• being human,  embodied liturgies,  musings,  writing

    Embracing the Poet Within

    We live in a world that teaches us to follow the rules. We live in a world that teaches us to trust ‘authority.’ We live in a world of propaganda. We live in a world of capitalism and of greed … I would even go so far to say that we live in an alternate reality, a matrix of sorts. We live more by the rules of the world than of God’s will. And who can blame us? It’s what we’ve been taught. It’s the water we’ve been swimming in since the establishment of this country. It’s embedded in our cells, in our DNA. And if you’re an American like me, you’ve been taught this is the greatest country in the world. I am not refuting this fact, quite the contrary. I’m thankful to live in a democratic free country. But … I also…

  • being human,  breath,  embodied liturgies,  musings,  writing

    Expectant Waiting

    I have been in the season of Advent this year … Reading. Writing. Praying. Contemplating. Waiting — expectantly waiting. Yes, we wait patiently, expectantly this time of year. We know the story … The prophets of old tell it. Mary says ‘yes.’ Joseph says ‘yes.’ A child is born. A star guides the wise ones. The child grows up, performs wonders, shakes things up a lot, asks people to follow him, dies in a brutal and unjust way, rises to conquer death, and a movement is established in the years that follow. “What did we just witness?” the first Christians asked. They knew in their bodies that it was real … real-er than anything they’d ever experienced before. So during Advent, we’re taught to wait. We wait on Christ, his arrival in the form of a baby named Jesus. God and man as one.…

  • being human,  embodied liturgies,  learning,  musings

    Wisdom is Fostered by Awe

    All we have is a sense of awe and radical amazement in the face of a mystery that staggers our ability to sense it…. Awe is more than an emotion; it is a way of understanding, insight into a meaning greater than ourselves. The beginning of awe is wonder, and the beginning of wisdom is awe. Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for the … mystery beyond all things. It enables us … to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal. What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe.  Faith…

  • being human,  breath,  embodied liturgies,  musings,  writing

    Wonder, Awe, Amazement!

    For the last several years, I’ve chosen a word for myself during a journaling exercise completed close to the end of each calendar year. For 2023, my word was ALIVENESS, and this word showed up for me in a big way. In fact, it showed up in an extreme way I’d never want to invite again … being profoundly sick for a full two months this summer — the biggest lack of aliveness I’ve ever felt in this lifetime. I chose the word because I wanted to feel fully alive, present, completely IN my life. I didn’t (and don’t) want to miss the magic. Interestingly, the Center for Action & Contemplation’s theme this week is AMAZEMENT, which might have been a better word to choose given the trajectory that followed the choosing of aliveness. From today’s meditation, Rohr writes this: “When the veil is…