving, grieving and comforting, laughing and crying, sharing and listening, resting and engaging. 

And we are continually surprised and sustained by what we discover - just enough peace and courage for the days in front of us and some times with enough to share. Have you found this too and want more? Or is this sustenance something you desire?

We are offering a four-week online journey of contemplation and reflection. We will use silence, song, poetry, creativity, individual reflection, and group dialogue to practice trusting and befriending the wild within that we may befriend the wild around us.

This series is for you if:

  • You are interested in exploring your inner world with experienced facilitators 

  • You’re curious about spiritual practices and mindfulness and you’ve been looking for guidance and a place to start

  • You’re a dedicated spiritual practitioner and you’re longing for community

  • You lead all week and you’d like to be led

  • You’re curious how “seeing inside” could make your life richer

  • You could commit to the Circles of Trust® Touchstones based on the work of Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal

Cost
Sliding Scale: $100-$150 for all four sessions. Scholarships freely given for the asking.

Payment accepted via
Venmo: @Emily-Linderman-SD
CashApp: $EmilyLinderman 
AppleCash: send an email to connect@emilylinderman.com

Registration
Zoom Link here
Limited to the first 22 paid and registered participants

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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