Spiritual journey

Sojourn

Something autumn seeps among these grasses. Rooted, fettered - bodily, as through me treads the sky. Pressed to this leaden veil, geese consume me there, suspended in their hollow, longing call. Oh, ponderous song! Where the way through? Take flight! if I could, neither north nor south -

Why I Make Art

I am wired to connect with people. Although I measure about as strong on the introvert scale as possible, I am an introvert who loves people. I need to connect with others in order to thrive. For many years of my life, I felt torn between these two seemingly contradictory compulsions. I crave hours of…Read more Why I Make Art

All This Falling

In weakness cling to brittle bones. Blaze, molten orange on leaden sky. Kiss the sun one last time, summer’s fire leaks from your veins. Pulse thin and aching, cast yourself into this fall, all this falling. No loud dispute, no furtive begging, can postpone this fall. Like a shooting star, exploit this drift to set…Read more All This Falling

Called

One minute you are leaning back, reveling in early morning-bird songs, relaxed, mind wandering. Then something quickens your spirit. You bolt upright, alert and faintly alarmed. You suddenly become aware that you are in the Presence of One Much Greater. And He is calling you. Maybe the calling is to meet Him for the first…Read more Called

Let It Be Me – Response to Terrorism in Kenya

Horror still clutches my heart like an apparition from beyond the grave. “It is over,” Kenyan President Kenyatta assured the world on Tuesday. Some of the perpetrators are dead. Hopefully the rest are amongst eleven people detained in a sweep of Kenya’s exit points. And yet the echoes of their evil acts reverberate long after they…Read more Let It Be Me – Response to Terrorism in Kenya

Am I an Artist?

Last night I faced the question I mostly dread these days. Sitting around the table at a fancy event with well-meaning, newly-met acquaintances, they asked innocently: “So what do you do?” I felt that moment of uncertainty, tinged with panic. A simple question, expressed with genuine interest. In America, we commonly inquire about a person’s…Read more Am I an Artist?

Lament for Colorado

Today is an anxious day. The largest air rescue since Hurricane Katrina thrashes air currents over Colorado skies. Searches for hundreds of missing people continue, even as gray clouds smother us in fear of what we cannot control. It seems utterly inconceivable that a state surrendering its ashes to scathing hot, cloudless blue only months…Read more Lament for Colorado

The Most Important Path

Recently, within a twenty-four hour period I climbed the “Incline” and wandered a prayer labyrinth. The juxtaposition intrigued me; two paths could not be more different. The one-mile Incline hike ascends from Manitou Springs at an average grade of 40%. Formerly a tourist cable car route, it slices straight up a mountain, visible across Colorado…Read more The Most Important Path

Offering – Pondering the Lives of Mother Teresa Sisters

Kenya, 2001 (somewhere near Nairobi's second largest slum) Blinking in the transition from blazing equatorial sunlight to sacred shadows, we hesitate in the foyer. The sanctuary stretches before us, an ordination service for new Sisters already in progress. Rows of simple benches packed to capacity march along concrete floors. I spot an open space in…Read more Offering – Pondering the Lives of Mother Teresa Sisters

Sacred Center Holds

For weeks I watched its stems and leaves unfurl from soil and climb into a lanky silhouette, stretching for sunrise. It seemed to be a flower of some sort, and I was curious for its culminating shape and color to emerge. But when it did, I was surprised. Wispy white tendrils burst from the center. Not…Read more Sacred Center Holds