The Center to Awaken Kindness offers programs and resources designed to encourage experiencing life as a prayer-filled practice that awakens the reality of love and kindness through the discovery of the Sacred Somethingness that is within and beyond the emptiness, meaninglessness, and nothingness of life.
What We Do
 
Penny Taylor and Bill Ressl’s vision is to provide whimsical prayer-filled mindful self-care tools that invite the Spirit grounded deep within to open a new reality for those struggling with life’s transitions and challenges. In the tradition of Jesus the Christ that is grounded in the Protestant Principle, that raises awareness of the expression of the Spiritual Community that transcends every particular church, and Catholic Substance, that recognizes the concrete embodiment of the Spiritual Presence here and now, the role of the Center to Awaken Kindness is to provide tools that encourage inner and relational new realities.
 
Utilizing the historic path of transformation known as a labyrinth, our prayer-filled mindful self-care tools, in the form of programs and other resources, are designed to strengthen renewal of self and the world through the practice of recognizing life as a prayer. Whether “walking” a Mindful Moment Labyrinth, listening to a podcast, making a visible statement using our home and lifestyle products, prayerfully reflecting through one of our prayer books, or taking time to journal – everything we design is in the service of awakening love and kindness in the world.

Our Mission
 
The mission of the Center to Awaken Kindness is to bring the gifts of the Spirit alive in the world by sharing and teaching the loving kindness of Christ’s love.
Our teachings and product designs are the creative spiritual response of Bill Ressl and Penny Taylor – rooted in the Christian prophetic tradition that strives toward a renewal grounded in listening love that supports the emergence of a new reality here and now. We see that the need to awaken, nurture, and empower kindness individually and in the world is more important than ever.
Foundational Theoretical Frame
 
There is much discussion in understandings of mindfulness related to the importance of emptiness and nothingness. Many strive to become empty and feel nothingness. We value that fundamental foundation but through our research have also come to recognize that historically that is only the beginning - not the end in itself. Deep within emptiness, meaninglessness, and nothingness a Sacred Somethingness can be discovered. This Sacred Somethingness fills us with renewal - a new reality emerges that fuels a new sense of being deep within that nurtures emptiness into a participatory fullness, meaninglessness into an intentional purpose, and nothingness into a dynamic vitality.

We have discovered that exploring life as an art quilt opens a path toward deeper awareness of being able to begin to become aware of the Sacred Somethingness that has always been a part of the human journey - especially in times of emptiness, meaninglessness, and nothingness. Self-reflection that dives deep in mindful practices toward emptiness and nothingness can open the Sacred Somethingness deep within supporting the journey of making life a physical representation of that Sacred Somethingness here and now – life as prayer.
Through the imagery of the art quilt called life the participation of the Sacred Somethingness through life becomes visible. Often when we think of a quilt we imagine a physical item stitched by hand or machine. Such a quilt often tells a story of their creator. A quilter takes three pieces of fabric (top, batting, and backing) and uses a thread to connect them - and in the case of a sewing machine two threads (a top thread and a bobbin thread). The art quilt of life is very much the same. The creator of the art quilt of life, the Sacred Somethingness, sews the fabrics of life together – the balance of past, present, and future expressions of reality made visible through our life experiences (top layer) and meaning making practices (the backing). The batting, the center fabric between the other two layers, is the presence of the Sacred Somethingness deep within – the Spiritual Presence that is ever present but rarely visible. The two threads that create the stitch are the time and space of life. Moment by moment the art quilt of life is stitched together creating a visual reminder and legacy of the story that is life. Self-reflection assists in bringing awareness to the reality of our participation in the story that becomes the personal art quilt of life.
 
Join us on the journey of turning emptiness into a participatory fullness, meaninglessness into an intentional purpose, and nothingness into a dynamic vitality. Discover the art quilt of life through the integration of historic practices of walking a labyrinth, Christian mindful methods, and contemporary processes grounded in theology and clinical theory.
A-FACT ... Foundational Methodology

The A-FACT process was first defined by Penny Taylor in her PhD dissertation at the Chicago Theological Seminary: She Reached Out In Faith: A Pastoral Theology Interpretation of Anxiety (2015). A-FACT is grounded in her pastoral theological ethnographic focus on Veronica from the Bible defined through an integrative paradigm grounded in the thought of systematic theology of Paul Tillich, Murray Bowen's family systems thinking, and various Liberation Theologians. Over the years, Penny and Bill have refined and expanded the integrative paradigm through additional theological constructs, neo-Jungian thought, and theories from clinical social work.
Examining transformative processes from various historic methodologies, the A-FACT Process is a powerful tool supporting re-newal. It is a five step interactive system that includes:
 
+ Reflecting on one’s story of life (Awareness).
+ Being guided by the Spirit to see the possible (Freedom).
+ Enhancing the practice of living a devotionally grounded prayer-filled mindful existence (Acceptance).
+ Living into life as prayer (Courage).
+ Reframing life to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” Deuteronomy 6:5 (Transformation).

The A-FACT Process is the foundational methodology utilized by the Center to Awaken Kindness.

Help support our work through the use of our products and resources - explore all our offerings including prayer books, journals, home & lifestyle products, and mindful labyrinth videos - and most of all be a living embodiment of love and kindness in the world.
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