The Garden Shed
A Welcome from Bruce and Sue
Bruce
Come on in, don’t mind the mess. Every decent garden’s got a shed, a place where you keep your tools, your seeds, and the odd secret you’re not quite ready to plant yet.
This one’s no different. It’s where we keep the good stuff, the sit times, the sounds, the notes, all the bits and pieces that help Presence take root. Nothing flash, just the simple things that work.
Some days you’ll come in here needing to fix a broken handle. Other days you’ll just sit on the bench and listen to the rain on the roof. Either way, it’s all part of the tending.
So, take your time, have a look around. Water what needs watering, rest what needs resting. And don’t worry if you track a bit of mud in, we all do.
Sue
He’s right, you know. Stillness grows best when we stop trying to keep the floor clean.
THE TOOL RACK
Guided Sit Times
These guided sits are the tools of stillness, simple, practical ways to return to Presence.
Each one invites you to pause, breathe, and listen.
Choose the time or theme that suits where you are today.
Bruce
Tools are meant to be used, not admired. Pick one up and see what happens.
Listen Here (11-min)
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Each breath is a prayer, each inhale and exhale a whisper of the sacred name, Yah…weh. Long before words or beliefs, there is this living rhythm within us, the pulse of creation itself. As you settle into this practice, allow your breathing to become slow and gentle, a doorway to Presence. You are not trying to change or control anything, only to remember what has always been. Every in-breath receives the gift of life; every out-breath releases what you no longer need. In this quiet rhythm, you begin to hear the silent prayer that never ceases.
Listen Here (14-min)
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Surrender, rest, and union with Presence: The tender “yes” of awakening, when new life begins to rise. At the heart of contemplation lies rest, a letting go of all doing and becoming. This sit invites you to release the need to achieve, explain, or even pray with words. There is a deeper current carrying you, and it asks only that you surrender to its flow. As you rest, notice how the line between you and God begins to blur. Here, rest and God become one and the same.
Listen Here (20-min)
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This meditation invites us to sit within the living reality of the Trinity - Father, Son and Spirit - not as theological concepts but as Love, Light and Life dwelling within us. Using a contemplative Gateway, we sit in the Inner Room surrounded by the threefold presence of God, resting in the secure, hidden space Paul describes. This session deepens our relational prayer life, expands our inner awareness, and gently widens our capacity to experience God in fullness.
Listen Here (11-min)
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The body is not an obstacle to the spiritual life; it is the temple in which the Spirit breathes. In this sit, we turn awareness slowly through the body, from the soles of the feet to the crown of the head. We notice the weight of being here, the sensations, the aches, the warmth, the pulse of aliveness. There is no need to fix or analyse; simply listen. As you welcome each part of your body, you also welcome the One who dwells there. This is the gentle rediscovery that holiness is not somewhere else, it is embodied, breathing, and present within you.
Listen Here (20-min)
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This meditation introduces the movement from the thinking mind into the Inner Room - the quiet spiritual centre where Jesus invites us to meet Mystery in secret. Through the five movements of pause, soften, open, rest and trust, we learn how to descend gently from head to heart to the deep centre of being. This session lays the foundation for cultivating presence, loosening the grip of thought, discovering inner spaciousness, and recognizing that we are already held by love. It is a simple, repeatable pathway into stillness and an invitation to meet Mystery in the quiet centre of our lives.
Listen Here (20-min)
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This meditation invites us to explore the fullness of what may already be present within the Inner Room. Drawing on scriptural imagery, we discover that this sacred space is not empty but richly layered - a place of living water, hidden treasure, vine-abiding, divine indwelling, rest, and transformation. Through gentle reflection and guided practice, we notice which images draw us, which feel alive, and which speak to our present season. This session reveals the Inner Room as a home, a sanctuary, and a landscape of grace.
Listen Here (11-min)
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Sometimes the mind races in a thousand directions, searching for meaning or control. This simple phrase, “Just here, just now, just this”, brings you home to the present moment. Each word is a stepping-stone into stillness, a reminder that this moment is enough. As you repeat the phrase softly, you begin to notice the quiet underneath the noise, the awareness beneath the Don’t force the silence; let it arrive in its own time. You may discover that what you were seeking is already here, waiting patiently beneath your attention.
