2026 Black Contemplative Prayer Summit Contribute a Note to Our Keynote Dear Community, I’m writing to share an important update regarding our beloved keynote speaker, Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown. Dr. Brown has experienced a decline in her health and will no longer be able to join us for the 2026 Summit. She has asked for our prayers for herself and her family during this tender season. Dr. Brown has been a guiding light for so many of us—her teaching, writing, and witness have shaped...
9 days ago • 1 min read
News + New Good Things from Tia Norman “Do you bow your head when you pray or do you look up into that blue space? Take your choice, prayers fly from all directions. And don't worry about what language you use, God no doubt understands them all." -Mary Oliver (excerpt from Whistling Swans) Peaceful, Centered + Connected When I was first introduced to Centering Prayer, over a decade ago, one of the biggest obstacles I faced was finding 20 minutes to sit in quiet solitude. My home was full of...
28 days ago • 5 min read
News + New Good Things from Tia Norman “There is a rest of the soul that only comes when we stop striving to be more, do more, and achieve more—and simply consent to being held.” -Cynthia Bourgeault Peaceful, Centered + Connected There was a little girl sitting behind me on the airplane ride home from Durham, NC, this week. I’m not sure how old she was, and I was only able to catch a glimpse of her brown curls and the side of her left cheek through the crack in between our seats. “Are we...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
News + New Good Things from Tia Norman “Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.” -Maya Angelou Peaceful, Centered + Connected This is called News + New Good Things because of a conversation my daughter and I had when she was a young child. I see the communication here as an invitation to lean into that conversation and the Wisdom she shared on how to create a new world and new good things. A...
2 months ago • 5 min read
News + New Good Things from Tia Norman "We are called to a sabbatical not to escape, but to find the deeper work that has been waiting within us." -Henri Nouwen Peaceful, Centered + Connected I filled the hummingbird feeder a few months ago and never saw a single beak take a sip I wondered if I had measured the proper proportion of sweetness to liquid Not a single beak, until this week It wasn’t the season And I’ve been talking to the wilting flowers in my yard, asking them where they want to...
4 months ago • 1 min read
News + New Good Things from Tia Norman "If a man's ego has been stabilized, resulting in a sure grounding of his sense of personal worth and dignity, then he is in a position to appraise his own intrinsic powers, gifts, talents and abilities" -Howard Thurman Peaceful, Centered + Connected I nervously published my first blog post on July 4th, eleven years ago. I found courage in knowing I would be on a flight that morning and figured if I hit publish on my way to the airport, then the sky...
6 months ago • 2 min read
News + New Good Things from Tia Norman "I–I hardly know, sir, just at present–at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then." -Alice in Wonderland Peaceful, Centered + Connected I call it "The Agreement." It's this thing I said yes to when I began to sense an invitation to change what I was doing for a living and instead trust who I was becoming in life. It was the portal across a threshold into what the late Rev. Dr. Katie...
7 months ago • 3 min read
News + New Good Things from Tia Norman To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.” -Thomas Merton...
7 months ago • 2 min read
News + New Good Things from Tia Norman “Healed people create healed systems." -Hailey Mitsui Peaceful, Centered + Connected The past two months have taken me from mountaintops to marathon routes, conference rooms to moments of deep inner stillness. In March, I spent five days in silence at the Garrison Institute in New York, learning from Cynthia Bourgeault and David Frenette. I flew home just long enough to trade my winter layers for running shoes, then headed to Los Angeles and ran my first...
8 months ago • 2 min read
