Visit the Abbey of the Arts online retreat platform to access your programs:

Login Here

Reflections

Filter

Mothers and Grandmothers

“And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see—or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.” -Alice Walker, from In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens Last week I shared an encounter which made me wistful for my mother (pictured at right as a young girl). It was her birthday last week and I still miss her terribly six years after her death.  I have come to embrace this ache as a beautiful sign of how much I loved her,

Read More
September 8, 2009

Monastic Wisdom

A monastery can never be merely an escape from the world. Its very purpose is to enable us to face the problems of the world at their deepest level, that is to say, in relation to God and eternal life. Everything in the monastic life down to the deepest level has to be viewed from this angle.  –Bede Griffiths, The Golden String: An Autobiography The real monastic walks through life with a barefooted soul, alert, aware, grateful, and only partially at home.  -Joan Chittister, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today

Read More
September 8, 2009

To my Beloved

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

Read More
September 3, 2009

“In your light. . .”

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,

Read More
September 2, 2009

Invitation to Poetry: Moments

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

Read More
August 31, 2009

“Today is such a day”

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

Read More
August 30, 2009

Visual Meditation: Flying Free

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.

Read More
August 28, 2009

Moment by Moment

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

Read More
August 26, 2009

Secret Spaces of Your Heart

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

Read More
August 25, 2009