A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Los Angeles for the day.  Actually I was only in the “city of angels” for a total of six hours, long enough to get from the airport to the office of the Austrian Consulate where I could submit the paperwork I have been gathering for months now and apply for dual citizenship.  My father was an Austrian citizen and remained so until he died in 1996.  He is now buried in Vienna in the central cemetery with his parents. These last few years my husband and I have been returning to Vienna more frequently, it is

I am still away on retreat so I offer another re-post of a past reflection on the healing journey I have taken with my father.  If this speaks to your heart at all, consider joining us for our upcoming online retreat Honoring Saints & Ancestors: Peering through the Veil (October 30-November 19, 2011)  Register before October 10th and receive a free gift! What Came to Me I took the last dusty piece of china out of the barrel. It was your gravy boat, with a hard, brown drop of gravy still on the porcelain lip. I grieved for you then as I

This is a repost of a reflection I wrote for Bliss Chick in the fall of 2009.  I have been studying German again in preparation for a possible sabbatical time in Vienna next year and these words have been shimmering for me: O die Kurven meiner Sehnsucht durch das Weltall” / “O the curves of my longing through the cosmos” -Rainer Maria Rilke, from Uncollected Poems (translated by Edward Snow) My husband and I had been on a five-week ancestral pilgrimage, visiting the landscapes of our genetic roots. We were on the train from Munich to Brussels, after nearly a month