It’s Monday; another week of intensive koine Greek begins. I’m sitting in the basement student lounge: this may become my go-to morning-practice spot because I’ve never seen anyone in here at any time, much less between 7:30am-9. Also, all our lights are on timers, and no one expects a person to sit in the dark… […]
I am pacing the floor: as in, walking from the counter by the microwave to the wall with the space-heater on it, just beyond the king-sized bed. A half-dozen, a dozen times (how do you count a lap?), and my brain only now forms sentences. I am watching the sun set out of the no-longer-bright-blue […]
But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret… (Matthew 6:6) Yeah, the passage itself is about owning where you’re seeking your prayer’s reward—are you looking to God, or the crowd?—but it came to my mind for a totally different reason: When I […]
rolls through her morning routine, the unawake parts: porridge+coffee+sausage, the newspaper, gut alignment (YES tmi oh well)… thinks: i’m clear. i’m awake. i will head into Doing The Day and not stay in the twitterverse! …wanders down hall but with twitter… puts up ponytails: i could write; i should meditate; the wet laundry could dry […]
This week’s contemplation — I have still been meditating — has been trying. Trying as in the way toddlers can be; trying as in I remind myself to continue to persist. Sticking with my contemplative phrase has been this week’s especial trial. I feel like I’m sitting on sticker-burrs to be taking the time at […]
Wednesday morning began with a 6:30 walking meditation session. Optional, naturally. And it was stinkin’ early. But as poet-K pointed out, it was exactly my thing. I managed to incorporate a new practice: keeping my steps (pace) inside my meditative breathing. This, my friends, is slooowww. But it made lots of room for looking. So […]
One of the constants at Glen Workshop is daily collective worship/devotion time. (It’s a faith+art conference, so not a surprise.) Our chaplain this year believes in silence. And when I say, “believes,” I don’t just mean the way Roy Blount, Jr. uses it in this line: “There’s an old Southern story about an old boy […]
“Being published is being published. Being a real poet is being a real poet. Sometimes they intersect.” —Deborah Keenan Synchronicity remains uncanny, doesn’t it? Even when I’ve enfolded it into my faith-space as a form of tiny miracle or prophetic communication. The above quote, which opens a blog post that I’m pretty sure I riffed […]
Today I see that I’ve become a snob of silence. My bestie C invited me to join in her faith community’s Quiet Day today. Well, Quiet Chunk, since we began 10ish and will knock off somewhere around 2. As we waited for our formal starting, I overheard various half-laughing, half-nervous comments about how the day […]
This morning I took a little time (set my timer for ten minutes) for bringing my intentions in line with my actions; that is, for sitting with my Love awhile the way I sit with My Sweetie. The challenges are similar. For good communication to come out of another’s silence, I find that it is […]
