Praise Songs I—VII
by[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]WHEN DARKNESS TURNS UNEXPECTEDLY TO LIGHT[/perfectpullquote] I. Glowworms Late one evening in early summer, Frank and I…
Essay
Summer in the Fields
byWhen Davis and I began preparations to leave California—moving out of our apartment, putting furniture in storage—we told our friends and family that we…
Pandemic Sabbath
byWhat could be more useless than walking a labyrinth? Just a lot of turns and backtracking, taking up my valuable time. I like to…
Dancing Frog
byIt must be summertime, the season of outdoor dance parties and cookouts, because I just cannot get enough of dancing—and, more specifically, dancing animals….
Earth, Our Original Monastery: The Cathedral of Forest and Mountain
bySometimes when I work with retreat groups, I start by having them engage in a simple storytelling exercise called babbling,1 in which retreatants pair…
The Beautiful, the Good, and the True: Through the Eyes of Lapland Azalea
byThe Beautiful My kayak glided through a narrow canyon, the sandstone walls rising vertically more than sixty feet, speckled with ferns, moss, and fan-shaped…
Bear Country
byI have been thinking lately of going feral. Once or twice each season I briefly leave the comforts of my home in the front…
A Bloody Mess
byBetty Sue is fixing a roast, in honor of Wynette who died last Tuesday. The meal will be a stick-to-your-ribs affair—beef with potatoes and…
Death of a Red-Tailed Hawk
by“The whole universe is aflame.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Mystique, (1917) I By midafternoon the hawk was ill and by…