I went on a lovely walk this morning, my usual 45-minute walk from my house, up and around Volunteer Park, and then back home.  It was a crisp and clear morning, another short break from the heavy rains we have been getting.  The leaves have largely made their floating pilgrimage to the ground.  They now wait for decay […]

Posted in Photos, Nature and Creativity | 4 Comments »

I am heading off for a few days of retreat this week.  The idea began with an art class I wanted to take down in Portland over the weekend, knowing it meant I could also have a chance to see an old and dear friend from my doctoral program who teaches down there now.  Then I […]

Posted in Grief, Nature and Creativity | 5 Comments »

 
Friday was a wonderful and very full day.  Crystal Sygeel led us in our morning gathering and I want to share here the process she led us through.  We gathered together and welcomed everyone there and then introduced ourselves and answered the question, “what are we letting go of?” or “what are we making space for?” […]

Posted in Resources, Gatherings, Art and Spirituality, Nature and Creativity | 6 Comments »

Fluent
I would love to live
Like a river flows
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding.
-John O’Donohue, conamara blues
I discovered this poem today and am in love with its simplicity and imagery.  I too want to live life surprised by the ways my life continues to unfold.  I want to delight in the simple offerings of each […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Dreams, Nature and Creativity | 7 Comments »

. . . what is the flowering you are making space for? 
 
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing.
-Isaiah 35:1-2

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it […]

Posted in Photos, Nature and Creativity | 20 Comments »

I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?
-Ranier Maria Rilke
Round and Round the earth […]

Posted in Monastic Spirituality, Nature and Creativity | 10 Comments »

 
 
I went looking for images of Saint Francis in honor of his feast day tomorrow (October 4th) and found some lovely ones above (see below for the links to the artists). 
Francis is known for many things, his life of poverty, his commitment to peace, and especially his great love of animals and all creation. He is often depicted […]

Posted in Nature and Creativity, Mystics and Saints | 5 Comments »

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die […]

Posted in Photos, Nature and Creativity | 6 Comments »

God’s World 
O World, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists, that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour!  That gaunt crag
To crush!  To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!
Long have I known a glory in […]

Posted in Seasons, Nature and Creativity | 4 Comments »

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do […]

Posted in Poetry, Grief, Nature and Creativity | 3 Comments »