Christine at Blisschick invited me to reflect on a moment of "unexpected bliss" for her series this week. Stop by to read my reflections on the way language can express the "curves of (our) longing" . . . lovely for me to re-read these words I wrote before my trip as I sit now in [...]
Posts in the Family Systems category
Embracing the Night
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The darkness embraces everything, It lets me imagine a great presence stirring beside me. I believe in the night. -Rainer Maria Rilke in Book of Hours I write to you from the beautiful city of Vienna. I am in the middle of an amazing time of pilgrimage and journeying to the heart of myself. After [...]
Mothers and Grandmothers
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“And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see—or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.” -Alice Walker, from In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens Last week I shared an encounter which made me [...]
Honoring Our Ancestors
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I invite you to consider joining Betsey Beckman and me for an art and movement retreat for All Saint's and All Soul's on Honoring Our Ancestors. We will be gathering for three nights at St. Andrew's Retreat House on the beautiful Hood Canal October 29-November 1, 2009. Our $50 early registration discount is good until [...]
What Came to Me
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What Came to Me I took the last dusty piece of china out of the barrel. It was your gravy boat, with a hard, brown drop of gravy still on the porcelain lip. I grieved for you then as I never had before. -Jane Kenyon The photo is of me as a young girl sitting [...]
What Endures
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'I learned that her name was Proverb.' And the secret names of all we meet who lead us deeper into our labyrinth of valleys and mountains, twisting valleys and steeper mountains– their hidden names are always, like Proverb, promises: Rune, Omen, Fable, Parable, those we meet for only one crucial moment, gaze to gaze, or [...]
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 [...]
Abbey Bookshelf: Pilgrimage
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And it was then that in the depths of sleep Someone breathed to me: "You alone can do it, Come immediately." -Jules Superveille, from 'The Call" You cannot travel the path until you have become the path. -Gautama Buddha Wayfarer, the only way is your footsteps, there is no other. Wayfarer, there is no way, you make [...]
Landscapes, Maps, and Pilgrimages
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A Great Pilgrimage I felt in need of a great pilgrimage so I sat still for three days and God came to me. -Kabir Tomorrow is my birthday and lately I have been longing for some retreat time. I was wise enough to block off the next few days to rest in some stillness at [...]
Wonder and Despair
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The Love of Morning It is hard sometimes to drag ourselves back to the love of morning after we've lain in the dark crying out O God, save us from the horror . . . . God has saved the world one more day even with its leaden burden of human evil; we wake to [...]
