Betsey Beckman and I led the Friday evening plenary session for the Spiritual Directors International conference in Atlanta on “Cultivating the Elements of a Compassionate Heart” where we explored the four sacred elements of water, wind, earth, and fire through visual art, writing, movement, and song.  Below is the visual meditation I created for the opening.  These are my photos which were received in prayer accompanied by Peter Mayer’s beautiful song “Holy Now” (which you can order here).  I am very grateful to Peter for his permission to post this video to the Abbey blog so others can receive its

Meet Amma Winter.  Amma is the title given to those sage women who lived in the desert in the 3rd century offering their wisdom to seekers.  They lived in harsh and barren landscapes and so were intimate with the wilderness of the soul.  Winter is a rescue, she entered our lives last week and has been slowly settling into the rhythm of life here at the Abbey.   She has a heartbreaking story.  She was abandoned with some other dogs on a farm and left to freeze to death.  When the rescuers arrived she survived but her litter of puppies did not.  Because of this

“The perceptions that the cardinal points have distinct qualities that can be called forth to shape the outcome of human effort has been common to societies throughout history. . . “But for those humans who do see the sun rise from the darkened bed of the earth in the East as they arise from their own bed, and who can call that rising morning, dawning, ascending, arising, and for those who see the sun set in the opposite horizon, having had the sun as their companion throughout the labors of their day, we see the cooling sun return to its