Dear Prairiewoods friends, A few years ago, I planted a peony bush in my little yard. This year it is blooming for the first time—there are two blooms! I am beyond excited! Have you ever nuzzled your face into the face of a Peony? It’s, like, the best thing ever; it’s like a silky flower kiss…
The content of today’s blog comes from Bob Engler and Carol Nilles, great friends of Prairiewoods. They are using this Gratefulness.org video, A Grateful Day with Brother David Steindl-Rast, for daily prayer. Its opening question, “Do you think this is just another day in your life?” invites us to be mindful of all of the…
I value the trees in my yard as friends. We go through the seasons together. Trees give me joy, strength, hope. Meeting Face to face, or so it feels, we meet, (two sides of a window, the blossoming tree and I) we breathe, we deeply breathe, together, the same soft-bright sky, above us both,…
Prairiewoods’ mission, to welcome and provide sacred space for people of all faiths and cultures and to nurture relationships with the Source of All Being, Earth, self and others, includes everyone. Further, our Franciscan heritage calls us to reverence the Divine Presence within all creation, including each member of the Earth Community. It is because…
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. —John 14:18 There is a wonderfully songful prayer chant inspired by the scripture passage from John 14:18 called “I Will Not Leave You Comfortless” by Jan Phillips from her album All the Way to Heaven. This song is such a comfort and can be…
The following is a dipping of the toe by a perpetually novice wisdom seeker with early onset overly active mind syndrome who has several wonderful teachers and countless others. I have been thinking a lot about the term self-isolation recently. The question I ponder is why, when combined, these two terms (i.e., self and isolation)…
Ahhhh! Breath-taking! Breath-giving! “We breathe in. We breathe out. We breathe in. We breathe out.” We’re meditating with this image today, a bit of visio divina, with a touch of soulful jazz. What do we see? What is the image revealing? What is emerging in the interpretive space between us and the observable “other?” What…
Hello, dear Prairiewoods family! The other morning, I looked out my kitchen window and saw a monarch butterfly caught in a spider web in the corner of my window. I was both excited to see the monarch and sad that it had been caught in the spider’s web. I wasn’t upset with the spider; I…
“Conversation is perhaps our greatest hope not only for healing the rifts in human understanding but also for restoring and reinspiring our relationship with the natural world, which is our first and most profound home. Care of the world is always essential, and care arises from conversation.” —Thomas Dean, Introduction, Tallgrass Conversations: In Search of…
A few years ago, I saw a woman standing on the side of the road, asking those who passed by in a little Prius or a huge Durango for some spare change and a little compassion. I took a break and sat down with her, this kind, well-worn woman named Dawn. I learned that Dawn…