Fireweed. Rebuilder of the Boreal. Firefighter of the Northern hemisphere, on the ground. Survivor of raging forest fires, WWII bomb craters, and the very blast of Mt. St. Helens. If you live in the north, you're probably familiar, at least peripherally, with fireweed. You'd probably recognize it on a roadside, even if you couldn't break... Continue Reading →
We’ll hold the line
I ran across a post a while back, and of course it's now lost to the inner recesses of social media, but to poorly paraphrase: . . . Nevermind, I have to find it... please hold... . (For a brief musical interlude to hold you over, let's go with some Saggitarius 🎧.) . . .... Continue Reading →
Solidarity
"While modern astronomy tells us of our insignificance beneath the stars, it also tells us that if we lift so much as a finger, we affect them... The magnitude of the world with whose destiny we are bound up increases rather than diminishes our importance."~ Alan Watts, Importance (from Become What You Are) "Our sentience... Continue Reading →
Up and in
" Finally, you will have to chart your own course, find your own way, and take readings (i.e. be mindful) from time to time to check and see if the path you are following--the teachers you are finding and the community you are practicing with, if you have found one--feels intuitively healthy and appropriate to... Continue Reading →
Stems and Roots, a shameless snatch
"Trust in the slow work of God."~ Tielhard de Chardin Stems and Roots "The love we show saves the Love we hide,the way a sprig in sun feeds its unseen root. Even though I believe in living in the open, parts of me hide. I can't help it. But what I can help is which... Continue Reading →
Don’t you carry stones
"It is the whole of nature, extending from the beginning to the end, that constitutes the one image of God Who Is."~ St. Gregory of Nyssa "Spiritual opening is not a withdrawal to some imagined realm or safe cave. It is not a pulling away, but a touching of all the experience of life with... Continue Reading →
Shins
"Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars."~ Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World I've been sick and miserable for a week and a half. Before we get started, let me just state that this is my first cold/flu/viral... Continue Reading →
Feral
"Spirituality is the active pursuit of the God you didn't make up."~ Barbara Brown Taylor's Sufi friend, Judy, Holy Envy Where is your God? Where does he live? If your first answer is 'in heaven,' then I think you might be following the wrong blog. Stick around. Who knows... you might like it here. If... Continue Reading →
The stuff of God
"He was more practitioner than advocate, in the way of believers whose religion is so intimate they keep it to themselves."~ Lief Enger, Virgil Wander "Be humble because you are made of earth. Be noble, for you are made of stars."~ Serbian Proverb What if it is the very mixture of humility and nobility that... Continue Reading →
So much more
"The spiritual life is about becoming more at home in your own skin."~ Parker Palmer "Anything that removes what grows between our hearts and the day is spiritual."~ Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening What is it today that plucks away the things that stand between you and the universe?How is it, this very day,... Continue Reading →
Core Training
"We cannot live without being affected by others, but we are only real when we let truth and love shape us from within. Our want to be liked, our want to avoid conflict, our want to be understood--all these traits tease us away from taking the voice within seriously. Though the Earth is touched by... Continue Reading →
Posture
"What we speak always returnsWith a spike of barbsOr the sweet taste of berries in summer."~ Joy Harjo, Song 6. Let 'Em Eat Grass We've all learned, at one time or another--probably many, many times--how powerful our words are, but we don't often sit with the power of our tongue and really give it our... Continue Reading →