Listen Here (20-min)
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This Meditation deepens the movements that help us enter the Inner Room: softening, opening and resting. Through the posture of humility, we learn to step down from certainty, defensiveness and self-effort into a childlike openness. Through guided practice, we soften the body and mind, open into the warmth and spaciousness of the Inner Room, and rest in a love that is safe, personal and welcoming. It is an invitation to deeper surrender and gentler being.
THE QUIET BENCH
Unguided Sit Times
The Quiet Bench is for when you want to simply sit in silence. No guidance, no words, just you, the garden, and the stillness. Choose the length of time that feels right, settle in, and let the quiet hold you.
Sue
Don’t worry if your mind wanders, that’s what minds do. The silence will find you anyway.
10-minute
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Silent 10 Minute Sit Time Bell
20-minute
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Silent 20 Minute Sit Time Bell
30-minute
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Silent 30 Minute Sit Time Bell
THE WATERING CAN
Sounds of the Garden
Sometimes stillness arrives through sound. These gentle recordings invite you to listen with the heart, to the rain on the roof, the song of a bird, the rhythm of waves against the shore. Use them for your sit time, your walk, or your daily rhythm of quiet.
Bruce
Don’t overwater it, mate. Just enough to keep things alive.
20-minute
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This gentle recording invites you to listen with the heart, to the rain on the roof.
20-minute
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This gentle recording invites you to listen with the heart, to the sound “Beneath The Surface”
20-minute
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This gentle recording invites you to listen with the heart, to the Song of the bird.
20-minute
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This gentle recording invites you to listen with the heart, to the sound of the camo fire at night
20-minute
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This gentle recording invites you to listen with the heart, to the waves on the shore.
20-minute
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This gentle recording invites you to listen with the heart, to the sound of the babbling brook
THE GARDENER’S NOTEBOOK
Notes & Reflections
Every season leaves traces in the soil. This is where we notice what’s growing, and what’s quietly composting. You’ll find downloadable reflections, poems, and meditations. There’s no right way to write, only the honest way.
Sue
Some of my best prayers started as shopping lists.
A Practice: When the Gaze begins to Soften
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When the Gaze begins to Soften
As the Tree stage of practice deepens, stillness begins to reshape the way we see.
These two companion meditations to session 2 of “The Tree” sit times, gently extend the work of the Inner Room into the ordinary world - first through creation, and then through our fellow human beings.
The invitation is simple but profound: to allow perception to soften until we are no longer merely observing from the thinking mind, but seeing from the deeper ground of presence.
In the Christian contemplative tradition, this is not imagination or positive thinking. It is a slow training of attention - learning to recognize the divine life that quietly sustains all things.
The practices that follow are not exercises to master, but spaces to inhabit.
Move slowly. Let the gaze soften. Allow recognition to arise in its own time.
Over time, what begins with one tree…and one passing face…may gently widen into a more unified way of seeing.
A Practice: The Cosmic Wave
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The Cosmic Wave is a gentle meditation of outward expansion and homecoming. Beginning with the simple experience of sitting in a chair, awareness is carried through land, sky, stars, and into the vastness of the universe, before returning again to the body and the present moment.
This movement softens anxiety, widens perspective, and restores a sense of belonging. It reminds us that the Presence which holds galaxies also holds our breath and our daily lives.
The Cosmic Wave invites you to wave at the universe - and notice that you are already being waved
For those who want to experience this as a guided meditation, it forms part of session 4 of “The Tree” in the “Sit Time” section of the web site.
A Reflection: The Stillness beneath the Self
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There are moments when the noise of the world softens just enough for something deeper to be noticed.
A stillness beneath thought.
A Presence beneath the endless movement of the self.
In this reflection, inspired by the writings of the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, we explore the ancient contemplative longing to move beyond concepts, certainty, and surface identity into a deeper encounter with Mystery itself.
Along the way, themes of awareness, silence, surrender, the “inner room,” and the false self are gently explored through the lens of Christian contemplation, while also acknowledging resonances with wider mystical traditions.
But this is not a call toward spiritual grandiosity or escape from ordinary life.
