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Reflections

Category: Poetry

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The Swan

This laboring through what is still undone, as though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way, is like the awkward walking of the swan. And dying-to let go, no longer feel the solid ground we stand on every day- is like anxious letting himself fall into waters, which receive him gently and which, as though with reverence and joy, draw back past him in streams on either side; while, infinitely silent and aware, in his full majesty and ever more indifferent, he condescends to glide. -Rainer Maria Rilke (trans. Stephen Mitchell) Rilke is one of my many favorite poets.  We

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July 7, 2007

Happy Birthday Tune!

I wasn’t planning on posting anything else before our trip but this sweet, beautiful girl turns 10-years old tomorrow and that deserves a mention.  Even though we’ve only had her a few short months, she has already worked her way deep into my heart.  If you missed the story of our rescue of Abbess Petunia, read here and here and here.  I will miss her a great deal while we are away. Thanks so very much for all the beautiful wishes you have left in comments and emails for my upcoming trip– they mean a lot to me! The last few days have been a flurry

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June 11, 2007

Self-Portrait

How do we live out of our most authentic selves?  The self that Thomas Merton described as the True Self, the one that was created by God and dwells in God.  He said it is like a wave in the ocean of God, or a flame in God’s fire.  We are distinct from God, but also a part of the sacred presence in the world. We live in challenging times.  Of course, I often think that life itself is challenging whenever you live it.  But these times we live with so many choices and possibilities it can be paralyzing.  At

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June 5, 2007

A Great Pilgrimage

A Great Pilgrimage I felt in need of a great pilgrimage so I sat still for three days and God came to me. -Kabir Pamela McCauley shared the wonderful poem above in a comment she left on my post about Africa.  She also shared this great quote from a Ugandan Sister who said, “You have watches, but no time. We have no watches, but plenty of time.” Wishing you a weekend of spaciousness. May the Holy One come to you in the stillness and fill the wide open spaces of your heart. -Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts (photo from sheep farm on

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June 1, 2007

Surrender

As I get older, I am slowly learning to take myself and my work less seriously. It is the fruit of embracing humility–that monastic virtue whose root is humus, meaning “of the earth.” At the same time, the more I let go of plans that don’t feed me, and the more I allow myself to go out to bloom, the more I experience a deep sense of peace within myself.  I am becoming the peace I want to see bloom in the world. In a world of busyness and productivity, we need a lot more uselessness, more being, more poets, artists, and monks

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May 28, 2007

Peonies

  Yesterday I splurged on a bouquet of peonies and proceeded to fall completely in love with them when I got home.  I have never before spent so much time gazing at and inhaling the scent of these splendid flowers.  I cultivated my new love through the lens of my camera.  Some days the abundance I find in words and images is enough to break my heart wide open. What has broken your heart open this day? -Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts

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May 22, 2007