"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 [...]
Archive for August, 2008
Welcoming Sabbath
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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, [...]
this week's winner
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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 [...]
Packing Lightly
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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 [...]
Visual Meditation: A Father's Birthday
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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 [...]
Invitation to Poetry: "There will be music despite everything"
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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 [...]
Announcements
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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 [...]
Live in the Layers
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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 [...]
Complexity and Layers
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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 [...]
Visual Meditation: To Feel the Weight
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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 [...]
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