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Winner of this week’s drawing

A deep bow of gratitude to everyone who participated in this week’s poetry party “In praise of detours.”  As always, the Abbey community came through with a beautiful gathering of poems – definitely worth a visit and some time to linger. The winner of the random drawing for a book of their choice is Deanna Cattell.  Deanna, send me your snail mail address and which of my books you’d like for me to send you (signed of course) and I will get that out to you. I am away this coming week leading a retreat on the archetypes and expressive arts with a

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March 25, 2012

Stop by this week’s Poetry Party (and only two spaces left in the June writing retreat!)

Have you stopped by this week’s Poetry Party yet?  As always there is an incredible gathering of poems.  This week’s theme is “In Praise of Life’s Detours,” those side-journeys we get called to which take us more quickly to our destination that traveling straight through.  Pour yourself a cup of tea and stay for a while, savor the words, linger over the images.  Then share your own poem before this Sunday for a chance to enter a random drawing where the winner will receive a book of their choice. June 7-10, 2012 I am offering a brand new Sacred Rhythms Writing Retreat

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March 22, 2012

Instructions for Traveling Lightly

In my last post I wrote to you about the big decision my husband and I have made to move to Vienna this summer. We are going for a year and then will decide whether to stay there longer, perhaps move to Ireland, perhaps come back to the States. We are truly entering this as a time of listening and discovery. We are in the midst of many preparations for that journey.  There is much letting go that needs to happen.  We are selling our home in Seattle and so have been working hard to release everything we don’t absolutely need

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March 19, 2012

Sacred Fasting

Here is my latest column for Patheos on desert wisdom for Lent: Abba Daniel used to say, “He lived with us many a long year and every year we used to take him only one basket of bread and when we went to find him the next year we would eat some of that bread.” (Arsenius 17) Abba Daniel used to tell how when Abba Arsenius learned that all the varieties of fruit were ripe he would say, “Bring me some.” He would taste very little of each, just once, giving thanks to God.” (Arsenius 19) –from Sayings of the

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March 19, 2012

Invitation to Poetry: In Praise of Detours

Welcome to the Abbey’s Poetry Party #56! I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your own poem. Scroll down and add it in the comments section below. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog (if you have one), Facebook, or Twitter, and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post) On Sunday, March 25th, I will draw a name at random from the participants and the

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March 17, 2012

“there is always the risk / of remembering your name”

Prospective Immigrants Please Note Either you will go through this door or you will not go through. If you go through there is always the risk of remembering your name. Things look at you doubly and you must look back and let them happen. If you do not go through it is possible to live worthily to maintain your attitudes to hold your position to die bravely but much will blind you, much will evade you, at what cost who knows? The door itself makes no promises. It is only a door. — Adrienne Rich

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March 15, 2012

Join me for the Sacred Rhythms Writing Retreat (June 7-10)

I am so thrilled to be offering a brand new live retreat called Sacred Rhythms: Bringing Yoga, Movement, and the Wisdom of the Seasons to Your Writing Practice – June 7-10, 2012 at the Grunewald Guild near Leavenworth, WA. This will be a wonderful, nourishing time of diving deep into our bodies and telling the stories we discover there. Guided by the rhythms of the day, we will move through the hours of awakening, ripening, releasing, and being to listen to how these rhythms might support our creative practice. This retreat is for every body and anyone who loves to

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March 7, 2012

“The way is made by walking”

Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the way is made by walking. —Antonio Machado The words above have been a kind of mantra for me in recent years.  As my own spiritual path loosens its grip on plans and certainties and moves more deeply into unknowing and mystery, I am discovering the truth that “there is no road / the way is made by walking.”  Sometimes when I am working with someone in spiritual direction, I hear the longing to know the path God is calling them to, to have some certainty

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March 6, 2012

Upcoming Programs

A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness
A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness
20 Jan 25
Holding Paradox: A Retreat with St. Brigid
Holding Paradox: A Retreat with St. Brigid
31 Jan 25
Contemplative Prayer Service: Work
Contemplative Prayer Service: Work
3 Feb 25

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