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Moments in Time

I mentioned before borrowing some of Michael Meade’s CD’s  from the library and listening to them while driving on my retreat.  He has such a wonderful way of weaving in poetry and storytelling with his own insights about the mythical and imaginative life.  In his CD titled The Great Dance: Finding One’s Way in Troubled Times, he quotes the poet Blake as saying “there is a moment of eternity waiting for you every day.”  Meade sats the word “moment” comes from the Latin root momentus, which means to move.  We are moved when we touch the eternal and timeless.  There is a sense

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October 29, 2006

I want to free what waits within me. . .

I found this poem by Rilke today and I am in love, utterly and completely in love with his images. This is what I was saying in my earlier post on Living Intuitively, Unfolding Organically but with far fewer and more beautiful words. . . I believe in all that has never yet been spoken. I want to free what waits within me so that what no one has dared to wish for may for once spring clear without my contriving. If this is arrogant, God, forgive me, but this is what I need to say. May what I do flow from

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October 27, 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

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October 12, 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

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October 2, 2006

(Interlude continued)

Another amazing hike along the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River today, I took loads of photos but Flickr is telling me I have reached my limit this month (maybe I need to upgrade!).   Just as well, I am tired, that wonderful kind of tired when you have walked for hours, listened through the silence for the invitation of moss and trees, and engaged in long conversations with a soul friend.  These weekly sojourns out to wild places never fail to open up something new in me. Sweet dreams, tomorrow more lectio divina. . . -Christine Valters Paintner

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September 27, 2006

The Delight of Dahlias

Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven’t time–– and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. -Georgia O’Keeffe I walked up to Volunteer Park today after the morning rain had abated, to take time to really see the flowers and capture the beauty of the dahlias in full bloom.  -Christine Valters Paintner

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September 21, 2006

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Contemplative Prayer Service: Kinship with Creation
Contemplative Prayer Service: Kinship with Creation
6 Jan 25
Centering Prayer
Centering Prayer
15 Jan 25
A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness
A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness
20 Jan 25

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