“Behold, my brothers, the spring has come; the earth has received the embrace of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love! Every seed has awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors,…
Prairiewoods is currently exploring the characteristics of ecological spirituality, and we turn our focus to an examination of dualism versus non-dualism. First, what does dualism mean? Dualism (noun) 1. a theory that considers reality to consist of two irreducible (cannot be reduced or simplified) elements or modes 2. a doctrine that the universe is under…
“The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, God’s boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is a caress of God.” —Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, 84 I was brought up in a split world. There were sacred things and profane things. Heaven and Earth. Right answers and wrong answers, and the person who got…
“Trees heal.” —Susan Bauer-Wu, A Future We Can Love A tree in Gatesville, Texas. I grew up in west Texas, where there are few trees, the southernmost part of the Great Plains. My mother, however, grew up in central Texas, where there are many beautiful live oak trees. On a visit to my grandmother, who…
“Elders belong to the earth, honoring all the names of love. They tend the universe, offering blessing to everything wild.” —Belden Lane, The Great Conversation: Nature and the Care of the Soul Prairiewoods’ Grandmother Oak is one of my most important elderhood mentors. She has grown for three centuries into a beautiful arbor elder, living…
It is my great privilege to live On a North bank of Indian Creek Where in our back yard, The creek flows from East to West. And where forty or fifty yards downstream The creek begins to make a grand U-turn Achieved with great dignity Over another hundred yards or so Which, when once complete…
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” —Mary Oliver, Sometimes My lifelong goal as a writer: to articulate the ways that how we treat the earth and the body are deeply rooted, and how grief, love, and care for the natural world in the tending of the dying and dead…
The Breath is my shepherd in deepest ravines highest mountains. Secured. Assured. Absolute. Divinity of all Creation. Even though organs fail flesh rots kin feed bones whiten scatter. My shepherd The Breath remains. Divine, Secure, Assured, Absolute, for Eternity. —Keith Knapp, written during a Silent Directed Retreat at Prairiewoods, June 2024 image of a…
My favorite poet, Mary Oliver, wrote in Sometimes: “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” —Mary Oliver, Sometimes Straightforward, simple directions for telling a bit of my story. When I received a congratulatory birthday note from the Iowa House on my 80th birthday, I gasped in astonishment! “80, how can…
After the August 2020 derecho, Laura Weber, former Prairiewoods associate director and retreat coordinator, expressed the emotions and powerful energy of how the storm impacted the lands and life at Prairiewoods. She used deeply expressive language like the “Gentle giants of unwavering peace” to describe the trees. I was especially enamored by the last two…