This poem was written after a retreat at the Alcyon Center in Maine some years ago. Walking their outdoor labyrinth brought me this experience of how confusion and disintegration can be transformed when we simply focus on our next step, one at a time. As we enter into the turning point of the year, in … Continue reading Labyrinth
My poem "Announcement" has been published at Reformed Journal, and I thought a link would be an appropriate way to celebrate this festive season. This poem was inspired by a painting of the Annunciation that I saw at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston some years ago. I got to talk about a bit … Continue reading A poem and a painting for Advent: Announcement
The lovely folks at Braided Way: Faces and Voices of Spiritual Practice have posted my essay "Relearning the Alphabet," originally published in Parabola. I'm happy to have this long-ago creation now available online. Each time we speak, we give birth. Something of our soul goes forth into the world, embodied in air. It is remarkable … Continue reading Over at Braided Way: Relearning the Alphabet
What? Prince Harry's royal tell-all Spare, a spiritual memoir? I admit that I did not initially pick it up as one. But as I read, it made me think about the role of royalty in regard to spirituality. For that alone, I decided to count it for my spiritual memoir challenge -- in the category … Continue reading Spiritual Memoir Review: Spare
Here's another link to an essay of mine that was just published in Kosmos Journal: "A Cosmic Twist: The elemental art of spinning." Look up into the clear night sky, and after a time you will perceive how the stars rotate around a central axis, as if on a great wheel. The ancients saw this … Continue reading Another essay: A Cosmic Twist
Recently I had two poems published in the online journal Kosmeo, which is subtitled "Adorning the profession of the gospel through creative offerings." One of the poems, "What the Rich Young Man Said," was published in an earlier version on my blog here -- but I've revised is since then, because I keep thinking about … Continue reading Advent/Lent: A Poem
Last year, I embarked on a journey of trying to solve some longstanding health issues, which I shared with you in these posts. This year, although those questions are not all worked through, I felt strong enough to start another kind of venture, a training in Spiritual Direction that is offered online by the Sisters … Continue reading A New Journey: My spiritual direction training, Part I
Paramhansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) When I embarked on my Spiritual Memoir Challenge this year, I did not expect the first book I chose to read for it to be so ... challenging. It raised a lot of questions for me, and I'm not sure how to express them. I don't want to … Continue reading Spiritual Memoir Review: Autobiography of a Yogi
When I chose the word "connect" as an intentional practice for the year, I didn't know what to expect or how to proceed. But through the months, it led me on an inner journey that accompanied my efforts to improve my physical health, and along the way I collected new and fascinating evidence for the … Continue reading #OneWord2022: Everything is connected
This month I took a strengths assessment survey as part of a writing workshop I'm taking part in. Interestingly enough, given that my One Word is "connect," my top strength came out as "Connectedness." Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com The survey's description of this characteristic includes phrases like "In your soul you know we … Continue reading #OneWord2022: Connecting with strength
