Gather 'round…
“The Bible says that no one can see God and live. In a transferred sense, no person can see himself and live. All you can ever achieve is a sense of your soul. You gain little glimpses of its light, colors, and contours. You feel the inspiration of its possibilities and the wonder of its... Continue Reading →
One month ago I started an inadvertent journey here at kjottinger.com. I broke from our usual fare, and broke some itinerant streaks of silence. I was so rattled by the election that morning that I didn't know how to move forward. Grief for the humanity I was sure would prevail wracked me. In an effort... Continue Reading →
" An old man in Calcutta would walk to get water from a well every day. He'd carry a clay pot and lower it by hand slowly, all the way down, careful not the let it hit the sides of the well and break. Once it was full, he'd raise the pot slowly and carefully... Continue Reading →
“It’s common to believe that life is a series of external experiences... If we focus on what’s going on inside ourselves–sensations, emotions, the patterns of our thoughts–a wealth of material can be found. Our inner world is every bit as interesting, beautiful, and surprising as nature itself. It is, after all, born of nature. When... Continue Reading →
“… the angel of relationship can only appear when our hearts pump our eyes open. It is such a powerful feeling that many things can go wrong. I can feel an aliveness that I think is only in you because it has been awakened between us. So I might only want to be with you... Continue Reading →
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”~ Arundhati Roy, War Talk What might that breath sound like? Hope, I should think. Maybe the wind dropping in on a quiet lake out of nowhere. Or the cold rattle of winter oak leaves shielding... Continue Reading →
“Night after night darkness enters the face of the lily which, lightly closes its five walls around itself, and is purse of honey, and its fragrance, and is content ... Continue Reading →
“… imagine the human family as a stand of aspens growing by a river. Though each tree appears to be growing independently, not attached to the others, beneath the soil, out of view, the roots of all the trees exist as one enormous root. And so, like these trees, our soul’s growth, while appearing to... Continue Reading →
“I had to remember about open, blind, knowing, unreserved, unambiguous, unconditional love–naked love–before any of it could make sense again. I had to find it in the many places it hid, drag it out in the open and wrap it all around me, wear it around the house, feel its imprint on my skin, weave... Continue Reading →
“The ego wants resolution, wants to control impermanence, wants something secure and certain to hold onto. It freezes what is actually fluid, it grasps at what is in motion, it tries to escape the beautiful truth of the fully alive nature of everything.”~ Pema Chödrön, Welcoming the Unwelcome May we taste today the dance of... Continue Reading →
“We are stars wrapped in skin. The light you are seeking has always been within.”~ Rumi We seek. We desire. We look, always outside of ourselves, when inside is everything, inside is all. In, in, in our deepest places, this is where God resides, in, in, in. So why do we hunt, ravenous, out there? ... Continue Reading →
Photo credit: Conserve Kid's premature CS20 ending (derailed by a little pandemic) “The goldsaddle goatfish is a beautiful golden fish–similar in size and behavior to a red mullet–vulnerable to numerous larger predators, including humans, within the waters around Hawaii. Divers around the region have recently begun to notice a striking and much larger fish, of... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Nexus 