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Unfolding, Bridges, and Openings

I want to live life surprised by the ways my life continues to unfold.  I want to delight in the simple offerings of each day.  I want to live in awe of the beauty of the world. I have been having lots of dreams lately.  One is of a bridge crossing where the road ahead loops upside down like a roller coaster, so you have to drive fast enough and hold on to get across.  I’ve had two others where I am living in a house that is right at the edge of the ocean line, the waves crashing onto

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October 12, 2006

Lectio Divina Unleashed: Part Four (Music)

To find the previous entries on lectio divina with scripture, poetry, and icons, just click on the “lectio divina” tab under the title. To the Trinity be praise! God is music, God is life that nurtures every creature in its kind. Our God is the song of the angel throng and the splendor of the secret ways hid from all humankind, But God our life is the life of all. -Hildegard of Bingen, Antiphon for the Trinity Hildegard believed that music was an essential part of her community’s formation. In fact, at the end of her life she was in

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October 11, 2006

Just a few simple offerings

Michelle has left a comment under my previous post of her Litany for the Wounded with ways to help support the work she is doing, so please click here to go read! (scroll all the way down)She is doing such meaningful work and Michelle is a woman with a passion for justice and being present to those on the margins. And once you have read that, go over to Story Midwife and read the incredible post Trish has written about creating an Altar of Attending for women who are dying.  I drink in great writing about grief and dying like wine and

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October 10, 2006

Living Between the Ancient and the New

A simple post tonight as I am very tired from two full days of teaching.  Our first session of Awakening the Creative Spirit was wonderful with twelve holy women participating.  This first session focused on an overview of all the arts and we had everyone use a collage process to focus on the question “What does your soul long for?”  Such richness revealed in that exploration.  As I made mine, a very simple one weaving together images of rootedness and the flow of ocean, I was tempted to add more images to it.  But, it felt done with all that spaciousness and simplicity.  While

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October 8, 2006

I live my life in widening circles. . .

I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not complete this last one but I give myself to it. I circle around God, around the primordial tower. I’ve been circling for thousands of years and I still don’t know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song? -Ranier Maria Rilke Round and Round the earth is turning Turning always round to morning And from morning round to night. -Song Lyrics (source unknown) The rain I am in is not like the rain of the cities. It fills the woods with an

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October 5, 2006

Trafficking and Prostitution: A Litany for the Wounded

My friend Michelle and her partner had to take a spur-of-the-moment trip into Seattle today and are staying the night with us.  A treat to see her since we don’t get to spend time together very often.  She works up in Vancouver for the rights of women who have been trafficked into the sex industry.   Below is a prayer she wrote for a gathering.  I invite you to pray for these women, to spread wide your imagination, and to live into freedom and possibility for all those who have been oppressed. Opening Prayer Scripture For a long time I have kept silent,

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October 4, 2006

Celebrating the Feast of Saint Francis

    I went looking for images of Saint Francis in honor of his feast day tomorrow (October 4th) and found some lovely ones above (see below for the links to the artists).  Francis is known for many things, his life of poverty, his commitment to peace, and especially his great love of animals and all creation. He is often depicted with creatures at his side and this feast day is celebrated with a “Blessing of the Animals.”  I remember attending such a service when we lived in Berkeley with Duke.  There in the pews were cats and dogs, rabbits and birds, pot-bellied pigs and guinea

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October 3, 2006

Life Illuminated

I had another wonderful pilgrimage into the forest yesterday.  The sunlight was radiant, the trees luminous. A pilgrimage is a journey of discovery initiated by a sacred impulse, the deep longing we each carry to see holiness more clearly. It is both an inward and outward journey where I open my  heart, face the unknown, and hope for transformation.  I am transformed in the process and doing of it. In the act of walking and praying, I am knit together, body and soul, into a wholeness. Thomas Merton said that there is in all things “a hidden wholeness.” The wholeness in me

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October 2, 2006

So what would you think of. . .

. . .a series of art journals around different themes?  This is an idea that has been stirring in me the last few weeks and I want to put it out there to the blogosphere and see what kind of response it might get.  What I am thinking of are different journals that would include a combination of text and art.  Each would have a focus like discernment, grief, dreams, creativity, lectio divina, liturgical and natural seasons, etc.  There would be some content — reflections on the theme, but there would also be lots of luscious open pages with photos, collage,

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September 29, 2006

More Icons

     More beautiful icons by Heather Williams Durka.  As I mention in my previous post, Heather is an iconographer in the Orthodox tradition. Please visit her website:   Icons and Sacred Images Scroll down for a post on using lectio divina to pray with images. . .

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September 28, 2006