I saw this at Eileen’s blog and will sometimes enter my information into these games but not post the results. Since today was kind of intense, this result made me smile. High Priestess, I can live with that…(let me know if you find out yours!)  … I have long wanted to study the archetypal symbols […]

Posted in Fun | 10 Comments »

Preface to Leaves of Grass (excerpt)
Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others,
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown,
or to any man or […]

Posted in Poetry | 5 Comments »

“We seldom go freely into the belly of the beast. Unless we face a major disaster like the death of a friend or spouse or loss of a marriage or job, we usually will not go there. As a culture, we have to be taught the language of descent. That is the great language of […]

Posted in Photos, Grief | 12 Comments »

An absolute
patience.
Trees stand
up to their knees in
fog. The fog
slowly flows
uphill.
White
cobwebs, the grass
leaning where deer
have looked for apples.
The woods
from brook to where
the top of the hill looks
over the fog, send up
not one bird.
So absolute, it is
no other than
happiness itself, a breathing
too quiet to hear.

-Denise Levertov
(who was once a Seattle resident and attended St. Joseph Parish in […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 4 Comments »

(discovered on a sidewalk in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle)
PS — I’ve started a professional account at Smugmug for my photos, click on over for a visit and let me know what you think!  I’ll be adding more photos when I have time.  I occasionally get requests for a reprint of a photo on […]

Posted in Photos | 5 Comments »

“Fear is the cheapest room in the house. /
I would like to see you living / In better conditions.”
-Hafiz
“Move from within. / Don’t move the way that fear wants you to. /
Begin a foolish project. / Noah did.” 
-Rumi

  
I smiled yesterday when lucy commented about my journey of fearlessness because this subject of fear and freedom […]

Posted in Photos, Nature, Season by the Sea | 20 Comments »

Something is very gently,
invisibly, silently,
pulling at me - a thread
or net of threads
finer than cobweb and as
elastic. I haven’t tried
the strength of it. No barbed hook
pierced and tore me. Was it
not long ago this thread
began to draw me? Or
way back? Was I
born with its knot about my
neck, a bridle? Not fear
but a stirring
of wonder makes […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 5 Comments »

Congratulations to Kievas Fargo who contributed a poem to the Poetry Party and won my drawing this week for a copy of Praying With the Elements. 
Make sure to go back and read all of the wonderful entries to this week’s Invitation to Poetry. The poems submitted are always beautiful, but this week’s submissions felt especially […]

Posted in Fun | No Comments »

“Will you sail ‘cross the water and tell us what you found”
-Jane Siberry, “Sail Across the Water” from When I Was a Boy
 
Fear not the pain. Let its weight fall back
into the earth;
for heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.

-Rainer Maria Rilke, from In Praise of Mortality

My dreams lately have been inviting me to enter […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Season by the Sea | 7 Comments »

***Come visit the Poetry Party here or scroll down to the next post***
What I’m reading this week:
Slow Time: Recovering a Natural Rhythm of Life by Waverly Fitzgerald
Waverly has a most wonderful website called School for the Seasons where she shares an abundance of resources for living more deeply into each season.  She just published her book about […]

Posted in Abbey Bookshelf | 1 Comment »