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Make friends with sunflowers

Hello beautiful monk friends, I have been relishing my summer sabbath time, savoring the sweetness of so many goodbyes. When I chose the word “savor” for this year (or more accurately, when it chose me) I had no idea that I would be spending several weeks without a home or car, saying goodbye to many dear friends, and heading off on this adventure. We are making our way slowly toward Vienna, stopping along the way to spend time with friends and family. So many moments of unbridled joy tinged with the sadness of letting go. I am making room for

July 3, 2012

The winner of this week’s Poetry Party drawing is. . .

Amber Andreasen! Amber, let me know your choice of self-study/on-demand classes for your prize (which you can also give as a gift). Thank you to everyone who participated in this week’s Poetry Party celebrating summer. Pour yourself a cup of tea (maybe iced!) and go linger for a while with the words offered there. Abbey Poetry Parties will be on a break for July but will return again as a monthly feature in August.

June 16, 2012

Sharing the Love! and last chance for the Poetry Party and Summer Sale!

I have the tremendous privilege of working with several beautiful souls in this Abbey work, each of whom has their own flourishing body of work. Here are some recommendations for other resources to explore to support your own deepening journey: The lovely Kayce Stevens Hughlettt is a Soul Care Institute core faculty member, with whom I teach the powerful live retreat Exploring Archetypes through the Expressive Arts (offered next in 2013) and who is also the solo facilitator for the online class Live it to Give it: Essential Practices of Soul Nourishment and Self-Care (offered next this fall). She is also the author of

June 14, 2012

Invitation to Poetry: Shine

Welcome to the Abbey’s Poetry Party #58! 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). In the northern hemisphere we are entering the season of summer – a time of ripeness

June 10, 2012

“You own nothing”

The Moment The moment when, after many years of hard work and a long voyage you stand in the centre of your room, house, half-acre, square mile, island, country, knowing at last how you got there, and say, I own this, is the same moment when the trees unloose their soft arms from around you, the birds take back their language, the cliffs fissure and collapse, the air moves back from you like a wave and you can’t breathe. No, they whisper. You own nothing. You were a visitor, time after time climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming. We

May 29, 2012

Giving Up a Too-Small God

My latest column at Patheos is available on how to let go of the God of whom you are certain and open yourself to the One who is beyond your imagining: Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God. — from Amiel’s Journal, translated

May 2, 2012

Yin Yoga is wonderful and so is the Samarya Center (for my Seattle friends)

For those of you in the Seattle area who might be looking for a wonderful yoga studio or who are curious about trying yin yoga which I mention sometimes, consider coming to the Samarya Center in the Central District (click on “drop-in classes” for the current schedule). Samarya does amazing work with the community, bringing yoga to veterans, those in hospice, and much more. They are a non-profit studio with an emphasis on integrating yoga philosophy into practice and creating a very welcoming and loving atmosphere. This will be one of the places I miss most after my move. I will

May 1, 2012

The Great Migration

It is the time of the great migrations; wild winged ones fly in ragged formations away from the summer fields of plenty, down from the tundra, up from the tropics, ordinary hearts beating against the winds, resisting the updrafts, into the storms, through the autumnal fogs that hide the hunters and the seductions of rest; wild finned ones turn against the familiar ocean currents to slip through narrow stony channels, leaping against the steepness of the grade, following an ancient invocation of leave and return. Fin and feather, flesh, blood and bone: the earth calls its creatures to leave the

May 1, 2012

The Artist Begins Again and Again

University of St Andrews is hosting an art and monasticism symposium at their Transpositions blog. I wrote about beginning again and again as an artist: As artists and creative people we are filled with the best of intentions. We are inspired with big visions and a longing to express ourselves freely and fully. We begin a project – whether writing a book, painting a canvas, or composing a song – with enthusiasm and full of confidence. Then somewhere along the way we find our energy waning, and the artwork we once felt such delight in has now become a source

May 1, 2012

Invitation to Poetry: The Center and the Edges

Welcome to the Abbey’s Poetry Party #57! 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) I have recently discovered a stash of copies of my first book on lectio divina (published

April 28, 2012

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Make friends with sunflowers

The winner of this week’s Poetry Party drawing is. . .

Sharing the Love! and last chance for the Poetry Party and Summer Sale!

Invitation to Poetry: Shine

“You own nothing”

Giving Up a Too-Small God

Yin Yoga is wonderful and so is the Samarya Center (for my Seattle friends)

The Great Migration

The Artist Begins Again and Again

Invitation to Poetry: The Center and the Edges

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