The Call I Have Heard All My Life …

I have heard it all my life A voice calling a name I recognized as my own. Sometimes it comes as a soft-bellied whisper. Sometimes it holds an edge of urgency. But always it says:  Wake up my love. You are walking asleep. There’s no safety in that! Remember what you are and let this…

The Task of Spring …

In the spring, it is my job to envision fruitfulness and commit to it. It is my task to breathe in the air and perceive the earth and ripe, vulnerable seed, to grasp the possibility. In spring my work is to imagine and to dig and dig and feel and listen and smell and taste.…

God Is Everywhere …

The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that God is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, and music is in both the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe.…

Start Close In …

Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take. Start with the ground you know, the pale ground beneath your feet, your own way to begin the conversation. Start with your own question, give up on other people’s questions,…

I Will Try …

I will try. I will step from the house to see what I see and hear and I will praise it. I did not come into this world to be comforted. I come, like red bird, to sing. But I'm not red bird, with his head-mop of flame and the red triangle of his mouth…

Primary Wonder …

Days pass when I forget the mystery. Problems insoluble and problems offering their own ignored solutions jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing their colored clothes; cap and bells. And then once more the quiet mystery is present to me, the throng's clamor recedes: the…

The Work Of Listening: To Keep The Song That Comes Out Of Nowhere Alive …

We forever drift in and out of the miracle before us. As our eyes dilate and constrict in order to see, we are opened by love, wonder, and truth into the immediacy of all that is incomprehensible, only to wrestle with pain, loss, and obstacles that make us constrict. And during the wrestle, the miracle…

Spring Meditation: Awakening The Heart From Its Ancient Sleep …

All living creatures are sparks from the radiation of God’s brilliance, and these sparks emerge from God like the rays of the sun. If God did not give off these sparks, how would the divine flame become fully visible? — Hildegard of Bingen O, You who are ever giving life to all life, moving all creatures,…

Listening Is A Personal Pilgrimage …

Listening is a personal pilgrimage that takes time and a willingness to lean into life. With each trouble that stalls us and each wonder that lifts us, we're asked to put down our conclusions and feel and think anew. Unpredictable as life itself, the practice of listening is one of the most mysterious, luminous and…