As I began this year I had an encounter with a flock of pigeons which lifted my heart unexpectedly and then I found a feather on my doorstep. And so “Taking Flight” became my image for the year ahead. On my recent pilgrimage, winged ones – both avian and angelic – were significant symbols for [...]
Posted in Nature, Photos, Pilgrimage, Poetry | 9 Comments »
“The perceptions that the cardinal points have distinct qualities that can be called forth to shape the outcome of human effort has been common to societies throughout history. . .
“But for those humans who do see the sun rise from the darkened bed of the earth in the East as they arise from their own [...]
Posted in Nature | 2 Comments »
The great, gashed, half-naked mountain is another of God’s saints. There is no other like him. He is alone in his own character; nothing else in the world ever did or ever will imitate God in quite the same way. That is his sanctity.
-Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
These mountains — Mount Baker and the [...]
Posted in Nature, Photos, Poetry | 7 Comments »
The other day I posted about the great autumn to be found in the midst of spring. We are constantly immersed in the rising and falling of our lives, as close as our own breath. Tune, aka Abbess Petunia (or more commonly, “The Abbess”), will be turning twelve in June. We have had her for nearly [...]
Posted in Nature | 17 Comments »
. . . there is also a Great Autumn.
What is being released within you to make way for summer’s fruit?
© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts
Posted in Cycles and Seasons, Nature | 3 Comments »
A Note
Life is the only way
to get covered in leaves,
catch your breath on the sand,
rise on wings;
to be a dog,
or stroke its warm fur;
to tell pain
from everything it’s not;
to squeeze inside events,
dawdle in views,
to seek the least of all possible mistakes.
An extraordinary chance
to remember for a moment
a conversation held
with the lamp switched off;
and if only [...]
Posted in Nature, Photos, Poetry | 3 Comments »
Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.
That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.
-excerpted from John [...]
Posted in Nature | 2 Comments »
There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. The mysterious Unity and Integrity is Wisdom, the Mother of all, Natura naturans. There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fount of action and joy. It rises up in [...]
Posted in Nature | 1 Comment »
I’m the secret fire in everything, and everything smells like Me.
The living breathe My sweet perfume, and they breathe out praise of Me.
They never die because I am their Life.
I flame out—intense, godly Life—over the shining fields of corn, I glow in the shimmer of the fire’s embers, I burn in the sun and the [...]
Posted in Nature, Spirituality | 2 Comments »
Red Bird Explains Himself (excerpt)
I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable
beauty of heaven
where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes,
and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart.
-Mary Oliver, from Red Bird: Poems
I awoke this morning, on New Year’s Day, with a heart full of [...]
Posted in Advent Christmas Epiphany, Nature, Spirituality | 9 Comments »