Rather, it is an invitation toward humility, Presence, compassion, and the quiet discovery that beneath all the striving, something deeper may already be holding us.
A Reflection on: Becoming the Rose
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Becoming the Rose is a quiet companion to The Vessels and the Containers, exploring one small sentence that crossed Garry’s path decades before he understood it: “We are trying to sell a rose bush when we ourselves have not yet become the Rose.”
At the time, it felt like little more than a passing insight - a gentle nudge in the middle of a busy leadership culture. But like many early seeds, its meaning only revealed itself years later, after unravelling, loss, silence, and the slow work of becoming.
This reflection is not a teaching or a principle. It is simply the story of how a single line grew into a way of seeing: the difference between building systems and allowing the soul to blossom; between offering answers and becoming rooted in Presence; between selling rose bushes and slowly becoming the Rose.
It is offered quietly, in the spirit of the mystics - not as authority, but as companionship for anyone who senses that something deeper is trying to bloom within them.
A Reflection: The seven “I Am’s”
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The seven “I Am” sayings of Jesus are among the most luminous invitations in the Christian tradition. Read contemplatively, they become far more than theological declarations; they become living doorways into Presence. Bread, Light, Door, Shepherd, Resurrection, Way, and Vine - each image speaks not only about Christ, but to the deepest longings of the human soul.
These reflections invite you to move beyond analysis and into encounter, allowing the words to soften the heart rather than simply inform the mind. In the contemplative tradition, truth is not merely something we understand, but something we inhabit. As you journey through these reflections, you may find that the “I Am” is not distant doctrine, but a quiet voice already present within the Inner Room - nourishing, guiding, illuminating, and gently calling you home.
A Reflection on: The Quiet Truth of Becoming
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Awakening is not a dramatic achievement but a gentle shedding.
Old patterns loosen - the need for approval, for explanation, for spiritual identity, for drama, for being right, for managing others, for control.
They fall away naturally as the deeper Self emerges.
You do not force transformation; you simply outgrow what no longer fits.
Awakening reveals a quieter, truer life beneath conditioning - more grounded, more spacious, more real.
It is the soul’s slow unfurling into freedom, discovered not in effort but in noticing, I’m not doing that anymore.
This is the quiet truth of becoming.
A Reflection: Stillness, Thisness and Withness
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This reflection grew from a conversation in our weekly contemplative men’s group about distraction, presence, and the challenge of staying centred in ordinary life. Out of that came three simple but profound words from the mystic tradition: Stillness, Thisness, and Withness.
Stillness invites us to return to the inner room.
Thisness reminds us that God is found here, in this moment.
Withness reveals that we are never alone.
Together, these words offer a gentle doorway into contemplative practice - a softer way of seeing, a deeper way of living, and a quiet return to Presence already here.
THE CHRYSALIS CORNER Living through Turbulent times
Sometimes the world feels as though it is shifting beneath our feet. These five reflections are offered as quiet companions for the journey - a place to pause, breathe, and see our times more clearly. In uncertain seasons, wisdom grows slowly, like a garden finding its way toward the light.
Sue
Most good things in life grow the way gardens do - quietly, patiently, and often out of sight at first.
A Reflection: Defiant Power of the Human Spirit
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Throughout history there have been moments when systems of power have attempted to shape, control, and define human life.
In such times it can feel as though freedom itself is under threat. Yet again and again, something deeper has emerged - a quiet but unbreakable dimension within the human spirit.
This reflection explores that inner freedom. Drawing on the lives of Viktor Frankl, Edith Eger, and the wisdom of the mystics, it points to a truth that remains as relevant today as ever: that even in the most constrained circumstances, we retain the capacity to choose how we respond, and in doing so, remain fully human.
A Reflection: Living Well in an Unstable World
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In a world of constant information, urgency, and pressure, it is easy to become overwhelmed.
Many people are not struggling because they are weak, but because they are overexposed.
This reflection brings the journey into everyday life. It explores the importance of tending the “inner garden,” protecting attention, and cultivating a quiet centre from which to live. Rather than trying to solve everything at once, it invites a more grounded approach - responding to what is actually in front of us, living within our limits, and developing rhythms that support clarity, presence, and well-being in the midst of an unstable world.
