Peace
-
Amma
Breathe in. "Abba." Breathe out. "Abba." One of the ways I pray is to silently repeat words or phrases, often matched to my breathing (if sitting) or my steps (if walking). This is nothing unique, but an ancient way of… Continue reading
-
Prayer
Don't say prayers. Be prayer. Text and image © 2010 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading
-
Autumn in the Garden of Eden
As winter approaches the Garden of Eden,autumn's cleansing handstrips bare the branchesof the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What, then, is left to know? Stare up through the black, beseeching limbsto the infinity of stars beyond. Text and… Continue reading
-
Write Your Own Blog! (Part 2)
I'm on a personal retreat for a few days, so I'm inviting you, the reader, to write the blog yourself. You might consider what Jewel sings in her moving song "Hands" (by Jewel Kilcher and Patrick Leonard): "In the end, only kindness matters. In… Continue reading
-
Blankness
I start a new journal…devoid of all words…nothing but gloriously empty lines. What if I just left it blank? To borrow the words of poet Billy Collins, what if I stopped "running my mouth"? What if I stopped "leaning on the… Continue reading
-
Night Will Blossom
We all grow old. You are older today than yesterday. This is as true for me (at 57) as for the toddler, the teen, the twenty-something. We grow old. I'm not afraid of this. I may have been once (and… Continue reading
-
A Gift to Give Yourself
Forgiveness has less to do with whether or not the other person deserves forgiveness and more to do with the quality of my life, now. Do I want to live anxiously, fretfully, obsessively? Or would I rather live with peace and… Continue reading
-
Returning
So I return from a time away, where I have been immersed in negativity and cynicism. I was getting sucked in. Not what I wanted. Not healthy. In such a beautiful setting, ripe with delight and creativity, it's a shame.… Continue reading
-
Fearful Questions
The trick, in uncertain times, is not to let your decisions be ruled by questions that arise from fear. As Thomas Merton points out, "A huge network of anxious questions surrounds us and begins to guide many, if not most… Continue reading
-
Letting Go
Strive for nothingness, the point of complete surrender, of acknowledged helplessness, weakness, poverty, detachment. All ideas of self released. Paradoxically, ironically, in surrender we finally know freedom—from pretense, fruitless self-talk, dissatisfaction, fear, superiority, jealousy, anger. We enter peace, compassion, clarity,… Continue reading