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Gifts of the Winter God

My teaching days were filled with good energy and a sense of exploration. I love teaching this program and the women who participate so freely and joyfully. The focus of this session was visual art and the first day we explored “gush art” and art journaling methods, using clay and drawing materials in a free and spontaneous way to express what is stirring inside of us. The second day we focused on images of God and “letting God out of the box” and making a triptych (out of a shoebox) and collage materials to create an altar for the sacred images that

January 8, 2007

Epiphany

Friday and Saturday is our next Awakening the Creative Spirit session and so I will be very busy the next couple of days and then recovering! We are exploring visual art this time and I am the lead teacher (Betsey and I switch back and forth depending on the art form we are exploring). I am eager to be with the wonderful women in our group again. Sunday is the Feast of Epiphany in the Christian Church. I love the story of Epiphany: Strangers following a star in the hopes of a sacred encounter, trusting their intuitions, allowing God to be so

January 4, 2007

Welcome to ‘Abbey of the Arts’

I spent some of my time away over Christmas reflecting on the year ahead and what direction I want to take some of my creative work. I am not much into goal-setting, because my spiritual path tends to be much more organic, focused on listening to what is emerging and unfolding in me in a particular moment and trying to honor that impulse. In many ways this practice is a balance to my own natural tendency to live in the future and always imagine what is next. I do value big visions, as long as part of my plans are to make

January 3, 2007

We Have Not Come to Take Prisoners

We have not come here to take prisoners, But to surrender ever more deeply To freedom and joy. We have not come into this exquisite world To hold ourselves hostage from love. Run my dear, From anything That may not strengthen Your precious budding wings. Run like hell my dear, From anyone likely To put a sharp knife Into the sacred, tender vision Of your beautiful heart. We have a duty to befriend Those aspects of obedience That stand outside of our house And shout to our reason “O please, O please, Come out and play.” For we have not

January 2, 2007

Honored by Juniper

Juniper at Possible Water just posted her very own Junipercentric Blog Awards for 2006 and I won Overall Best New Blog for 2006! I am really touched by her gracious words and also laughing a little because I just posted a very fluffy post (well partly fluffy at least), so if you are looking for the “Great art, gorgeous photos and transcendent writing” that she mentions, scroll down past the next post. Or better yet, have a little fun participating in the meme and then scroll down for the meatier stuff. To my regular readers, I am lucky enough to

January 1, 2007

Five Things You Don’t Know About Me

A little New Year’s Day fun and procrastination tool. I saw this meme over at Queen Heroical. Five things you don’t know about me: 1. My great grandfather Walter Von Bruckner (on my father’s side) was a general in the Austrian army and I am also related to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (son of my great grand-uncle). 2. I skipped my senior year of high school to begin college a year early. After college I joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps which brought me out to California. 3. While in school, at different times I played the violin, clarinet, and flute. Never the cello though, I think

January 1, 2007

The Promise of New Beginnings

Sometimes the light of the new day feels faint like the late December sun rising over Chesterman Beach in Tofino (above). There is mist around us, we can’t quite make out the shape of the future, but we place our hopes in the faint glow making its way upward across the sky. While I have some mixed feelings about the celebration of New Year’s, I also find hope in it as a way for people to recollect and renew. Like Thanksgiving, I appreciate the importance of secular holidays that celebrate important values like gratitude and remembering. While resolutions often seem to lead to unrealistic

December 31, 2006

The Fire of Endings

We had a lot of rain while up in Canada, but one evening was particularly beautiful and the world was on fire for a brief window of time. We often think of endings as only sad, but I find there is a beauty to them as well. Against the fierce edges of life, things around us suddenly become more vivid. Endings can bring us gifts of awareness we did not have before. I am thinking about limits and endings a lot these days. My father-in-law was just diagnosed with Parkinson’s and has heart disease, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with

December 30, 2006

Returning

I am back from my trip to Tofino, it takes about 9 hours to travel back between the 3-hour drive to the ferry, waiting for the ferry, the 2-hour ferry ride, the 1-hour wait at the border and then another 2 hours home. But it is so worth it because Tofino feels wild and remote. I had a wonderful time: walking along the beach, taking lots of photos, doing lots of art (I am hooked on carving, Bette!), reading, writing, reflecting on directions for my sabbatical time, gazing at stars on clear nights, eating wonderful food, and just being with

December 28, 2006

Room for Christ

It is no use saying that we are born two thousand years too late to give room to Christ. Nor will those who live at the end of the world have been born too late. Christ is always with us, always asking for room in our hearts. But now it is with the voice of our contemporaries that he speaks, with the eyes of store clerks, factory workers, and children that he gazes; with the hands of office workers, slum dwellers, and suburban housewives that we gives. It is with the feet of soldiers and tramps that he walks, and with the heart of

December 24, 2006

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Returning

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