Stillness
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Essential Self
You are not your history;your history is not you. You are not your family;your family is not you. You are not what you believe;your beliefs are not you. You are not your accomplishments;what you've done is not you. You are… Continue reading
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Slipping Off Center
Another day,another meeting,more ballyhoo and hullabaloo,fuss and flapdoodle,bobbery, bother and blather,more hoo-ha and foofaraw,alarums and excursions,coil and kerfuffle,Sturm und Drang,whelter and whirl… And then it ends.I sit in silence,look out at the snow gently falling on the city,breathe deeplyand return to… Continue reading
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Advents
It's Advent,and there are more arrivalsthan that of sweet baby Jesus: the train of memory drops them off,one by one, as it circles the tree– pets and playmates, classmates and cousins, parents and neighbors, siblings and colleagues, … Continue reading
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In what ways, today,will you increase your awarenessthat you are God's beloved? By reading this,you have. And you might slow down sing sit keep silencewalk open hold hands absorblisten meditate stretch … Continue reading
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Advent Lament
No, you come to early, Lord Jesus:Just announced, yet here it is, two weeks from your arrival. We've got too much to do… Chex Mix to make, cookies to bake.Thank God (I mean, thank your Father) … Continue reading
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Advent Grief, Revisited
(for Jeremy and Mason) How, at your end, are things? Christmas just a week awayand such sudden emptinessof home, of heart death leaves us vacant;I have felt it;negative space the shape of your beloved for a timeyou shall occupy that… Continue reading
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The Approach
Advent, and who is this approaching? What hidden self emerges from the woods, the crawl space, the garden labyrinth? What time-hidden, reclusive divine embodiment has Word to give, Word to enflesh, my Word, that… Continue reading
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Fireflies
shim'ring shards of lightbreak from the breast of the moondrift as night glitter Text and image © 2014 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading
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How Poetry Works, Revisited
"Poetry?No, I don't generally read poetry.I don't get it." "Of course not," she said."Poetry isn't gotten;it's absorbed.You read it,and read it,and read it,and then it's inside of you, and you are someone else." Text and image © 2014 by Dirk… Continue reading
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The Pier
I stand at the end of the pier,face to the dark and the wind.Waves roll toward me,each one another tomorrow–identical tomorrows,endless.I feel chilled;the wind, the waves, the lonelinessempty me. Text and image © 2014 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading