Month: May 2016

union with God

Sufi poetry page from Denver Museum of Art Mysticism is nothing more than the experience of the living God, which I find in this Sufi poetry.  What would life be like if the people of this planet were willing to train so hard in spiritual practices that they could experience God,...

age

Denver Art Museum, The Asian Collection, 5th Floor What would it be like if we all spent even just one day with a person of great age and wisdom.  I will admit that not all people of great age are wise or enlightened.  But they at least have great experience. ...

bits of beuty as a healing agent

    Ohi Chozaemon IX (1901-1986)  Japan, 1955, Earthenware Tea Bowl Denver Museum of Art Not to long ago I found that I had nothing scheduled in my calendar from 12:30-1:30 on a Wednesday. I remember being confused by the space.  What do I do?  Should I not be having...

Love as God’s favorite creation-color

Recently I had some friends over. We discussed how God seems to have chosen “love” as God’s favorite color when making creation. We made pottery in the studio and cooked a long,slow, spring dinner of roasted country ribs on Gorgonzola potatoes and sage-butter green beans on clean, bone-white porcelain. We...

sitting

The Denver Art Museum, Asian Collection, Fifth Floor, May 2016 - a lunch hour sitting with images that sit. Sitting in peacefulness is a hard thing to do in our culture.  We move fast.  We accomplish a lot.  We have to, in order to maintain the standards of living we...

mushrooms

The farmers markets are my favorite place on the planet.  And if I were not a Christian, say an atheist or a good, old fashioned pagan, I would consider farmer’s markets my form of church, like so many do hiking or yoga. At a farmer’s market recently there was a...

Kai-the-dog

Kai-the-dog When you look at me I see God perhaps more than in a chalice silver and crimson red with wine, and more than a paten with ridiculous wafers nobody enjoys eating. I see God in those big eyes which say over and over again that you love me and...

ritual, ceremony and a bad dream

Today I heard Richard Rohr say that the difference between ritual and ceremony is that ritual lets in the darkness.  It felt so true that for a few beats I could not breathe.  He said that in ceremony there is praise and thanksgiving but there is no darkness allowed, no...

Interim Blessing

A friend read this blessing recently, reminding me that John had a blessing for an interim period in his book of blessings and so I pass it along today.  It is a wonderful blessing for a church in an in-between place and for Mary and John who lived their lives...

exchanging our speeches for silence

It takes great courage to be gentle.  And it takes especially great courage to be gentle with our selves.  We hold tightly onto the things we have chosen to believe.  We think things and then we choose, for whatever reason, to believe the things we think. Its insanity and we...