For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come! –Song of Songs 2:11-13 Dearest kindred souls, I am finally starting to catch up with myself after a few very full weeks. You mean, your online Abbess gets busy and overwhelmed too? Yes, indeed. Sometimes it is impossible to avoid

Hello dear monk friends,   I am so excited to be offering a 30-day course on desert wisdom and spirituality through the wonderful folks at Spirituality and Practice.  I have been working on completing my manuscript on the desert mothers and fathers this past year, and have absolutely fallen in love with the wisdom and insights they have to offer us in our twenty-first century world.  If you want to explore the roots of Christian monasticism and contemplative practice, this is where you begin.  If you are intrigued by these fierce companions on the journey, here is your chance.   

Easter blessings my dear monk friends! I hope your Lent was a rich and meaningful journey through the desert to the place of your resurrection. Beyond bunnies, baskets, chocolate, and jelly beans, Easter calls us to the profound practice of resurrection of the body. Resurrection is about entering the fire of our passion and letting it burn brightly. It is about what enlivens us and makes us feel vital, releasing fear and anxiety over what is to come, and embracing this moment here and now.  Resurrection calls us to experience the full weight and lightness of our physical being. In the

A deep bow of gratitude to everyone who participated in this week’s poetry party “In praise of detours.”  As always, the Abbey community came through with a beautiful gathering of poems – definitely worth a visit and some time to linger. The winner of the random drawing for a book of their choice is Deanna Cattell.  Deanna, send me your snail mail address and which of my books you’d like for me to send you (signed of course) and I will get that out to you. I am away this coming week leading a retreat on the archetypes and expressive arts with a

Have you stopped by this week’s Poetry Party yet?  As always there is an incredible gathering of poems.  This week’s theme is “In Praise of Life’s Detours,” those side-journeys we get called to which take us more quickly to our destination that traveling straight through.  Pour yourself a cup of tea and stay for a while, savor the words, linger over the images.  Then share your own poem before this Sunday for a chance to enter a random drawing where the winner will receive a book of their choice. June 7-10, 2012 I am offering a brand new Sacred Rhythms Writing Retreat

I am so thrilled to be offering a brand new live retreat called Sacred Rhythms: Bringing Yoga, Movement, and the Wisdom of the Seasons to Your Writing Practice – June 7-10, 2012 at the Grunewald Guild near Leavenworth, WA. This will be a wonderful, nourishing time of diving deep into our bodies and telling the stories we discover there. Guided by the rhythms of the day, we will move through the hours of awakening, ripening, releasing, and being to listen to how these rhythms might support our creative practice. This retreat is for every body and anyone who loves to

I will be teaching an online class this spring through the Spirituality and Practice website:April 23 – May 18, 2012 $49.95 Click here to registerThe desert is a place of sparse landscape, where we are stripped down to our essence and confronted with our own deep needs and desires. Naturalist and writer Terry Tempest Williams described its spiritual significance in her memoir Refuge: “If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There is