Do you have a favorite place within the Prairiewoods land? A special spot? A reflection area where you feel especially at home? Maybe under a particular pine tree. Or at the center of the labyrinth. Maybe sitting on one of the logs encircling Grandmother Oak … The prayer circle in the woods. Sitting on the…
I almost always take the present moment for granted. Obsession with the future or the past seems to take up most of my brain-space. The constant chatter can become too much. When this happens, I’ve found the practice of “resting in the present moment” to be especially helpful. I take a satisfying breath inward, pause…
This winter, I slept eight or nine hours a night and still woke up exhausted. My eyelids fluttered closed as I put on eye makeup. By mid-morning, I could hardly keep my head up without the help of caffeine. For several months, my emotional exhaustion presented as physical exhaustion, because they were all rolled up…
Do you believe this to be true? You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. What is it that causes some to thrive and others to fall behind? What is it that makes winners and losers? It might be said without overstatement that we are overly obsessed with winning and losing in today’s world. It…
I had written this poem for a meeting last fall of the Women in Interfaith Dialogue, hosted virtually by Prairiewoods. The topic for the day was “spiritual self-care and resilience.” ONE DAY Are these two words—one, day— a triangulation, a trajectory, to one point, to some later day, something we imagine, we hope, to be…
“Even as tiny drops fill the water jug, so the patient ones become filled with good, even though virtue may come slowly.” —Buddha, The Dhammapada Life can change in an instant, but change also sneaks in by tiny increments. When life changes suddenly, it has a profound emotional impact. While steady changes can have the…
Next week invites Christians throughout the world to Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. Scripture during this week invites all to reflect with Jesus through his last days of earthly existence through his death to a spirit of hope and resurrection. Given the pandemic, many people feel as though we have been…
The Blessing of the Fleet is a Catholic tradition that began in Mediterranean fishing communities to usher forth a safe and abundant fishing season. Even now, the tradition persists, and boats line up along shores all over the world to receive the blessing at the start of a new season. As we find ourselves entering…
“Imagination never pretends to know it all. It never demands or claims an absolute standpoint, but it always relishes and celebrates the fact that it is on the threshold where it cannot see everything. The kind of knowing that is in imagination is knowing through exploration.” —John O’Donohue, Walking in Wonder As we grow older,…
Jesus said to him, “Amen, I say to you, this very night before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to him, “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” And all the disciples spoke likewise (Matthew 26:34-35). In a poignant scene from the 1971 Stephen…