This layered account autoethnography explores my journey of transformation from “perfect” active obstetrician to contemplative Quaker spiritual director who can work from the place of the unknown.
Spiritual direction is an attentive listening ministry with few absolutes. It is a ministry of emergence.
I and my Inward Teacher work as bricoleurs whose conversation and listening partners are: Quakers – Margaret Fell and Douglas Steere; spiritual director – Margaret Guenther and psychoanalyst – Wilfred Bion. These writers have all found words to describe the ineffable, whether in terms of “O” (ultimate reality) or Inward Teacher.
As layered accounts autoethnographer creating a bricolage, I use fragments to allow emergence. These fragments include: writing vignettes, music and poetry, creating art work and stitching a crazy patchwork quilt. I explore my experiences in ways that complement traditional analytic and spiritual direction writing. I particularly look to intuit how words appear.
