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The Slender Thread

I am heading off for a few days of retreat this week. The idea began with an art class I wanted to take down in Portland over the weekend, knowing it meant I could also have a chance to see an old and dear friend from my doctoral program who teaches down there now. Then I realized after teaching my class Tuesday morning, there were only a couple of appointments I was able to reschedule to give myself a little window of retreat mid-quarter. I am longing to be out in the autumn splendor and have never been to the Columbia River

October 17, 2006

Unfolding, Bridges, and Openings

I want to live life surprised by the ways my life continues to unfold. I want to delight in the simple offerings of each day. I want to live in awe of the beauty of the world. I have been having lots of dreams lately. One is of a bridge crossing where the road ahead loops upside down like a roller coaster, so you have to drive fast enough and hold on to get across. I’ve had two others where I am living in a house that is right at the edge of the ocean line, the waves crashing onto

October 12, 2006

I live my life in widening circles. . .

I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not complete this last one but I give myself to it. I circle around God, around the primordial tower. I’ve been circling for thousands of years and I still don’t know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song? -Ranier Maria Rilke Round and Round the earth is turning Turning always round to morning And from morning round to night. -Song Lyrics (source unknown) The rain I am in is not like the rain of the cities. It fills the woods with an

October 5, 2006

Celebrating the Feast of Saint Francis

I went looking for images of Saint Francis in honor of his feast day tomorrow (October 4th) and found some lovely ones above (see below for the links to the artists). Francis is known for many things, his life of poverty, his commitment to peace, and especially his great love of animals and all creation. He is often depicted with creatures at his side and this feast day is celebrated with a “Blessing of the Animals.” I remember attending such a service when we lived in Berkeley with Duke. There in the pews were cats and dogs, rabbits and birds, pot-bellied pigs and guinea

October 3, 2006

Life Illuminated

I had another wonderful pilgrimage into the forest yesterday. The sunlight was radiant, the trees luminous. A pilgrimage is a journey of discovery initiated by a sacred impulse, the deep longing we each carry to see holiness more clearly. It is both an inward and outward journey where I open my heart, face the unknown, and hope for transformation. I am transformed in the process and doing of it. In the act of walking and praying, I am knit together, body and soul, into a wholeness. Thomas Merton said that there is in all things “a hidden wholeness.” The wholeness in me

October 2, 2006

Autumnal Equinox

God’s World O World, I cannot hold thee close enough! Thy winds, thy wide grey skies! Thy mists, that roll and rise! Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff! World, World, I cannot get thee close enough! Long have I known a glory in it all, But never knew I this; Here such a passion is As stretcheth me apart,—Lord, I do fear Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year; My soul is all but out of me,—let fall No

September 22, 2006

Dwelling in Border Spaces

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world,

September 14, 2006

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The Slender Thread

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I live my life in widening circles. . .

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Autumnal Equinox

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