“I believe that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension that we find paralyzing because we no longer hear our surprised feelings living. Because we are alone with the alien thing that has entered into our self; because everything intimate and accustomed is for an instant taken away; because we stand in the middle […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Nature | 4 Comments »

Sunset
Slowly the west reaches for clothes of new colours
which it passes to a row of ancient trees.
You look, and soon these two worlds both leave you,
one part climbs toward heaven, one sinks to earth,
leaving you, not really belonging to either,
not so helplessly dark as that house that is silent,
not so unswervingly given to the eternal […]

Posted in Art and Spirituality | 6 Comments »

The beloved moves through the world.
Is the world.
Becomes the hundred things we love
Or the one and only thing or person
We love.
Shifting, restless,
Refusing to incarnate in a final form,
As if to teach us to keep our eyes
Moving if we want to see the bird
Flitting from bush to tree:
There it is! No, there. No,
It’s hidden now, you […]

Posted in Fun, Poetry | No Comments »

 
Instructions
Give up the world; give up self; finally, give up God.
Find god in rhododendrons and rocks,
passers-by, your cat.
Pare your beliefs, your absolutes.
Make it simple; make it clean.
No carry-on luggage allowed.
Examine all you have
with a loving and critical eye, then
throw away some more.
Repeat. Repeat.
Keep this and only this:
   what your heart beats loudly for
   what feels […]

Posted in Pilgrimage | 7 Comments »

The words are coming slowly for me this week so time for me to rest in some visual expression.  These photos were taken in Jurmala on the coast of Latvia, a beautiful place where the thick forest meets the Baltic sea, and the land where my father was born.  He died twelve years ago and […]

Posted in Visual Meditation | 5 Comments »

Poetry Party No. 22!  I select an image and suggest a title and invite you to respond with your poems, words, reflections, quotes, song lyrics, etc. Leave them in the comments or email me and I’ll add them to the body of the post as they come in along with a link back to your blog […]

Posted in Poetry Party Invitation | 22 Comments »

Thank you to everyone who has commented so thoughtfully on my posts this week, so much of it has helped to shape my own ongoing reflection and there will be more next week.  In the meantime . . .  Consider joining me on retreat!
Contemplative Art & Movement Retreat
December 3-7, 2008 at St. Andrew’s Retreat House on the beautiful […]

Posted in Fun, Art, Creativity, & Spirituality Retreat | No Comments »

The Layers
I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 4 Comments »

In this family systems work I am doing every time I make a new discovery it leads me down a whole new trail of inquiry.  Every question leads to a dozen more.  Each thread I follow leads to a whole new landscape for exploration.  It is exciting work and speaks to me of the complexity […]

Posted in Photos, Pilgrimage, Family Systems | 9 Comments »

It’s great to live only by the
spirit, to testify day by day
for eternity only to the
spiritual side of people.
But sometimes I get fed up
with my spiritual existance.
…
Instead of forever
hovering above
I’d like to feel
there’s some weight to me
To have a fever,
to have blackened fingers
from the newspaper
to be excited
not only by the mind
but, at last, by a […]

Posted in Visual Meditation | 8 Comments »