We are “entering” the story of the prodigal, entering the painting, too. We find ourselves in it, amazed by its many meanings and revelations. While we plan to limit ourselves to a few weeks of discussing it, please know that nothing we offer will cover the entirety of its depth! Go read and explore and enter it for yourself, too. Follow the paths it takes you on.

Today we explore how this parable is about coming home, about radical inclusion, and belonging to the True Self. Bill once taught me that in order to successfully leave home and individuate, the grown child and the parent must learn to see one another as equals. This is so hard!! I know the difficulty as a parent and as a grown up child. The blanket of love that we cast needs to be large enough to accept the ones we love as they are, but also to know that we are something much more than father/mother/son/daughter. The True Self is bigger, deeper than these roles and labels, and it encompasses them.

Thank you for engaging the story with us! We hope you find both yourself and sacred mystery within it. It is about so much more than we may have been taught!

Each week I will try to include a different artist’s depiction of the prodigal son.

“The Return of the Prodigal Son” by Iszchan Nazarian