One of my beloved spiritual friends emailed me a creative reflection template (pictured above) that invites an artistic way to reflect and journal about the past year 2021 flowing into our newly started year 2022. I love the flowy circular nature of this template and the gentle phrasing of the writing prompts. I find myself…
[Image: “A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat (1884)] “White. A blank canvas, his favorite, so many possibilities …” “Sunday, by the blue purple yellow red water!” So begins the entry to Steven Sondheim’s magnificent choral rendition from the musical “Sunday in the Park with George,” an exploration of the…
Thin translucent thread of life and death Spinning and twirling in the slightest and soft held embrace of the earth’s breath Glistening in the sun, awe inspiring chaotic intertwined dance of perfection Viability and ruination front and center, all defining, but meaningless on this gossamer space ride An instance of landing with both grace and…
A long afternoon of light on the edge of the forest not in the thick of it yet, the door cracked open watching the wind stir the late-hanging leaves, the stems of grasses, the shadows stretching toward me while the sky stretches higher and higher and whatever I had in mind to accomplish is not…
In the Andy Williams song, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” there is a line that, to many, seems out of place. “There’ll be scary ghost stories, and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago …” To understand what the song is referencing, one must remember that many Christmas traditions grew out…
Healing childhood trauma is the vocation of many gifted mental health professionals who I have encountered and collaborated with over the years. Wounds from our childhood stay hidden in our bodies (or not-so-hidden) for the rest of our lives, manifesting as many forms of cancers and blood disorders, headaches, digestive issues, cardio-vascular or neurological dis-ease,…
Mindful by Mary Oliver Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. It was what I was born for— to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world— to instruct myself over and over in joy,…
St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556 C.E.), famous for his “Spiritual Exercises,” was the Roman Catholic counter-Reformation founder of the religious order known as the Jesuits. He knew well the vagaries of the human heart. He recognized patterns of spiritual fluctuation ranging from periods of “consolation” to “desolation.” Experiences of consolation, marked by inner peace and…
In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground … A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now. —Wangari Maathai, Nobel Lecture, Oslo, Dec. 10, 2004…
I never tire of kneeling before the oaks that flank the altar in the chapel, centering myself with the one to the east first, then pivoting south. In their presence it seems more possible to pray, to feel the spirit skittering through me like the squirrel leaping from branch to branch, like the sun climbing…