Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, now and in the hour of our death. Amen. I’ve been thinking about the spiritual soundtrack of my life, reflecting on songs 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…
“St. John’s Wort is one of the so-called St. John’s herbs—which also include yarrow, mugwort, fennel, and elder; they would be picked on St. John’s birthday and hung over doors and windows to keep evil spirits away.” —Caz Hildebrand, Herbarium (2016) If ever there was a time when we needed help in keeping evil spirits…
One of my favorite flowers is the rose. Go figure! As a child, I used to really, I mean really, dislike my name. Why would my parents name their oldest child after a flower of all things? I was teased relentlessly at times, called every other flower but my name, Rose. People expected me to…
We long for a peaceful and just world. Shortly after the catastrophic event of 9/11, a beautiful poem of Judyth Hill’s circulated. All were invited to “Wage peace with your breath / breathe in fireman and rubble / breathe out whole buildings / and flocks of redwing black birds …” Challenging the violence then, Hill’s…
Local Cedar Rapids writer Lyz Lenz tweeted on Monday: “When this is over I’m never spending time alone with my thoughts ever again.” On a Monday morning—following a holiday weekend typically known for its social spirit but this year spent largely alone—I completely agreed. This introvert had had enough solitude! All it took to remind…
One of my favorite books by Joyce Rupp is Prayer Seeds: A Gathering of Blessings, Reflections, and Poems for Spiritual Growth. In the prayer “The Container of Your Heart,” we’re invited to hold our hands in the shape of a small bowl and let that symbolize the container of our heart. We begin the prayer…
Music brings resilience and strength. A story, an invocation or a verse shared in song travels beyond reaches of rational thought to make its home in the soul’s memory. In his 1964 book Why We Can’t Wait, Martin Luther King Jr. said that song was the soul of the Civil Rights Movement. Hope and determination…
“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” —Joseph Campbell These summer mornings I love waking up during the pre-dawn moments before the “robin concertmaster” sounds the first pitch of the morning symphony waking up a sleeping world. She announces…
“If we reach common ground, and can understand what everybody’s going through, we can really affect change. And make sure that everyone is treated equally and has the same freedom.” —Colin Kaepernick One day, as I walked the land at Prairiewoods, I saw the tree photographed above. Note how it stands in a place of…