My blog is a finalist under the Best of Blogs Inspirational category!  Best of Blogs is dedicated to giving exposure to smaller blogs.  I am very excited and honored.  You can vote for me here (scroll down to the third category), you get one vote per day until April 13, 2007.
-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of […]

Posted in Fun | 8 Comments »

I Tell You (excerpt)
I could not predict the fullness
of the day. How it was enough
to stand alone without help
in the green yard at dawn.
How two geese would spin out
of the ochre sun opening my spine,
curling my head up to the sky
in an arc I took for granted.
And the lilac bush by the red
brick wall flooding […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Lent | 4 Comments »

(photo above by Cheryl MacPherson of a fawn lily)
What fun to read all of your wonderful stories, poems, and reflections about blossoming!  I am grateful to everyone who participated.  Please follow the links below to read some of the participants and also click on the comments section to read two stories submitted that I had permission to […]

Posted in Photos, Seasons, Links to Websites | 5 Comments »

Scroll down for a new Lenten reflection below this post. 
I just wanted to post a reminder about my Call for Stories of Blossoming and this Wednesday I will post links to all the blog stories (and poems and images) on blossoming you share with me here (just leave a comment letting me know).  Everyone who shares a […]

Posted in Fun | No Comments »

My beloved and I went up to Canada for a long weekend retreat together, a time to be still and reconnect.  On Thursday night we made the long trip to Vancouver Island, driving a little way past the village of Sooke.  We had been to Sooke a couple of years ago and I longed to […]

Posted in Nature and Creativity, Lent | 4 Comments »

For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the dove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!  (Song of Songs […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Lent | 5 Comments »

(Please scroll down for more about my new Blossoming Prayer Cards and click here for more information about our Awakening the Creative Spirit intensive in November!) 
Greetings dear friends!  The arrival of spring has inspired me to call forth stories of blossoming into the world!  I invite you to post a story (or poem or image) […]

Posted in Seasons | 9 Comments »

Spring is here and I have a new offering available: Blossoming Prayer Cards.  This is a set of 9 prayer cards with blossom images I have taken.  On the back are quotes about blossoming from Hildegard of Bingen, Denise Levertov, Book of Isaiah, Rumi, Hafiz, Kabir, Thich Nhat Hanh, Anais Nin, and Dawna Markova.  They […]

Posted in Offerings | 3 Comments »

Last night was the New Moon, the time of darkness that comes each month inviting us into the womb of the night.  I am trying to live with more awareness of the moon’s phases even if I can’t see the night sky very often because I live in Seattle which is both urban and gets lots of cloud […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Lent | 2 Comments »

One of the things that I grieved the most when my mother died was that I didn’t have more time to be in her presence.  In the last few years of her life, she had become a bold and vibrant woman, unapologetic for who she was and what she thought was worth fighting for.  I […]

Posted in Spirituality, Lent | 4 Comments »