Patty Wysong has created a fun meme where once a week bloggers posted on the letter of the week. Check out the details here. It is called A2Z: Take 2. A2Z as she challenges bloggers to write a post each week going through the alphabet. Take 2 since this is the second time she has used this meme. Anyone can join in and you don’t have to always participate. Image via WikipediaWhat does the letter B bring to my mind and heart? Since I have been trying to find the gifts during cold and snowy Ohio winters, I could say that the letter “B” stands for bleak, boring, blowing, and brisk see your breath bundling cold. HA!But the letter “B” reminded me instantly on a blog post I wrote a year ago about bird nests and their lessons for me. So I am reprinted it here today in honor of the letter “B.”Image via Wikipedia Winter enfolds me with a sense of emptiness and loss of hope. My mood reflects the dreary gray winter sky that blanket northwest Ohio. But the last few years I see winter with … [Read more...]
A Perceiving God – Lectio Divina
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. Psalm 139: 1-2 NIVYou perceive my thoughts You perceive my thoughts, Lord.Why do You pay so much attention to me?I certainly don’t return the favor.Why do You listen so closely to everything I think and believe and act upon?I know I don’t take the time to hear You that deeply or consistently.Why are You so aware of my opinions and imagined perspectives of the world?Too often I only seek my ego-driven point of view, not pausing to wonder what You may have divinely designed.Perceive is an odd word, LordTo perceive – to observe to behold, to discern and discover, to grasp and to hear to know and to touch and to understand.Why, Lord?Part of me knows the answer lies in Your love, yet I resist fully believing if You really knew me, if You perceived my most inward thoughts… Would You still love me?Yet You hold fast and continue to … [Read more...]
Celtic Benediction – J. Philip Newell
Image via WikipediaIn the busyness of this day, grant me a stillness of seeing, O God. In the conflicting voices of my heart, grant me a calmness of hearing. Let my seeing and hearing my words and my actions be rooted in a silent certainty of your presence. Let my passions for life and the longings for justice that stir within me be grounded in the experience of your stillness. Let my life be rooted in the ground of your peace, O God, let me be rooted in the depths of your peace.from CELTIC BENEDICTION by J. Philip Newell … [Read more...]
A Spiritual Legacy – My Aunt Anna
Patty Wysong has created a fun meme where once a week bloggers posted on a letter of the alphabet. Check out the details here. It is called A2Z: Take 2. A2Z as she challenges bloggers to write a post each week going through the alphabet. Take 2 since this is the second time she has used this meme. Anyone can join in and you don’t have to always participate. The Letter AWhat does the letter A bring to my mind and heart? I knew the answer immediately: my great Aunt Anna.What a legacy she left. My middle name - Anne – was given to me in her honor. But she is also deep within my genes and DNA as she was a writer and studied spiritual giants in her lifetime.Aunt Anna was born on January 24 1883 and was the sister of my grandfather. She died when I was just a teenager at the age of 84 so my memory of her is a gray-headed old woman who liked to tend her garden. Little did I know then that as an adult, I would identify so much with her.Oh, how I would love to spend time with her now and … [Read more...]
Cold Sores and Cold Feet – No Wonder I Don’t Like Winter
This is the second in my series about Contemplating Winter – trying to find spiritual lessons in my least favorite season. You see, I am NOT a winter person. I dislike winter so much I rank it about ten on the list of four seasons. But I do know God sends us lessons in all experiences if only we are open to hold them for a while in our hands and hearts. What is winter showing me this year? “Contemplating Winter” will be the focus on my blog posts on Tuesday in January. Come and ponder this season with me."Hear! hear!" screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, "winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it." ~Henry David Thoreau, 28 November 1858 journal entryCOLDI pondered the word COLDthis morning. No wonder I don’t like it. Think of all the negative associations with this word:Cold soresCold feetCold-bloodedCold warCold caseCold shoulderCold sweatCold turkeyBrr – being cold is laden with emotional … [Read more...]
God Knows – Lectio Divina
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. Psalm 139: 1-2 NIVYou know me.You know me, Lord.Part of me takes great comfort with that statement.Yet buried deep in my ego I squirm with the idea that You really know me.All of me.The good. The bad. The hidden. You are familiar with every last atom in my body and fragment of my soul.No wonder I doubt Your love at times.I want to only share with You the decent, the behaving, the following all the rule parts. I put on my mask of self-righteousness and in vain smugness exclaiming to others: God love you! All the while tiptoeing the reality of my belief that if You really knew me, You would leave me.Yet You call me Your child.What an amazing God You are.You welcome me with open arms, embracing all of me. So enfolding me with love that all the walls between us disintegrate and I collapse in Your heart, knowing You do love me. Our souls meld in this all encompassing … [Read more...]
Blessing for the New Year – Quote of the Week
May this year we have peace within.May we trust God that we are exactly where we are meant to be and exactly where we are supposed to be heading.May we not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.May we use those gifts that we have received, and pass on the love thathas been given to us .May we be content knowing we are a child of God.Let this presence settle into our bones, and allow our soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.It is there for each and every one of us.St. Theresa … [Read more...]
Spiritual Discipline of Pilgrimage
My husband and I have been blessed to travel twice to Europe– once to Germany and another time to Italy - with a special lady, Sister Nancy Brousseau.Nancy doesn’t just offer tours she invites us to pilgrimage. She calls us pilgrims. The trips take on deeper meaning than just sightseeing.I treasure how I grow spiritually on those journeys and thought of them once again a few weeks ago while reading the book, The Art of Pilgrimage by Phil Cousineau. Rich with great quotes, it was one of those books I underlined quite a bit.“If we truly want to know the secret of soulful travel, we need to believe that there is something sacred waiting to be discovered in virtually every journey.”“A pilgrimage is a transformative journey to a sacred center…a pilgrimage is a spiritual exercise, an act of devotion…pilgrimage is a powerful metaphor for any journey with the purpose of finding something that matters deeply to the traveler.”“Pilgrimage is the kind of journeying that marks just this move from … [Read more...]