Lenten Walk Series 8 (Sacred)

/
Lenten Walk Series 8 (Sacred)

I spent this past weekend convening a women's retreat around themes of pilgrimage and Celtic Christian Spirituality.  We spoke at length about the inherent blessing of all creation and practiced seeing the sacred in all we encountered.  As this tradition relates to pilgrimage, we also learned about the hope-filled practice of the Celtic peregrines who would make pilgrim-voyages in their tiny coracles, which were often sailless and rudderless, so that God might allow ebb and flow to take these early pilgrims to wherever God wished them to go.

Read More

Lenten Walk Series 7 (Mountain)

/
Lenten Walk Series 7 (Mountain)

My spirit soars in swelling praise as I rise in altitude.  I come before these vistas as approaching the Lord's table; the nourishment of sky and terrain feed my soul.  The cry of hawk and eagle are hymns directed by the whistling wind.  It is within the sky-blue walls of this sunday school classroom where these sainted sierras show me the grandeur of God.  Here, surrounded by and in the mountains, I find my many-steepled sanctuary.

Read More

Lenten Walk Series 6 (Fire)

/
Lenten Walk Series 6 (Fire)

We walked our prayers along a Big Sky catwalk on this night.  The children had all fallen asleep and we left them in grandparents' care while we went to crunch our way through the chilled, still winterscape.  What was immediately evident was the sensory experience of our supplications.  Every prayer was unleashed on a ribbon of breath while the cold night air stung our every lung.  

Read More

Lenten Walk Series 4/5

/
Lenten Walk Series 4/5

Gratitude for legacy and heritage have been on our praiseful lips these past two daysas we have made our way to Big Sky, Montanta for a week of skiing with family.  We overnighted in Butte, MT the birthplace of both of my parents and a landscape both sets of my grandparents intimately knew and loved

Read More

Lenten Walk Series 3

/
Lenten Walk Series 3

Walking through the streets of Seattle's New Rainier Vista neighborhood can seem somewhat like a maze.  If you don't keep your bearings on Mt. Rainier (easy to lose for non-natives on a cloudy day), you can effortlessly get turned about.  As we walked along the sidewalks of this redevelopment, the children picked up garbage; it seemed the only familiar act in which to respond to the ever-present litter lined up along some of these unfamiliar lanes.

Read More

Lenten Walk Series 2

/
Lenten Walk Series 2

Today's prayer walk was under cloudless skies, which is a rarity for Seattle in February.  And instead of 10 prayerful feet, it was simply my own and Anna's.  Funny thing how as soon as you draw your line in the sand around an intention, circumstances immediately set themselves up against it.  I've learned to identify this as the Pilgrim's Path, others may call it Murphy's Law; be it as it may, the boys were unable to get in on the practice today. Whatever laws were against our family participating today in our Lenten commitment, Anna had clarity of purpose and firmly directed our route.  These pictures represent the prayers for our community, on Anna's Spirit-led route.

Read More

Lenten Walk Series I

/
Lenten Walk Series I

The last couple weeks leading up to Lent, my children were bemoaning the Lenten possibility of eating only rice and beans for dinner (as we did last year).  While I am really glad we did that practice last year, it didn't seem to fit where we all are this year.  Giving up coffee, chocolate or wine are never very realistic options for me for obvious reasons, but on the whole, I'm just not inclined towards the "lack" this year.  We all seem to be needing something more....

Read More

Great Impressions

/
Great Impressions

There are some souls you come across in your life whose imprint they make on your own is more than the hands you hold every day.  Richard Twiss (Taoyate Obnajin: He Stands With His People) was such a soul.  And today, as the world cries, dances and drums their response to his death, I am humbled and challenged by the deep and lasting impression Richard made on my life.

Read More

Threshing Time

/
Threshing Time

We wait for much, do we not?  And conditioned are we to defend ourselves against this posture and we use every tool we can to avoid that quiet distance between departure and arrival.  Whether it be at a stop light, in a ferry line, or stuck in red-light traffic, we quickly deploy means to lessen the wait.  Let's be honest, despite the laws of safety in place to prohibit such behaviors, we may quickly check our smartphones for an email response from a friend, update our Facebook status and even get caught up on Twitter.

Read More

Hearth Places

/
Hearth Places

This has been a day to gather around the hearth-places to find warmth and inspiration.  For centuries the hearth was considered an integral part of a home, often its central or most important feature.  These brick lined structures were a place of survival from where nourishment and story came; food would be served from this seat of heat with a healthy side of laughter and conversation.  This was the gathering place.  This is where socks and tears were dried.  This was the place that centered and from which one left to go out into the world.

Read More

Ordinary Blessings

/
Ordinary Blessings

Ordinary Time is a God-season, just as much as the holy days of Christmas and Easter are.  Look to the signs that are all around you.  They won't be covered in Christmas lights or available for purchase from the store.  Look to your immediate places, your normal pathways; the plants, people and publications that surround your life could be whispering their own important inspirations for how to find meaning and truth as time passes through the year.

Read More

Sunflowers-Their Gift

/
Sunflowers-Their Gift

 Once our shadows begin to lengthen towards the north and the sun just doesn't quite crest the southern hill behind our home, these lusty heads of summer begin to transform to a smorgasbord of seed.  They become somewhat bedraggled looking and I have had more than one visitor ask when I will cut them down to "clean up my garden for the Autumn."  Their lost lustre (petal-less, drooping and dismal) is but a facade for this is the season of their true crowning glory; this is when they give!

Read More

Michaelmas-Dragons and Delight

/
Michaelmas-Dragons and Delight

Michaelmas is a relatively new seasonal celebration for my family.  While I've always grown up with an attunement to the season's shifts from Summer's boisterous bounty to Autumn's slow and silent movement towards interior living, this special feast day and its long-time celebrations were not known to me. However, its themes of harvest and community, threat and injustice and, ultimately, a light that vanquishes all are ones with which I deeply resonate.

Read More

You are invited: Pentecost Pilgrimage 2013-Iona, Scotland

/
You are invited: Pentecost Pilgrimage 2013-Iona, Scotland

You are invited to participate in this transformative journey to Iona, Scotland for Pentecost 2013.  Allow the winds of the Spirit to breath new life into you and inspire your way forward!

Read More

Redemptive Booms

/
Redemptive Booms

What is warring about you in your life today?  Is there something that threatens and seeks to destroy?  Our call is to come to that place and redeem it, restore it, reclaim it.  Believe in the beauty that is inherent in all of creation and begin to witness the transformation.  It will be better than any firework show you've ever seen!

Read More

Pilgrim's Path: Bringing Home the Boon

/
Pilgrim's Path: Bringing Home the Boon

The challenge and bitter truth of coming home from a pilgrimage is that we soon learn that what is a pearl to us is mere pennies to others. How can we even begin to describe the depths to which our soul has traveled?  Ultimately, it is our changed life that must tell the story of our journey; no picture slide show or souvenir will scratch the surface of the truth found at the sacred center.

Read More

Arrival: Holy Week

/
Arrival: Holy Week

The traveler has important tasks upon arriving to their final destination.  Because the entire journey has been intentionally marked and prayerfully pondered, so must the arrival.  This is the time to surround yourself with prayers, poems and hymns that anchor your place and provide the touchstone for this final experience.

Read More