The 60-Second Sabbath

Humility

  • Three Dresser Drawers

    She may take only what fits in three dresser drawers. Continue reading

  • Listen to Your Life

    "Listen to your life," advises Frederick Buechner. "Listen to what happens to you because it is through what happens to you that God speaks…" This is also what my friend Jim says. The morning we learned that our office was… Continue reading

  • Stopped Dead

    Stopped dead between headstones,dry leaves drifting over my shoes,I scan, rescan the engraved letters.This century-old epitaph could be mine. I feel like Scrooge sighting along the bony fingerof his future ghost. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All… Continue reading

  • Already Present

    God is already presentand always will be.My prayer won't change that.My praise won't change that. I open my eyes:    He is there.I open my cupboard:    She is there.I open my front door:    It is there.I open:    All is there. Text and image © 2011… Continue reading

  • Welcome

    Why are you here? Did you come for transformation?Or to feel good? Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.   Continue reading

  • This Burden of Knowing

    In the course of the conversation,over a cigarette and a Negroni,he'd expressed his passionate opinionabout a local news anchor,a state politician,a popular TV show,an award-winning movie,a national restaurant chain,sauvignon blanc from New Zealand vs. California,global warming,a friend,a family member,and what… Continue reading

  • New York City View, May, 2002

    We view the pastonly through the lens of the present.Can we trust this perspective? In the photo below,that which is modernshapes our vision of that which is oldas the sleek glass of a contemporary skyscraperreflects classic New York architecture.Only a… Continue reading

  • Like a Carpet

    Like a carpet nobody vacuums,I accumulate debris–the dust and danderof images and dreams,memories and mistakes–    grinding my fibers,    dulling my luster,    matting my nap. I need to be Bisselled.Heaven Hoover me! Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.   Continue reading

  • Abandon

    At any given momentyou are called to abandoneverything that has beenfor what is next. At every given moment–this one, for example–you are called to abandonevery actual or imagined thing that has ever, ever been,for what is next. At this moment…and… Continue reading

  • “Love Me,” We Say

    The Sufi poet Hafiz, writing over 600 years ago, opens one of his poems by asserting: "Everyone you see, you say to them, 'Love me.'" You don't say it aloud, of course, but it's there, just beneath the surface, revealed… Continue reading