Spiritual Direction
in Creation 

Hi, I'm Mary Loebig Giles, a creation-based spiritual director in San Francisco. I accompany people of all wisdom traditions in listening and responding to the holy/God/divine in their lives. I am a trained, certified spiritual director, a centering prayer guide, pastor, and retreat leader.

 

My most treasured memories of childhood were ones of the living world: waking up one winter morning to find our Wisconsin backyard transformed by icy rain that had sheathed the trees and leaves in glimmering crystal. Hiking with my family through an old growth forest shaken by a wind that released hundreds of fall leaves overhead at just the same instant. Splashing through a water-filled grove to find the sky mirrored in its glassine surface. It seemed to me then as now, that God is speaking if we are listening.

 

My life has taken me on a long journey back to these most sacred and simple truths: that God, who is Mystery, is both present and knowable, experienced in our bodies and our living world, alive in our memories and our searching. 

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Meeting for spiritual direction beneath the Coastal Redwoods or alongside still waters opens our minds and hearts not only to different metaphors for our inner life but also to the very real presence of God's love alive in all of creation. 

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When we're sitting together outside we listen to ourselves differently, laying down our indoor habits of distractedness and constant motion long enough to slow down, take a breath, and notice what's going on inside. We can do the same thing while walking meditatively–opening our senses to savor the colors, birdsong, and wind as we see ourselves as part of this holy conversation, begin to live into our questions, and hear Spirit's response to our deepest desires.