My Blog

Beuchner, Breath, Heartbeat, and The Jesus Prayer

Beuchner, Breath, Heartbeat, and The Jesus Prayer

As I look out over the Salish Sea towards the Olympic Mountains of Washington State, I see fewer cargo ships than usual. The Port Workers Union here is on strike. We hear talk that organizations of all kinds everywhere need to be reorganized quickly and wisely to...

Pentecost and the Giving of God’s Holy Spirit

Pentecost and the Giving of God’s Holy Spirit

This past Sunday the minister and many members of our congregation wore flame-red shirts or dresses. The banners and hangings at the front of the church were also red. This helped make the service feel like a party, a banquet and a fiesta. The celebration was...

Eastertide

Eastertide

After a well celebrated Easter, many of us hope that we will lightly and also seriously surrender into awareness of our deep oneness with everyone and everything. Billy Collins poem, Aimless Love, playfully dances us into possible scenes of transformed awareness:...

On The River

On The River

I offer this poem, which I wrote in 1982, not because I think it is a good poem. I offer it because it came to me and has stayed with me. I hope some poems come to you and stay with you. I hope you honor your insights. I took a course in American Literature when we...

Blog for Lent

Blog for Lent

As we begin this fourth week in Lent, I decide, as I have decided before, that I like the life of a pilgrim. I like to begin every week with preparations that will help me keep focused on one goal that is beyond my grasp. My goal is to allow myself to be transformed...

Into Lent Towards Easter

Into Lent Towards Easter

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. In the city where we live, priests and ministers were out on city streets this morning in the bitter cold offering to place ashes on the foreheads of those who wanted that for themselves. The light in the morning sky is not bright here in...