A Reflection: Seeing Clearly in a World of Illusion
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In times of uncertainty, the world often becomes louder, faster, and more reactive.
Competing narratives emerge, each claiming clarity, urgency, and truth. It can become difficult to discern what is real, what is exaggerated, and what is shaping our perception without us realising it.
This reflection explores the nature of power, the role of narrative, and the human tendency toward apocalyptic thinking in times of change. It invites a different way of engaging - one that sees clearly without becoming consumed, and remains grounded even as the world grows more complex, divided, and uncertain.
A Reflection: The Elder Path
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As the world moves through periods of change and uncertainty, a deeper question begins to emerge - not just what is happening, but who we are becoming within it.
This reflection explores the idea of the “elder path,” a way of living marked not by age, but by depth, patience, and wisdom. It invites us to take the long view, to plant seeds we may never see grow, and to recognise that we may be living within a larger process of transformation. The image of the chrysalis offers a way of understanding this moment - not as an ending, but as a becoming.
A Reflection: The Inner Room and the Kingdom
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When the outer world becomes unstable, the search for something solid often turns inward.
Across centuries, contemplative traditions have pointed to a deeper centre within the human person - a place of stillness, awareness, and presence.
This reflection explores the invitation to enter the “inner room,” not as a form of escape, but as a foundation for clarity and grounded living. It reimagines the idea of the “kingdom” not as something external or political, but as a way of being rooted in peace, compassion, and presence - a freedom that cannot be easily shaped or controlled by the world around us.
THE COMPOST HEAP
Where release becomes renewal
Every garden has a compost heap - where what is finished returns to the soil. Here you’ll find gentle practices and reflections for release and renewal, helping what no longer serves to soften and settle. Nothing here is wasted; even compost quietly nourishes new growth.
Sue
Don’t be afraid of the weeds, they’re often the beginning of next seasons soil.
A Reflection on: Stabilising in the Inner Room
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This reflection explores a quiet but essential movement within the Christian contemplative tradition: the stabilisation of awareness not only in the mind, but in the body. Drawing from the wisdom of the mystics and the ancient prayer traditions, it traces the shift from conceptual belief toward lived, embodied knowing.
The great contemplative teachers consistently observed that transformation does not mature through insight alone. It deepens as the whole person learns to rest in God - breath, body, attention, and awareness gently gathered into a more unified centre.
Here, moments of natural flow and inner coherence are recognised not as accidental, but as signposts. They reveal the body’s capacity to remember wholeness and to participate in the life of prayer at a level deeper than thought.
This piece invites the reader to notice the subtle descent of awareness from effort into ease, from striving into receptivity, and from inherited belief into quiet familiarity with Presence.
It is offered as a companion for those walking the slow path of integration, where the Inner Room gradually becomes not just a place of prayer, but a lived habitat of the soul.
A Reflection on: Maybe We Become - A Poem
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Maybe We Become
A young Irish poet - Daragh Fleming, recently asked a disarming: “if the good guys are meant to arrive, and we can’t see them anywhere…what if we are meant to become them”?
It’s a simple thought, but a challenging one. Because it moves the story from waiting for hero’s to quietly becoming the kind of people who bring a little more courage. kindness, and clarity into the world.
A Reflection on: Compost - The Soil for Growth
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The Paradox of the Inner Room
Sometimes a piece of wisdom sits quietly with us for years before it begins to change shape.
For a long time, I have loved Teilhard de Chardin’s “Paradox of I”, where he describes taking a lamp and descending into the deeper abyss of the self. It is a beautiful description of the mysterious place from which human life seems to arise.
When unfinished thoughts quietly become soil for future growth……
THE PATH BEYOND THE GATE
Companions & Deepening
The Path Beyond the Gate leads to others who walk this contemplative way, voices and companions who have helped us listen more deeply. Follow the links below to discover their work, teachings, and offerings. .
Closing blessing
May your steps be guided by wonder, and your heart by Presence.
Companions on The Path
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Richard Rohr – Center for Action and Contemplation
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The Contemplative Teachers
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Kent Dobson – Wilderness and Mystery Teachings
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Wayne Jacobsen – The Journey of Love and Trust
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David Whyte – Poetry and Presence
