Category: Contemplative Life
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Light and Shadow
There is no shadow without light, nor is there light without shadow. The existence of one requires the existence of the other. The land we live in, the place we call home, has been transformed into a noisy caricature of itself, devolving into a shouting match between people who are always right and never wrong. …
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No Sense of Time
I snapped an image of these lilies on our front lawn five or six weeks ago. As perennials go, they are vociferous. It’s a yearly effort that keeps them from taking over the garden, and each time I see new ones sprouting, I dig them up and move them out to the creekside, where I…
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Reflections
I keep thinking I will catch my breath, that someone will push a pause button so I can bring some meaning to the present moment. I struggle for the equilibrium to form a coherent thought, and just when I think I have found it, the constant bad news finds me where I am and screams…
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We Shall Overcome.
These are the times that try our souls, while petulant children masquerading as world leaders duke it out on the playground. The problem is, the world is not a playground. Just ask the people of Guam. The last time we were this close to nuclear conflict, I was in kindergarten. The memories are mostly emotional,…
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Smartphones in the Sanctuary
I took this photo on a blustery afternoon a few years back. This is the roofline of the chapel at Linwood Spiritual Center, home to the Sisters of St. Ursula, and an important place of meditation and learning in my life. Taken in the waning days of autumn just before the inevitable slide into a…
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The Gifts of Evil
The whole of life includes both light and shadow, much like this path in Fort Tryon, experienced on summer’s most beautiful morn. The light calls us forward, calls us higher, transforms us into everything we are created to be, but not without first moving through some shadows. Recently, we watched the new documentary that Princes…
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Higher, Brighter
There’s just something about a rainbow, isn’t there? I have been known to park my car just so I can stare at one, perhaps photograph it, or just drink in the hopeful energy it seems to represent. The storm feels threatening, flashes of lightning and startling claps of thunder, driving winds and rain, and then…
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At the Moment
I have said it many times, in conversations, in sermons, and in writings: I cannot change the past. I cannot control the future. The only place to effect change is in the present. Hence, the point of meditation, to bring us deeply into the present moment, to breathe, to notice, to notice what we notice,…
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Stop and Sniff
One of the great things about having a dog in New York is that you have to walk. A lot. Sometimes very slowly. Canines collect information by sniffing, and none of it happens on anyone’s schedule. When we are “onto something,” it is a singular focus, and if it doesn’t involve a subway grate, a…
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Resist or Not?
The cultural byword of our current era is “resistance.” It greets us in social media, on t-shirts, and on bumper stickers. It is uttered by pundits, social activists, and preachers. “Resist! Persist!” has become the rallying cry for a new movement which possesses a passion once reserved for the “We Shall Overcome!” days of the…
Deeper Streams 