Hello, Prairiewoods friends! Last Saturday I was out at Palisades-Kepler State Park. It is a place I feel at home with, a land of love, wisdom and magic. The Spring Beauty wildflowers are in bloom, carpeting the land in utter delight. They are so abundant, so joyful in their dancing, that I could not help but…
A great blessing, among many, of Prairiewoods is the honor of walking with people in discovering nature as threshold into deeper awareness of God. In these days of pandemic—a.k.a. pan-deepening at Prairiewoods—we witness young and old of all faiths, race, economic status drawn to the intriguing woods, wetland and prairie. As John Muir, father of…
“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…
In uncertain times, we look to the wisdom of our elders, our sages and our most cherished teachers to help us understand or at least cope with what frightens or bewilders us. For many years, I cherished the wisdom of Wolfie, the magnificent Siberian Husky named for my Grandma, who blessed me with her wisdom…
Good morning, Prairiewoods family, The first line of Wild Geese by Mary Oliver came to me on Tuesday evening. “You do not have to be good.” David Whyte, in his Poetry of Self Compassion, shares that the whole poem IS good, but you really only need the first line. “You do not have to be good … You do not…
Synchronicity, isn’t it, that we celebrate spring amid this pandemic—pan-deepening? All around we observe creation in the midst of birth pains. The slow, sure greening is generative hope. New birth is not only happening around us, it’s within us. The Spirit is arousing within us, praying us. With Earth, we too experience birth pangs as…
You’ve likely seen them, but do you know what mandalas actually are? Mandala is the Sanskrit word for “circle” and represents any circular work of sacred art. Mandalas start in the center and build outward, and all of their beauty and energy are contained within the circle. They include organic or geometric shapes that are…
I’ve been slowly reading a lovely book called Lectio Divina—The Sacred Art: Transforming Words & Images into Heart-Centered Prayer by Christine Valters Paintner. Lectio divina, which means divine reading, involves experiencing sacred text and then listening with the heart for a word or phrase that calls out to you. It is a process that Valters…
There is a story of four friends who met in school where they studied meditation. One day, they made a pact to observe absolute silence for seven days. On the first day all were silent. Their meditation had begun auspiciously, but when night came and the oil lamps were growing dim one of the pupils…
Losses and the Coronavirus, and Grieving: The ways in which our lives have changed and are changing in reaction to the coronavirus involve many losses and the normal, healthy response of grieving. The sense of certainty and predictability that helps us feel safe and secure has, in so many ways, dissolved into the experience of…