MyLU Insider

Karen Brennan

Author: Karen Brennan

Lawrentian Invitation to Baccalaureate

Baccalaureate is a multifaith celebration of the spiritual journey of the Class of 2021. Created by seniors, it highlights the unique perspectives of the graduating class. Baccalaureate seeks to show how an academic rite of passage transcends books and computers, while it simultaneously asks if the journey could ever have been anything other than spiritual.

A limited number of in-person seats available for Lawrence students, faculty and staff. To request an in-person seat for the service, please fill out this form.

Baccalaureate 2021
Baccalaureate 2021
June 12 at 3pm
Lawrence Memorial Chapel

No Fourth Friday Lunch – A Summer lunch survey instead

Hello diners of the mid-day. Who’s up for lunch this summer?
We are interested in your thoughts on summer lunch gatherings as we all learn to move back into campus settings.

Since we can’t be all places all the time, or satisfy all people in all situations – we’ve decided to survey instead. Please complete the linked survey and stay tuned as options and allowances on campus are more fully considered.

Screens are great. In person is great. Really, it’s all good depending on your life.

Transitions and Walls

As we prepare to close this term, you are invited to be open with yourself and the community. Reflect on your hopes for yourself and the understanding you encourage from others. Give thanks for memories gained, grieve for experiences lost, or reflect on how those concepts help define each other. Wish meaningful transitions for yourself.

The Library and the Center for Spiritual and Religious Life will all be host to a space that allows you to be open by placing your intentions, wishes, hopes, thanksgiving, fears, confessions, questions, or prayers into the “wall” regardless of background or beliefs. (A remote option will be available through the Spiritual and Religious Life webpage.)

Spiritual and Religious Life understands prayer to be many different things for the members of our community. In all times and traditions, it is a way of being in the moment, being present, and opening your heart, soul, and mind to connection.

At the end of term we will dismantle the wall and collect the prayers. They will be released, unopened, to the universe through burning.

Everyday Spirituality-batteries not necessarily required

When we open ourselves to the knowledge that busy days require many pockets, we must also engage in emptying those contents on occasion. Remove the rocks, the sharp things that have gathered, the lint, the tiny scraps of garbage, and that sticky note with a word so smudged its no longer legible.

Place back in the empathy, the ability to step back for a moment, that refreshing scent of a cleansed mind and body, and maybe add a snack nugget or two for sharing with friends later. Put your intentionality back in as well.

Monday
Meditation (virtual)

Tuesday
Take a Hike with Mudd the dog

Wednesday
Evening Tai Chi

Thursday
Meditation (in person) & lunchtime Tai Chi

Friday
Choose your own practice

Revisit your passion and connect with what you value by taking in your surroundings, exploring beyond your screen, or maybe even visiting the Esch Hurvis Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.

Need your MTRP Dog Fix?

Think you’ve got your capstone under control, but need a teeny tiny healthy rest???
You have a lot of energy cuz you’re soo excited about the Holi event on Saturday???
Missing your usual MTRP spring ‘vacay’???
Need an excuse to get away from your roommate for just a few minutes???
Meditation is just not cutting it today???
Sports got ya’ down???

Come see Murphy! (Lovable Golden Retriever) He’ll be in the quad on Friday, May 7th at 1pm.

NOTE: He will not be masked, and he can be a little slobbery. We will expect the opposite from his visitors.

Holi Celebration – May 8th

Food, fun, and colors of all sorts make for a great celebration.

It’s the final stretch of a most bizarre academic year. Why not celebrate? Holi is a holiday celebrated to honor life and to celebrate the triumphs of good over evil. Since midwestern climates are less conducive to this celebration at it’s usual time, we’ve postponed it until it could be celebrated properly. (No, really…it was our pleasure.)

Get over to Ormsby Lake and experience for yourself the joy of Holi, the joy of colorful collegial celebratory feelings. The basking in vibrant powder and tinted water. Mark it on your calendar. Bring a friend. Schedule your study time around it. Bring your camera (but make sure you’re waterproofing it). You probably need this more than you think. Trust us.

12pm-4pm
on
Saturday, May 8th

Don’t forget to sign up for your takeaway food!

Spiritual & Religious Life Library Launch & UN World Book Day

OK…so your next book is….?

Celebrate your love of books and shared reading. UN World Book Day is Friday, April 23 and The Esch Hurvis Center for Spiritual and Religious Life is honoring the great joy of books with the launch of our searchable library collection.

https://www.librarycat.org/lib/LUSpiritSpace

We invite you to view the collection of poetry, spiritual narratives, memoirs, fiction, children’s books and key religious texts. This searchable database of spiritually inspired reading can lend itself to a greater depth in your own tradition, or be a resource to investigate and educate yourself in a safe space.

Reviews Welcome

Welcome to the library at the Lawrence Center for Spiritual and Religious Life

Grief Group for Students

Grieving is a deeply personal experience, but it doesn’t need to be a solitary expression of actions or emotions. Coping is a process that can ground a person in a difficult moment and as such requires skills, allowances, and time to process such moments.  Loss is an inevitable part of life, and grief is a natural part of the healing process. 

During weeks four, five and six, students are invited to connect together and be guided in that connection with Associate Dean Terra Winston. You should feel welcome to discuss grief you may be experiencing as related to the loss of a loved one, and connect with others who may also be experiencing a recent loss.

April 19
April 26
May 3

Something For You

No matter your capacity or your necessity, starting the term with a mindset of growth and connection is a gift you can give yourself right away. Whether you are connecting with other students during Take A Hike, or connecting peer to peer (without students) over Fourth Friday lunch, setting your intention is a step toward purposeful real time linking, especially in this virtual hybrid world.

Find where the depth is appealing (or excitedly scary, or eye opening)
and welcome in the spring term.

Take a Hike every Tuesday at 5:00
Meditation – virtual and in-person
Tai Chi two times a week
First Year Dialogues
Fourth Friday Lunch in April and May
Grief Group – for students in weeks four through six
Center for Spiritual and Religious Life – open after week two
LU Reads – weekly connection through children’s books
Religious celebrations to honor the many communities at Lawrence
Movement and music across campus

Specific details are close at hand – bookmark the LU Calendar, follow on Instagram, visit Facebook, or stop by the Center for Spiritual and Religious Life for a visit and a chat.