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Reflections

Category: Creativity

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Being Formed

God, help me to think of my small, formless, imperfect soul as constantly subject to your loving, creative action, here and now, in all the bustle of my daily life, its ups and downs, its anxieties and tensions and its dreary, unspiritual stretches—and gradually giving it, through these things, its ordained form and significance. So that in all the events of my life, even the most trivial, I experience your pressure, Creative Artist. -Evelyn Underhill, Meditations and Prayers Can you imagine God as a great Creative Artist?  What would it mean to live with an awareness of God’s creative power

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Trust What is Emerging

No matter what your work, let it be your own. No matter what your occupation, let what you are doing be organic. Let it be in your bones. In this way, you will open the door by which the affluence of heaven and earth shall stream into you. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson If you are here unfaithfully with us, you’re causing terrible damage. If you’ve opened your loving to God’s love, you’re helping people you don’t know and have never seen. Is what I say true? Say yes quickly, if you know, if you’ve known it from before the beginning

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The Art of Surrender

These last few weeks certain themes have been on my mind in connection with creativity: radical self-care, dream-tending, contemplative living, and humility.  My body continues to feel tired and my intuition and dreams have been screaming at me to not make the trip down to Berkeley to teach later this month.  And so early this week, with the advice of my doctor and the support of a wonderful husband and great friends, I made the difficult decision to not go.  Thankfully, my good friend and colleague Amy Wyatt has agreed to step in and take my place which helps relieve my

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Celebrating Freedom by Seeking Peace

Monday night my husband and I watched the documentary “Why We Fight” which opens with Eisenhower’s farewell speech warning the American people of not becoming beholden to the “military industrial complex.”  Much of the film is about situating our current national obsessions with war in historical and economic context.  Essentially, the war machine is profitable, so it will keep being fed.  It was one of those films that fueled my anger at this war we are engaged in because of its compelling and precise arguments. Then all day yesterday I was in a bit of a funk, in part because

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Be a degenerate. . .

“I regard monks and poets as the best degenerates in America. Both have a finely developed sense of the sacred potential in all things; both value image and symbol over utilitarian purpose or the bottom line; they recognize the transformative power hiding in the simplest things, and it leads them to commit absurd acts: the poem! the prayer! what nonsense! In a culture that excels at creating artificial, tightly controlled environments (shopping malls, amusement parks, chain motels), the art of monks and poets is useless, if not irresponsible, remaining out of reach of commercial manipulation and ideological justification.”  –Kathleen Norris,

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Hidden Rooms

My birthday is tomorrow which always gives me pause for reflection, as a midway point in the year. About eight years ago, when I was visiting Santa Fe, I had my astrological chart done for fun. My aunt had recommended a psychic she knew working there, and so having just finished my first year of a stressful doctoral program, I treated myself to something different. I was absolutely amazed what this woman knew about me from reading my chart. I gained much more respect for the art of astrology, far more complex than those horoscopes in the newspaper lead you

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Solstice Blessings

Today is one of those great turning points of the earth, the summer solstice. I am aware here in Kauai, that being near the equator, there are not any noticeable shifts in light from season to season. Much unlike my home in Seattle where summer days stretch out long and light and winter days are short with the sun low on the horizon. I actually prefer the contrasts, and may be one of th few people in Seattle who loves the winter there. Tending the seasons is an important spiritual practice. Noticing what is happening with the earth’s movements and

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