Photos taken at Golden Gardens beach in Seattle. Photos © Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts: Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts
Happy 15th Anniversary my Love! Take it away Pablo . . . ______ Don’t go far off, not even for a day, because — because — I don’t know how to say it: a day is long and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep. Don’t leave me, even for an hour, because then the little drops of anguish will all run together, the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift into me, choking my lost heart. Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the
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 (will be available early 2010). She had asked me to come film some still shots of her for the cover. I absolutely love cemeteries and am used to having strange and serendipitidous encounters there. As we finished shooting,
Welcome to our 39th Poetry Party! I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your poems or other reflections. Add them in the comments section and a link to your blog (if you have one). Make sure to check the comments for new poems added and I encourage you to leave encouraging comments for each other either here or at the poet’s own blog. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog if you have one and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint
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
Floating on the wind, What do I resemble? A solitary gull Between the heavens and the earth -Du Fu Photos taken at Golden Gardens in Seattle in honor of my father’s 77th birthday.
I have been thinking about moments a lot lately – those holy doorways where I am lifted out of time and I encounter the sacred in the most ordinary acts – and then a friend emailed me this video. It has me contemplating what it is I am here to do as an artist and as a monk. Mythologist and storyteller Michael Meade says the word “moment” comes from the Latin root momentus, which means to move. We are moved when we touch the eternal and timeless which is available to us in each moment we are fully present. There is a
What’s In The Temple? In the quiet spaces of my mind a thought lies still, but ready to spring. It begs me to open the door so it can walk about. The poets speak in obscure terms pointing madly at the unsayable. The sages say nothing, but walk ahead patting their thigh calling for us to follow. The monk sits pen in hand poised to explain the cloud of unknowing. The seeker seeks, just around the corner from the truth. If she stands still it will catch up with her. Pause with us here a while. Put your ear to
Do you have a body? Don’t sit on the porch! Go out and walk in the rain! If you are in love, then why are you asleep? Wake up, wake up! You have slept millions of years Why not wake up this morning -Kabir “In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.” (xvi) “Here I am. This is the body-like-no-other that my life has shaped. I live here. This is my soul’s address.” (38) from An Altar in the World: A Geography of
A series of images celebrating embodied prayer. © Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts: Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts
