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Welcoming Sabbath

Sunset Slowly the west reaches for clothes of new colours which it passes to a row of ancient trees. You look, and soon these two worlds both leave you, one part climbs toward heaven, one sinks to earth, leaving you, not really belonging to either, not so helplessly dark as that house that is silent, not so unswervingly given to the eternal as that thing that turns to a star each night and climbs – leaving you (it is impossible to untangle the threads) your own life, timid and standing high and growing, so that, sometimes blocked in, sometimes reaching

August 29, 2008

Packing Lightly

Instructions Give up the world; give up self; finally, give up God. Find god in rhododendrons and rocks, passers-by, your cat. Pare your beliefs, your absolutes. Make it simple; make it clean. No carry-on luggage allowed. Examine all you have with a loving and critical eye, then throw away some more. Repeat. Repeat. Keep this and only this: what your heart beats loudly for what feels heavy and full in your gut. There will only be one or two things you will keep, and they will fit lightly in your pocket. -Sheri Hostetler, A Cappella: Mennonite Voices

August 28, 2008

Visual Meditation: A Father’s Birthday

The words are coming slowly for me this week so time for me to rest in some visual expression. These photos were taken in Jurmala on the coast of Latvia, a beautiful place where the thick forest meets the Baltic sea, and the land where my father was born. He died twelve years ago and today would have been his 76th birthday. Happy birthday Daddy, may you find yourself dancing among trees and swimming in a vast sea of love. May you encounter a healing from the dark and difficult wounds of your earthly life and now be dazzled into a vision beyond all of

August 27, 2008

Invitation to Poetry: “There will be music despite everything”

Poetry Party No. 22! I select an image and suggest a title and invite you to respond with your poems, words, reflections, quotes, song lyrics, etc. Leave them in the comments or email me and I’ll add them to the body of the post as they come in along with a link back to your blog if you have one (not required to participate!) I’ll add your contributions all week and then I will draw a name at random on Friday morning from everyone who participates and will send the winner a copy of my most recent zine Season by the Sea: A Contemporary Book

August 25, 2008

Live in the Layers

The Layers I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray. When I look behind, as I am compelled to look before I can gather strength to proceed on my journey, I see the milestones dwindling toward the horizon and the slow fires trailing from the abandoned camp-sites, over which scavenger angels wheel on heavy wings. Oh, I have made myself a tribe out of my true affections, and my tribe is scattered! How shall the heart be

August 21, 2008

Complexity and Layers

In this family systems work I am doing every time I make a new discovery it leads me down a whole new trail of inquiry. Every question leads to a dozen more. Each thread I follow leads to a whole new landscape for exploration. It is exciting work and speaks to me of the complexity of who we are as human beings. Layer upon layer reveals an inexhaustible depth to our stories if we consider them rooted in the spiral of stories I spoke of the other day. My father was born in Riga, Latvia, the city of his father’s ancestors. When

August 20, 2008

Visual Meditation: To Feel the Weight

It’s great to live only by the spirit, to testify day by day for eternity only to the spiritual side of people. But sometimes I get fed up with my spiritual existance. … Instead of forever hovering above I’d like to feel there’s some weight to me To have a fever, to have blackened fingers from the newspaper to be excited not only by the mind but, at last, by a meal by the curve of a neck by an ear. -words spoken by the angel Damiel in the film Wings of Desire (images of angels from churches in Vienna) (c) Christine

August 19, 2008

Sacred Stories

“All the great voyagers return Homeward as on an arc of thought; Home like a ruby beacon burns As they crest wind, scale wave, soar air; All the great voyagers return…” – from “The Homecoming,” by Barbara Howes Thank you dear readers for the many warm comments and emails I have received as a welcome home. I am truly blessed to have such a supportive virtual community. A special thank you to Laure who shared the above quote in her comment on my previous post. She wrote that she imagined me on the other side of an arc of thought. These words provided

August 17, 2008

Returning Home

I am home once again from my month of travels, glad to be back among familiar things, my own bed, and most of all with my sweet Tune. It was an amazing trip through Austria, Latvia, Germany, and Belgium. I have much to unpack, both literally and metaphorically. My heart is very full, there is so much stirring within me. Plus over 5000 photos to sort through! The jet lag has hit me hard and so this weekend I will be resting and recuperating, trying to reconnect with this space and time back home. But I am eager to return here

August 15, 2008

Article on Contemplation (bonus post)

My article on “The Practice of Contemplation as Witness and Resistance” has been published in the October 2007 issue of The Way (a journal of contemporary spirituality published by the British Jesuits). They have been behind in their production because of the editor’s illness, but the issue is now available. Click on the link above to read the article. I also just ran across one of my absolute favorites of the Peanuts comics — it was very tempting to follow Charlie Brown’s lead during those long years in graduate school and it still holds lots of appeal! I think Tune would embrace this

July 9, 2008

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Welcoming Sabbath

Packing Lightly

Visual Meditation: A Father’s Birthday

Invitation to Poetry: “There will be music despite everything”

Live in the Layers

Complexity and Layers

Visual Meditation: To Feel the Weight

Sacred Stories

Returning Home

Article on Contemplation (bonus post)

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