This weekend we “control time” as we set our clocks back one hour to facilitate more efficient energy use. Nature ever so gently invites us to consider the unitive energy between darkness and light. Between the full moon and the vibrant, red dawn, sacred, liminal space exists. So, too, our nation has been marking time…
DetailsOn Sunday, we came together with six other area organizations to host the first of three seasonal Treasuring Our Trees events. Nearly 100 individuals and families joined us via Zoom to honor our beloved trees and our deeply felt connection to them. It was a time of song and poetry, of ritual for mourning and…
DetailsWe all need the opportunity to get distance and perspective. Unfortunately, this can be especially difficult in the midst of a pandemic. Last week, I was lucky enough to get away to the North Shore of Lake Superior, to a cottage where I could be safely distanced from others while also having a much-needed change…
DetailsAs we approach Oct. 31–Nov. 2, the days of Halloween or All Hallows Eve, Day of the Dead, All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Celtic Samhain, I am thinking of my ancestors. I feel a deep curiosity, a sense of wonderment and gratitude. When I ponder the mystery of my ancestors, as I often…
DetailsThe topic for the day was “faith journey.” I wrote this poem some time ago for a gathering of the Women in Interfaith Dialogue, a group that has been meeting for many years at Prairiewoods (now virtually). I share it here in honor of the Interfaith Women, hoping that we are finding nourishment for body,…
DetailsI walked that early morning path of stillness and embraced that felt comfort of expansive solitude, the moist air, and wind-inspired whispering trees. Looking left and right, what should I see, but two shadows there beside me. Walking in lock step. How could this be, how could this be? It just isn’t natural. It just…
DetailsTwo drops of spring sap, pinched out along high branch, hang side by side, catch March sun. With fiercely sparkling crystal tears the elderly maple, weeps. Each drop falls reluctantly, from limbs above, felled one by one, inch by inch. Mutual Wake ache reveals our ingrained bond. —Mary Martin Lane, friend of Prairiewoods (photo by Jenifer…
Details“You are going through all this emotional upheaval because your coziness has been, in some small or large way, addressed.” —Pema Chodron When things come together, life feels great. When things fall apart and we feel groundless, what then? Does anything come together that doesn’t, at some point, fall apart? The more sudden or surprising…
DetailsI have walked the labyrinth at Prairiewoods many times. Each time, the experience offered something new, maybe unexpected, an insight. On one summer morning, several years ago, a butterfly became part of the journey. I have no photographs of that specific day, but the wonderful memory remains. LABYRINTH The border stones still cool from…
DetailsWhat spiritual seekers require for today’s challenges is a deep dive into the “imaginal realm,” a liminal space which hovers between the visible and invisible, the spiritual and the material worlds. Noted spiritual author Cynthia Bourgeault says the “imaginal realm” finds its native home in the heart. It can be accessed through a pervasive perennial awareness…
Details“It feels as though time is evaporating …” and ”I hope we are learning and will be different on the other side of this pandemic …” Many and varied expressions of these sentiments echo our collective experience of “pandemic fatigue.” The way we live our lives each day affects how we perceive the passage of…
DetailsYou may have heard the story about Margaret Mead’s take on the earliest sign of civilization. Dr. Ira Byock tells this story in his book The Best Care Possible: A Physician’s Quest to Transform Care Through the End of Life: A student once asked anthropologist Margaret Mead, “What is the earliest sign of civilization?” The…
DetailsMany mornings, lying in bed and not wanting to get up, I tell myself, “Time to get up. Time to take one step.” This is not an inspiring mantra or motivational affirmation. Just a simple reminder that, even if I can’t see where the day will take me, even if I have no control over…
DetailsI am remembering a fond memory from a couple of years ago, being part of Sister Nancy’s retreat called Meet the Rest of the Relatives, where we spent time deep in the Prairiewoods mission, exploring and nurturing our relationship with the Earth, with ourselves, with the Creator, and with each other—including our tree and animal…
DetailsThe Stephen Schwartz musical Pippin is a parable about the meaning of life set in early medieval Christendom. The protagonist, Pippin, fictional son and heir to the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, embarks on a quest to find his purpose in life, his “corner of the sky.” “Rivers belong where they can ramble,” he…
DetailsToday a tree along the Cosmic Walk trail at Prairiewoods offers us a visual meditation on finding new meaning in the midst of chaos. Please spend some time visually reflecting with this rare tree. What wisdom does it offer you today? As we all strive to discover meaning within world circumstances, we note the words…
DetailsLightning bugs spark my way. There in the darkness but unseen in the light. Nature’s light, chaotic and beautiful. Temporary and divine in their definition of impermanence that defines all. Firefly flash in space bright and bold. Cold fire without heat. Advancing and exploring. Here then there but still showing “… the way, and the…
DetailsWho I am is always happening Always growing or shrinking like a flower Embodying my space, breathing myself into it I envision a sphere of protection around me But who I am and what I do comprise the universe And yet I am always melting into it And at the core of the wax Eternity…
DetailsWisdom shines brightly and never fades. She is seen by those who love Her and is found by those who seek Her. —Wisdom 6:12 Wise Woman Maya Angelou has been on my mind. I look to my bookshelves, to books I’ve had since I was a child and I find her there—I Know Why the…
DetailsWhat does evolving spirituality look like today? In the context of COVID-19, we have been courting the advent of conscious evolution by our grand—albeit somewhat disorienting—entry into the Ecozoic Era, suddenly eclipsing the Anthropocene at the speed of light. The wider “We” has been not only encroaching on the notion of monolithic anthropocentrism, and obliterating…
Details
