Many 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…
I 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…
“And time, we now know, is actually a persistent illusion? What we understand as past and present and future all exist within some sort of eternal now? What? And we’re each made of billions and billions and billions of atoms, because everything everywhere is made of atoms? And atoms aren’t really things or stuff at…
In his book To Bless the Space Between Us, John O’ Donohue offers prayerful poems that can only otherwise be known as blessings. “The word blessing evokes a sense of warmth and protection; it suggests that no life is alone or unreachable. Each life is clothed in raiment of spirit that secretly links it to…
“… All that is eternal in me Welcomes the wonder of this day, The field of brightness it creates Offering time for each thing To arise and illuminate. I place on the altar of dawn: The quiet loyalty of breath, The tent of thought where I shelter And all beauty drawn to the eye. May…
On Monday, Aug. 10, when the derecho hit Iowa, we were all shocked by the storm itself and the severe damage it caused. (We literally didn’t know what hit us, and once we were able to read the news I actually had to google the term derecho, as I’d never heard that word.) But the…
“I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.” —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King Friday night, I sat with a friend in her driveway, many feet apart from one another, as dusk gave way to night. Around us, her once beautifully wooded neighborhood looked like it had suffered…
Compelling energy—the thousands of activists who over fifty years ago in 1963 committed themselves to nonviolence and marched courageously in Birmingham for all. Spawning several grassroots movements, Dr. Martin Luther King’s candid “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” called people to pledge not only to march for justice, but also to make active nonviolence a way…
“We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.” —Hildegard of Bingen For many, this…
This week I’ve been feasting on these beauties! Cherry tomatoes and peaches—each morning, a prayer. Once a small seed nourished over time by loving heart, sun, moon, wind, rain, stars, tender hands … they ripen seemingly simply sitting on the kitchen counter. Each morning’s prayer, I count myself so blessed to have somehow through anticipation…