I am heading off to the desert for a time of Lenten retreat and leave you with some rainy day images from the Kubota Japanese Garden here in Seattle. The desert mothers and fathers will be my companions for this journey. My heart is ready to move into silence to listen for a deeper voice. I’ll let you know some of what I discover upon my return. (Click here for a visual meditation on tulips.)
Ash Wednesday marks a threshold when we leave ordinary time to enter into the journey of Lent through the desert. The desert is that uncharted terrain beyond the edges of our seemingly secure and structured world, where things begin to crack. We begin this desert journey marked with ashes, the sign of our mortality. There is wisdom in these ashes. If you have ever been near death or had a loved one die, you know the clarity that an awareness of our bodily limits can bring. How suddenly what is most important in life rises to the surface. This is
I have been taking some Sabbath time recently, scaling back on a number of projects and clearing space for healing and integration. It has been a gift to savor longer stretches of time for journaling, prayer, and reflection as well as my practices of yoga and walking each day. The photo is of our new dog Amma Winter at her favorite place – the dog park. While our previous dogs didn’t care much for other dogs, Winter loves to play and watching her romp, swim, and run has stretched my heart even wider with joy. As always happens when I slow down
Our Easter Season E-Course is underway and it is a joy to guide others through the practice of praying with water, wind, earth, and fire as vessels for awareness of the ways God moves through the world. This first week’s focus is on wind. Click the links below for some blog posts written by participants: Mind Sieve and Diamonds in the Sky With Lucy both offer their beautiful poetic reflections on the gift of wind. Laurel at The Rose Window shares her thoughtful reflections as she begins this time of retreat. ___________________________________ David Crumm at Read the Spirit shares these
Do you have a body? Don’t sit on the porch! Go out and walk in the rain! If you are in love, then why are you asleep? Wake up, wake up! You have slept millions of years Why not wake up this morning -Kabir I have been away this last week, traveling to visit family for Easter and then the Spiritual Directors International conference where Awakening the Creative Spiritwas officially released (and the bookstore sold out of their copies!) In between I was going to have a few days to play in San Francisco with my beloved. Instead we both
I am in the midst of the Novena of Grace, a powerful Lenten retreat in everyday life which I coordinate for the Ignatian Spirituality Center. Along with teaching my Lenten E-Course on Benedictine Spiritual Practices and Eyes of the Heart: Photography as Contemplative Practice courses, my days are full of rich reflection. I offer here another slightly revised reflection written last year. Reading my words again I am moved to find they still ring very true in my heart. __________________________________________ Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of
Last year I wrote this Lenten reflection on meeting the Saints in Walgreens and I offer it here again in a slightly revised version: ____________________________________________ These have been very full days. This Thursday the Novena of Grace begins, which is a nine-day preached retreat in everyday life hosted by the Ignatian Spirituality Center where I work half-time as Program Coordinator. Essentially there are two liturgies each day, midday and early evening, and participants can choose one. It is a truly transformative experience, gathering together for a pilgrimage of the heart in the midst of everyday life. I have been working with the
