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Forgiveness

Last night at sunset, on the night of the new moon — the time when we return to promordial darkness — the High Holy Day of Rosh Hashanah began. It is the Jewish New Year and begins the ten days of awe ending with Yom Kippur. It is a time of introspection, of reflecting on the year that has past, a time to consider how you have wronged others and to seek forgiveness. In my yoga class yesterday morning, my teacher began with a meditation in honor of this time. We were asked to think back on the year that had passed

September 30, 2008

“What comes from silence”

How to be a Poet (to remind myself) Make a place to sit down. Sit down. Be quiet. You must depend upon affection, reading, knowledge, skill-more of each than you have-inspiration, work, growing older, patience, for patience joins time to eternity. Any readers who like your work, doubt their judgment. Breathe with unconditional breath the unconditioned air. Shun electric wire. Communicate slowly. Live a three-dimensioned life; stay away from screens. Stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in. There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. Accept what comes from silence. Make

September 17, 2008

The Vulnerable Body

One of the most amazing places we visited during our summer journeying was the bone chapel in Hallstatt, Austria. The link to the article provides some more information, but essentially in this beautiful little village tucked between mountain and lake, bones from the cemetery used to be removed to make room for the newly dead. The skulls were bleached in the sun and then lovingly hand-painted by family members with names, dates, and decorations. I had read about this place before our trip but standing in the room with 600 skulls was an transcendent experience. I was brushing against my own

September 2, 2008

Already in our Blood

“I believe that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension that we find paralyzing because we no longer hear our surprised feelings living. Because we are alone with the alien thing that has entered into our self; because everything intimate and accustomed is for an instant taken away; because we stand in the middle of a transition where we cannot remain standing. For this reason the sadness too passes: the new thing in us, the added thing, has entered into our heart, has gone into its inmost chamber and is not even there any more, is already in our

August 31, 2008

Live in the Layers

The Layers I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray. When I look behind, as I am compelled to look before I can gather strength to proceed on my journey, I see the milestones dwindling toward the horizon and the slow fires trailing from the abandoned camp-sites, over which scavenger angels wheel on heavy wings. Oh, I have made myself a tribe out of my true affections, and my tribe is scattered! How shall the heart be

August 21, 2008

Complexity and Layers

In this family systems work I am doing every time I make a new discovery it leads me down a whole new trail of inquiry. Every question leads to a dozen more. Each thread I follow leads to a whole new landscape for exploration. It is exciting work and speaks to me of the complexity of who we are as human beings. Layer upon layer reveals an inexhaustible depth to our stories if we consider them rooted in the spiral of stories I spoke of the other day. My father was born in Riga, Latvia, the city of his father’s ancestors. When

August 20, 2008

Sacred Stories

“All the great voyagers return Homeward as on an arc of thought; Home like a ruby beacon burns As they crest wind, scale wave, soar air; All the great voyagers return…” – from “The Homecoming,” by Barbara Howes Thank you dear readers for the many warm comments and emails I have received as a welcome home. I am truly blessed to have such a supportive virtual community. A special thank you to Laure who shared the above quote in her comment on my previous post. She wrote that she imagined me on the other side of an arc of thought. These words provided

August 17, 2008

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