First Meeting with a Spiritual Director

Yesterday I had my first meeting with the woman who will be my spiritual director.  In some ways, I've had spiritual directors before:  pastors, youth group leaders, campus people.  But the process hasn't been as intentional as what I'm about to experience.

I drove down to my spiritual director's home.  She lives 45 minutes south of me.  Happily, I was able to find her house fairly easily.

We met in a room in her home which looked a bit like a home office, but with lots of spiritual books.  She has a small table in one corner that looks like an altar, with a cross, a candle, a singing bowl, and some rocks.  There was a small packet of tissues.

We began with centering prayer, which was interesting, since she didn't know that I had just read Thomas Keating's book on the practice.  I didn't close my eyes because I was afraid I might fall asleep.  Instead I stared at the window, at the palm trees beyond, palm trees obscured a bit by the gauzy drape at the window.

I expected to find my thoughts drifting, that I would need to use my sacred word of "grace" every 10 seconds.  Instead, I rarely needed to use the word.  Maybe I was tired from the drive.  Maybe sitting in silence isn't as hard as I assumed.

After my spiritual director called us back to the present with her singing bowl, we talked about the experience.  She says that she tries to do centering prayer every day with a 20 minute session.

We talked about our experiences with spiritual direction.  She's finishing a certificate program offered by United Methodist Alabama and West Florida Conference.  Hers is a 3 year program.  We talked about my program.

We talked about what we might expect from our partnership.  She also brought up payment; if she hadn't done that, I would have.  She charges $50 per session, which seems reasonable to me.  If that payment was a burden, she was prepared to negotiate, but I said, "No, no, $50 is very reasonable."  I pay $45 for a haircut, and if I got a massage, I'd pay more.  I pay our yard person $35, but he doesn't spend an hour at our house.

When I first heard about spiritual direction sessions, I wondered if they would be in an office or a cafe.  I'm glad that she's willing to have me come to her house.  I could happily spend many hours in her space; I wouldn't feel the same if we met at a Panera halfway between us.  We will meet face to face, even though some spiritual direction could be done by phone or video conference.  Again, I'm happy about this.

I'm intrigued to see where this process leads me.