Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

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  • Books
    • Breath Prayer:
      An Ancient Practice for the Everyday Sacred
    • 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
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      • Monk in the World art series by Kristin Noelle
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      • Mary block print art series by Kreg Yingst
  • Programs
    • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club
      • Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color (Book Club – March 2021)
      • God Alone is Enough: A Spirited Journey with Teresa of Avila (Book Club – February 2021)
    • Community Online Retreats
      • Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman-on Being Free
      • Writing Into Bloom
        with Christine Valters Paintner
      • Revelations: The Mysticism of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe
      • The Wisdom of Wild Grace: A Weekend Retreat Online
      • The Spiral Way:
        Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination
      • Sacred Balance:
        Aligning Body and Spirit Through
        Yoga and the Benedictine Way
    • 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 (SELF-STUDY)
      • 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
    • Live Programs: Pilgrimage & Retreats
      • Writing on the Wild Edges (Ireland)
      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
      • Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts (Northwest)
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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World guest post: Naomi Kelly

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Naomi Kelly's reflection on lessons from a contemplative walk:

"Earlier this summer, my friend and I embarked on a series of contemplative walks in the Adirondack mountains of Upstate New York that she called “Yoga Hikes.” While scoping out some new trails, we visited a small creek near Whetstone Gulf State Park.  At first, the creek’s wide banks were inviting us to walk along and enjoy the vegetation.  There were – birds feet, timothy and clover, the types of grass used by farmers in the planting of their hay.  Farther along there were all kinds of wild flowers, thriving even in early September, a time when most of the Adirondacks have already seen the first signs of Autumn. Among these, there were three kinds of wild asters, golden rod, and twisted stalk. It was like its own perfectly isolated Garden of Eden. The plants became fewer and fewer the longer we walked, replaced by strong lone plants, the seeds of which survived the spring flood by digging deep into the mud and finding enough nutrients to grow, flower, and to make more seeds. And it was good.

IMG_0950The rocks grew in size and splendor, manifesting all sorts of interesting colors and shapes. Some were smooth, having been rounded by the creek, some painted white with limestone, some jagged and sharp. Layers upon layers of shale looked as though they had been broken and shattered. Broken and shattered for you. And it was good.

As we continued on our slow, mediative pace, the banks of the river became narrower, as the waters had cut deeply into  the  layers of sedimentary rock. In the same vein, the  walls of rock become steeper, and with no bank to walk on we had to take off our shoes and walk in the creek. We felt the stones beneath our feet—the rounded and pointed ones we’d seen on the bank, but also stones slippery with algae and also minnows. Though we were lucky to spot a large snapping turtle basking on the rocks, none of us mistook his shell for a stepping stone. And that was very good.

The white bones of dead tree roots sat where they had been washed down in the spring. Bare but beautiful, their roots snaked around to create sculptures that would have been at home in any museum. The creek kept getting narrower with meanders and switch backs, deep and shallow pools. The banks became even steeper and higher, with a few pebbles falling here and there, disrupted from their high perch just by the wind’s smallest push. And it was very good.

unnamedEach slow step, watching where our feet would touch, lifting and lowering, gently splashing, breathe in and breathe out. Was it around the next curve or the next? Expectation without anxiety, joy in each step, until around one more short curve in the high sided gorge, and we were there, standing before the falls, its sparkling water cascading down from a two-tiered rise, with the source of the falls not visible from where we stood. There was no way to climb up because the shale would have chipped away under your feet or cut them to bits. So we sat beside the pool and remained present, all  quiet, all  peace, a sacred place, a thin place, and we sat and breathed in the sparkling diamonds of air. And it was very, very good.

We watched the water dancing, swirling, falling. We ate rose mallow berries from the banks, ground cherries from our gardens, zucchini bread and oatmeal muffins. And it was deliciously good.

That’s when the sound of the jets started, the Air Force practicing maneuvers overhead, the loud and clear noise that funneled down into the gorge reminded us that we were not really in Eden, we were a part of a world who thinks that war solves problems, a part of a world where people die trying to leave their violence-torn homelands, a part of a world that thinks it can find the answer in their religious beliefs alone, a world where children die in violence, where disease and hunger rage. That can’t be good.

The sacred and the profane exist together in our world.  If I let the sadness and fear in, the profane distracts me from remembering even to breathe. But as a monk in the world, I feel called to affirm the sacred,  to make a difference for good, to breathe in the sacred and then exhale that healing and peace into a hurting world. And that is extremely good."


IMG_0737Naomi C. Kelly is a spiritual director and Presbyterian Pastor, and is embarking on a new retreat ministry called Weaving Home (www.weavinghome3.org) She lives in the Adirondack Park in upstate New York.

 

 

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1 Comment March 9, 2016

Upcoming Programs

  • Writing Into Bloom with Christine Valters Paintner
    • May 1, 2021
  • Revelations: The Mysticism of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe
    • May 13, 2021
  • The Wisdom of Wild Grace: A Weekend Retreat Online
    • May 15, 2021 - May 16, 2021
  • View All Upcoming Programs

Recent Reflections

  • St. Kevin Holds Open His Hand and Radical Hospitality ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Monk in the World Guest Post: Greta Kopec
  • Monk in the World Podcast + Harriet Tubman Mysticism ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color – April Video Discussion and Book Group Materials Now Available
  • Hildy Tails 12: Is ait an mac an saol ~ by John Valters Paintner

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