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A couple of weeks ago I had my first Thai massage session. It is different than traditional Swedish style massage in that you are fully clothed and lay on a mat. The massage practitioner stretches your body in different directions to help release tension. There is also a lot of rhythmic rocking so that the body relaxes deeply. While we were in the midst of the work, the woman who was giving me the massage commented that I surrendered very easily. She said most people have a lot of resistance to complete relaxation and releasing into her hold. The next day I
I am delighted to feature Claudia Campbell in this week’s Sacred Artist Interview. As with many of the artists I know, I first encountered her work through my role as art editor for Presence journal. We later had the pleasure of connecting by phone and I enjoyed hearing about Claudia’s own connections as both a spiritual director and an artist. I am grateful to Claudia for taking time to share of her wisdom and insight into the creative process and spiritual journey with all of my wonderful readers: ____________________________________________ Are you rooted in a particular faith tradition? I am rooted
I have had a few emails inquiring about how Kathleen Norris’ talk was last Saturday. I will write more as we get closer to Advent since she focused primarily on her contribution to the book God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas (which may become my new favorite resource for Advent with its gorgeous art and contributions by such wonderful writers as Luci Shaw, Scott Cairns, and Emilie Griffin). As my dear friend lucy said at her blog (and with whom I had the pleasure of sharing the evening), Kathleen Norris “is a regular person. She sometimes doesn’t journal for weeks and has been known
Our twenty-seventh Poetry Party! 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. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your
I made it onto this list of 100 Blogs That Will Inspire You to Be a Better Person under the “Being Happy” category. There are some interesting links there, so check it out. Tomorrow night (Saturday, November 8th) Kathleen Norris will be speaking at the Seattle Art Museum on the theme of “Remembering, Waiting, Hoping: Reclaiming the Countercultural Pursuits of Christmas.” I’ve never heard her speak in person, so I am excited for the chance, maybe I will see some of you there? I admit it’s a bit early to start thinking about Christmas, but I also admit that this
I first discovered Matthew Whitney‘s art through the Image Journal‘s email newsletter. I am always looking for artists to include in the Presence journal, and I loved Matthew’s work and was delighted to find out he is also a fellow Seattleite. (In fact, for those of you who live in the area, he has a solo exhibition opening on December 4th at the Marni Muir Gallery here in Seattle. I am grateful to Matt for his thoughtfulness and willingness to share his insights into the connections between the spiritual journey and the creative process here with you, my wonderful readers. _________________________________________
Wage peace with your breath. Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds. Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields. Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees. Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact. Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud. Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers. Make soup. Play music, memorize the words for thank you in three languages. Learn to knit, and make a hat. Think of chaos as dancing raspberries, imagine grief as the outbreath of
Two weeks ago I shared my journey to the nearby cemetery on a foggy morning as a way of being present to my mother on the anniversary of her death. One thing I did not share then was my brief encounter with coyote on this walk of remembering, in part because I needed to reflect more on this meeting before speaking of it. Despite the fact that I live in a very urban neighborhood of Seattle I had heard there are coyotes roaming who come from the many green spaces and Arboretum of our beautiful city, but I had never
