I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Katie Birkeland’s reflection “Making Art.” Strangely, my body is willing tonight.  It is my souls that seems exhausted.  I cry just a few lonely tears. Not knowing what else to do, I make some tea and light some candles.  The house is a peaceful quiet.  All is well, but is it well with my soul?  The rain, steady and calming, dreary and fresh, mix with the sound of the refrigerator and Little Man’s feet bumping the wall.  My pen starts

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Christine Davis’ reflection “Losing the Weight.” Weighted down by worries, work, and weariness, I struggle to release the anxious thoughts, monsters in my mind, problems building and consequences looming. Sick dog still, a daily trial for her and us, every day for six weeks now, distress and hope,    I breathe, let the breeze wash over me as I embrace my self today.   compassion and caution. Work piling and time ending, summer is almost over–the four saddest words in

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Florence Heyhoe’s reflection on contemplation and trauma. contemplation the silence fell into me as the sun went down and held me in expectant quiet in your presence and in your absence. tripping and tumbling and bumping into YOU and finding me deeper and deeper. long lost shadows remembered to be forgotten. looking and seeing as never before tearing and restoring and making new colour and stitch and torrents of tears in the sunshine and the dark. looking and seeing anew.

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jean Wise’s reflection Living in the Shade of Mystery. I don’t understand fishing. I don’t fish. I didn’t grow up in a family who fishes. All those hooks, worms, and slimy flip-floppy critters baffle me. Perhaps the biggest hindrance for fishing for me is the idea of “wasting” a full day, with a pole dipped in the water, waiting. Lingering in the muddy space of not knowing if and when the bait will work and supper caught. In my second half

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Bridgette Goldstein’s reflection “Stillpoint & My Sacred Story.” As a spiritual director, it is my gift to spend time with fellow souls on their journey of life.  Sometimes, it will be a moving forward with the next step on their path.  Other times, it will be sitting with them in the pain and questions of a struggle or trauma.  Still other times, it will be exploring the patterns and finding the Divine (or higher self, or whatever word works for

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Gina Marie Mammano‘s reflection “Mount Shasta Monk.” I was in the Mount Shasta area, at the tip top of California at a place called McCloud Falls. I have sailed by Mount Shasta many times as I venture from my current home here on Whidbey Island to my longtime childhood home in California. Through thick panes of tempered glass, I always acknowledge the towering sacred site, called “Acu Tek” by one of the native populations there. I always, as someone once

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series. This is from Polly Burns, the newest member of our Wisdom Council. When Christine asked me to introduce myself through this post, it was hard to know where to start. If you are a regular at the Abbey of the Arts, you will have heard the phrase ‘Go to your cell, it will teach you’. It was this phrase that floated into my mind as I tried to decide what to write. Although often taken as a metaphor for the inner cell of the