Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

  • Welcome
    • Prayer Cycle
      • Introduction to the Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle
      • Day 1 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Cathedral
      • Day 2 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Scriptures
      • Day 3 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Saints
      • Day 4 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Spiritual Directors
      • Day 5 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Icon
      • Day 6 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Sacrament
      • Day 7 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Liturgy
      • Prayer Cycle Leader Resources
    • About the Abbey
    • About Christine Valters Paintner
    • About John Valters Paintner
    • About the Wisdom Council
    • Monk Manifesto
    • Join the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks
    • Subscribe to Our Love Notes
    • Website privacy notice
  • Books
    • Sacred Time:
      Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
    • The Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems
    • Earth, Our Original Monastery:
      Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
    • Dreaming of Stones: Poems
    • The Soul's Slow Ripening:
      12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
    • The Wisdom of the Body:
      A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women
    • Illuminating the Way:
      Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics
    • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
      Eight Practices for the Journey Within
    • Eyes of the Heart:
      Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice
    • The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom
    • Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings Annotated & Explained
    • Lectio Divina–The Sacred Art: Transforming Words and Images into Heart-Centered Prayer
    • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements
    • Awakening the Creative Spirit:
      Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction
    • Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening & Awareness
  • Poetry | Art | Music
    • Music + DVD
    • Poetry by Christine Valters Paintner
    • Poetry Videos
    • Dancing Monk Icons
    • Other Art Collaborations
      • Monk in the World art series by Kristin Noelle
      • Saints & Animals art series by David Hollington
      • Sacred Time art series by Alexi Francis
      • Mary block print art series by Kreg Yingst
  • Programs
    • Live Programs: Pilgrimage & Retreats
      • Monk in the World (Ireland)
      • Writing on the Wild Edges (Ireland)
      • Vienna Monk in the World (Austria)
      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
      • Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts (Northwest)
    • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club
    • Community Online Retreats
      • The Spiral Way:
        Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination
      • Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers (Lent 2021)
      • Dancing with Fear in Troubled Times
      • Novena for Times of Unraveling
      • The Two HT’s-Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman-on Being Free
      • Writing Into Bloom
        with Christine Valters Paintner
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
      • Poetry and the Sacred Garden of the World:
        An Online Writing Retreat
    • Self-Study Online Spiritual Retreats
      • Creative Flourishing in the Heart of the Desert:
        An Online Retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen
      • Dreaming of the Sea:
        A women’s discernment journey through the story of the Selkie
      • Earth, Our Original Monastery
        A Companion Retreat to the Book (SELF-STUDY)
      • Exile and Coming Home:
        An Archetypal Journey through the Scriptures
      • Eyes of the Heart:
        Photography as Contemplative Practice
        (Companion retreat to the book)
      • Honoring Saints and Ancestors:
        Online Retreat for the Season of Remembrance
      • Lectio Divina:
        The Sacred Art of Reading the World
      • A Midwinter God:
        Making a Conscious Underworld Journey
      • Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea & Stone:
        A Creative Retreat with the Elements (SELF-STUDY)
      • Sacred Seasons:
        A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
      • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
        Eight Practices for the Journey Within
        (a companion retreat to the book)
      • The Soul's Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (a companion retreat to the book)
      • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire
      • Watershed Moments
        in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures
      • Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist:
        A 12-Week Companion Retreat to The Artist's Rule
      • The Wisdom of the Body:
        A 10-Week Online Companion Retreat to the Book
      • The Wisdom of Mary and the Sacred Feminine
  • Calendar
  • Reflections
  • Contact

Cycles and Seasons

Sweet Midsummer Blessings (Abbey Sabbatical)

Watermelon 

You know
what summer
tastes like—the pink flesh
of a generous earth,
this rounded life
fully ripe, fully flavored.
How could you be ashamed
at the tug of desire?
The world has opened itself to you,
season after season.
What is summer's sweetness
but an invitation to respond?
There is only one way
to eat a watermelon.
Bury your face
in the wetness
of that rosy slab
and bite.

-Lynn Ungar from Blessing the Bread 

I leave on Monday for two weeks away with my beloved in a warm, breezy place with little internet access and nothing but wide expanses of time.  My body is hungry for the deep rest.  This has been a difficult year on many levels between our sweet dog Tune's decline with dementia in the fall and eventually letting her go, my pulmonary embolism at Christmas, and my mother-in-law's continued decline with Alzheimer's.  It has also been an amazingly blessed year with two new books written, many classes taught and new friendships made with kindred spirits, and of course the sheer gift of being alive.

My birthday is June 23rd and my husband is June 24th (yes, I am exactly one day older, give or take a few hours).  A few years ago we traveled to Latvia one summer where my father was born.  I felt such kinship to this beautiful place where the forest meets the sea and we discovered that their midsummer festival actually takes place on June 23-24, starting the evening before the feast of St. John the Baptist.  It is one of their most significant festivals, especially since they are quite far north and winters must feel very long and dark.  So last summer we traveled there again to celebrate turning forty since we knew they would be throwing a big party for us.  Latvia has a long and rich pagan tradition and was one of the last countries in Europe to be Christianized because of its location.  The turning of the year's wheel is still quite significant in their culture.

Summer is more challenging for me, largely because in Seattle the summer days are quite long and I have trouble getting enough sleep.  I am very light sensitive.  But I am also eager to embrace the gifts of summer: farmer's markets, rolling in the grass, picnics on the beach, long hikes through the forest, playing with our sweet dog, napping, swimming, stretching, savoring everything slowly, celebrating the ripeness of the world.  In Lynn Ungar's lovely words: "What is summer's sweetness but an invitation to respond?"

I love that my birthday falls mid-year and on such a significant point in the cycles and seasons.  It is a good time for me to pause and reflect on what I want to release and what I want to carry forward, to embrace what is ripe within me, to listen to how I want to respond to summer's sweet offerings.

So the Abbey blog will be on sabbatical until the end of June.  I will not be answering emails during that time and the Abbey Shop will be closed.  Unplugging is good for the soul. 

When I return I have a Virtual Book Tour planned for my two new books (Lectio Divina–The Sacred Art: Transforming Words & Images Into Heart-Centered and The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom) and will be visiting lots of wonderful blogs and writing guest posts, getting interviewed, and having my books reviewed.  I look forward to sharing that with you.  But first, it is time to rest, replenish, restore, renew.

May each of your journeys unfold with a thousand delightful surprises these summer days (or winter for my dear southern hemisphere readers).  May the Solstice bring you the gift of illumination.  May the sweetness of summer elicit a long sigh of surrender from the deepest places of your being.

(*the photo above is of my beloved and I on the Baltic beach at Jurmala in Latvia last summer celebrating our birthdays)

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8 Comments June 10, 2011

Upcoming Programs

The Spiral Way:
Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination

Hosted by the Rowe Center
February 1-21, 2021
with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers
Retreat for Lent 2021

February 17-April 1, 2021
with Christine & John Valters Paintner and Betsey Beckman

Recent Reflections

  • Celtic Spirituality and the Spiral Way ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 3: Ní heolas go haontíos ~ by John Valters Paintner
  • Humility + Join us today for live prayer! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 2: Tús maith leath na hoibre – by John Valters Paintner
  • New Book Club for 2021: Lift Every Voice ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

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