** Stop by last Monday’s post to find out more about 50% for Haiti **
© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 3 Comments »

I wrote this poem in my journal on Sunday and discovered this morning that a former student died suddenly yesterday. I offer this here in honor of Rob and for all those who are grieving for a multitude of losses:
___________________________________________
***
Let it Be Winter Still
Let it be winter a while longer,
Let darkness be my closest companion
cradling [...]

Posted in Grief, Photos, Poetry | 19 Comments »

(Photo taken in Squamish, BC – quote discovered while on pilgrimage)

* Crossing the Threshold: New Year, New Beginnings will be available early next week – order your copies for holiday gifts today! *

© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 3 Comments »

 
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 »

(photo of angel wing taken in Vienna)
© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

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Available for Pre-Order at Amazon.com: Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction February 2010) and Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire: The Christian Practice [...]

Posted in Mystics and Saints, Photos | 3 Comments »

Photos taken in Rome, poem excerpted from Rilke’s “Winged Energy of Delight”
© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

Become a fan of the Abbey or follow this blog on Facebook
Available for Pre-Order at Amazon.com:
Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction (February 2010) 
Water, Wind, Earth, and [...]

Posted in Photos, Pilgrimage, Poetry | 8 Comments »

I think we talk because what lives inside silence scares us.
-Linda Hogan
Where will your own “zona sacra” be found today?

(Photos taken at the Abbey of Montecassino in Italy)
© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

Posted in Photos, Pilgrimage | 5 Comments »

On Prayer
You ask me how to pray to someone who is not.
All I know is that prayer constructs a velvet bridge
And walking it we are aloft, as on a springboard,
Above landscapes the color of ripe gold
Transformed by a magic stopping of the sun.
That bridge leads to the shore of Reversal
Where everything is just the opposite [...]

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 2 Comments »

In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you,
but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.
-Rumi

Monday night I went to the cemetery to meet my friend and writing/teaching partner Betsey Beckman who has created a video of her Mary Magdalene storydance [...]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Spirituality | 5 Comments »

On a day
when the wind is perfect,
the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty.
Today is such a day.

-Rumi

** Our next Poetry Party will be on Monday! **
© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

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