I never tire of kneeling before the oaks that flank the altar in the chapel, centering myself with the one to the east first, then pivoting south. In their presence it seems more possible to pray, to feel the spirit skittering through me like the squirrel leaping from branch to branch, like the sun climbing…
“Witches can be right; giants can be good” (lyrics from “No One is Alone,” from the Sondheim-Lapine musical “Into the Woods,” 1986). What? We don’t often think of notorious archetypes of evil as fonts of truth or dispensers of reality and goodness. Morality and ego-development are so much easier when our “witches” are bad, and our…
The Irish poet Brendan Kennelly wrote, “Hell is the familiar all stripped of wonder.” Ceasing to marvel at the miracle of ordinary life is a joyless way of being. Yet, life is clearly not all roses and butterflies. Even ordinary life itself provides enough suffering with frequency and magnitude to drain the soul of inspiration.…
All of creation invites us to unify seemingly contrasting energies. Robin Hines and his dog, Odie, faithful friends of Prairiewoods, daily walk the woods and prairie. To Robin’s surprise, Odie and this deer held each other’s gaze for a solid five minutes, extending hospitality to one another. Odie and Robin stop and greet every person…
When Death Comes by Mary Oliver … When it’s over, I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don’t…
This week the 2020 Olympics have been taking place in Tokyo, Japan. They are a year late and accompanied by controversy over the decision to host such an endeavor in the midst of a global pandemic. One of the biggest stories of the week was gymnast Simone Biles’ decision to remove herself from both the…
What are you reading this summer? And what spiritual reading are you doing this summer? I love to read any time of the year, but there’s something about summer reading when the days are longer and the sunlight mingles with the printed word that turns my bookworm self into a book butterfly because my imagination…
One of our three-year-old family mystics teetered precariously on the top step of the stairs, clutching his stuffed “Bun-Buns,” and peering over the abyss. “There’s something down there,” he whispered, eyes wide with primal terror and simultaneous wonderment. VERY still, riveted with one toe over the edge, he listened with all ears, eyes and nose…
Saint Francis, who valued the natural world as “a place where God is revealed,” encouraged his followers by his own unique celebration of creation. God’s goodness, generosity and love were not off-limits somewhere in far-off cathedrals, but rather to be found in creation as a whole. This Franciscan spirit called Prairiewoods to create space to…
As we approach this national holiday to celebrate “Independence Day,” I’ve been praying with my heart’s longing for our nation to rename it “Inter-dependence Day.” What would the world look like if we really stepped more deeply through our independence to a world-wide, collective consciousness that held “inter-dependence” as one of its highest values? How…