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REFLECTION

“Preservation?” — Kelly Yarbrough

well received. They wanted to begin with someone famil- many mentors from a variety of faiths and perspec-
iar—someone with whom they already had a relationship, tives and was particularly grateful for the humour and
they insisted, casting disappointed glances in my direction. patience they showed as I struggled, often in vain, to
While ruminating upon this challenge now thrown lay aside the deeply rooted patterns and behaviours I
back in my court, I suddenly remembered Reverend had acquired in my former lives. Time and again I was
Mary. She was a Protestant clergywoman whom I had reminded that I was neither a friend nor a therapist nor
interviewed during the writing of my thesis, and she had a pastor nor a teacher when I sat focused and listening
revealed that as well as ministering in her own parish, she to the stories that unfolded before me. It was not for me
was also engaged in offering spiritual direction. I picked to indulge in judgment, in the giving of advice or the
up the telephone and dialed. solving of problems, and when the temptation was upon
Appreciating my dilemma and lingering physical me to babble endlessly about my own life, I was to rein
limitations, Mary agreed to mentor me for an interim myself in. Such precepts as these remain etched in my
period, and so began a series of “not-so-formal” training psyche and still, to this day, serve me well. But now these
sessions while I slowly and tentatively began to meet with seventeen years later, a pressing issue has prompted me
spiritual directees. In the following year, when health and to reexamine my early training. I have come gradually to
energy permitted, I enrolled in the Jesuit college in the realize that my role has been shaped not simply by the
city and began work on a diploma in spiritual direction. formation that occurred in the classroom, but by Sister
In those early days, I was blessed by the wisdom of Barbara herself and all she held dear.

44 Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction