Grandmother Oak

I sought out Grandmother Oak today for some grand and motherly advice She showed me her scars and her broken parts And said “See how I still rise?” “I have wept many tears for my fallen friends, and for the creatures that didn’t survive. My tears wet the ground and nourished my roots. Now see…

Journey

On a September retreat at Prairiewoods, the trees woke me up. Just outside my second-story guest house window, they were shaking their heads wildly. In the background I could hear the rumble of thunder. It was past midnight, and now it was Mary Oliver’s birthday, September 10. Pieces of her poem “The Journey,” that I…

Grace and Patience

“When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the…

Showing Up

You are holy and sacred And utterly unique. There are gifts you were born to give. Songs you were born to sing. Stories you were born to tell. And if you do not give it, The world will simply lose it. It is yours alone to offer, No one can give it for you. And…

Word of the Year

Each December, as one year winds down and another is just a glimmer of possibility, I try to encapsulate the outgoing year—and how I experienced it—in a single word or phrase. The year I regained my health by losing weight, went skydiving and took a pilgrimage to Italy with my mother, my word was Joy.…

Resting & Reflecting

What is it about this time of year— this season of late fall— that invites rest and reflection? I am given quiet mornings among pines and golden grasses Will I accept the invitation? Will I sit and listen? Will I rest and reflect? I might. I might get swept away with business and to-do lists…