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The Non-Possessive Life

To be able to enjoy fully the many good things the world has to offer, we must be detached from them. To be detached does not mean to be indifferent or uninterested. It means to be nonpossessive. Life is a gift to be grateful for and not a property to cling to. A nonpossessive life is a free life. But such freedom is only possible when we have a deep sense of belonging. To whom then do we belong? We belong to God, and the God to whom we belong has sent us into the world to proclaim in (God’s)

March 13, 2007

Living Lent

The reflection below is written by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton: We didn’t even know what moderation was. What it felt like. We didn’t just work: we inhaled our jobs, sucked them in, became them. Stayed late, brought work home – it was never enough, though, no matter how much time we put in. We didn’t just smoke: we lit up a cigarette, only to realize that we already had one going in the ashtray. We ordered things we didn’t need from the shiny catalogs that came to our houses: we ordered three times as much as we could use, and then

March 10, 2007

Guardians of Beauty

We are the guardians of His Beauty. We are the protectors Of the Sun. There is only one reason We have followed God into this world: To encourage laughter, freedom, dance And love. Let a noble cry inside of you speak to me Saying, “Hafiz, Don’t just sit there on the moon tonight Doing nothing – Help unfurl my heart into the Friend’s Mind, Help, Old Man, to heal my wounded wings!” We are the companions of His Beauty We are the guardians Of Truth. Every man, plant and creature in Existence, Every woman, child, vein and note Is a

March 8, 2007

Impossible, Necessary Resurrections

What will you give up for this season, to help life along in its curious reversals? As if we had a choice. As if the world were not constantly shedding us like feathers off a duck’s back— the ground is always littered with our longings. You can’t help but wonder about all the heroes, the lives and limbs sacrificed in their compulsion toward the good. All those who dropped themselves upon the earth’s hard surface— weren’t they caught in pure astonishment in the breath before they shattered? Forget sacrifice. Nothing is so firmly tied that the wind won’t tear it

March 5, 2007

Lenten Links

A wonderful poem about threshold space written by Rich at Pilgrim Path: Ash Wednesday On this February morning, not fully winter, not quite spring, the palest lemonade-colored sun rises weakly over the lake. A still fog sits over the water, trapping a ship in time just as the frozen waters anchor it in place. A waterfront bench entombed in snow serves no purpose but to remind us of a nearly past storm. A good day to be stuck in time on a fulcrum of faith’s calendar. Let us take our cue from nature and sit with this threshold day as

February 28, 2007

Baptismal Waters

As I walked into the woods on my Ash Wednesday retreat last week I was dazzled by droplets of water shimmering all around me. Here I was entering the Lenten desert and everything in creation sang to me of viriditas, or the greening power of God. Life was exploding forth before me in this damp forest, the air heavy with moisture, the ground springing beneath my feet. When I saw the leaf in the bottom photo with its offering of holy water, I remembered my own baptism. Lent is deeply connected to baptism. Jesus went out into the desert after he was

February 26, 2007

Ocean of Longing

Last Wednesday I went to the Hood Canal to check out a place for our Awakening the Creative Spirit program we are planning to offer in a weeklong intensive form (more info on this to come, dates are Nov 11-18, 2007). I decided to make the trip into a mini-retreat and spend the night in the area. Tune was with me, as well as my camera and journal — three of the essential elements for a good retreat. The Hood Canal area is a lovely place, hovering along the edge of a channel of still water. I took the ferry across the Puget Sound from Seattle to

February 25, 2007

Digging God Out Again

There’s a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there, too. But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath. Then (God) must be dug out again. -Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life Lent is often associated with the desert, for good reason. The desert figures prominently in the scriptures as a place of testing and refining. Lent is a time when we consciously let go of those things or habits that take our attention away from the sacred presence that is always among us. Some people focus more energy

February 22, 2007

Ash Wednesday

Today we leave ordinary time to enter into the journey of Lent through the desert. The desert is that uncharted terrain beyond the edges of our seemingly secure and structured world, where things begin to crack. We begin this desert journey marked with ashes, the sign of our mortality. There is wisdom in these ashes. If you have ever been near death or had a loved one die, you know the clarity that an awareness of our bodily limits can bring. How suddenly what is most important in life rises to the surface. This is the invitation of Lent, to

February 21, 2007

Forty Early Mornings

A New Moon teaches gradualness and deliberation and how one gives birth to oneself slowly. Patience with small details makes perfect a large work, like the universe. What nine months of attention does for an embryo forty early mornings will do for your gradually growing wholeness. -Rumi Tonight is the New Moon and Wednesday begins the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. I am feeling especially reflective this weekend, listening for what my spirit needs during this holy season ahead. What will those forty early mornings do for my gradually growing wholeness? What possibilities lie dormant in the seeds that are just awakening beneath the ground of my soul? With the New Moon, the sky is swathed in darkness with only the points of light from stars shining in the night. Watching the moon wax forth from her place of surrender to the beauty

February 17, 2007

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Digging God Out Again

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