The 60-Second Sabbath

meaning

  • A Life of Meaning

    If you want that life–that life of meaning,that life of union with the divine,that life of satisfaction, devotion, wholeness,that life of true and constant perspective–then pursue it full-heartedly. Don't go about it half-assed.It's all or nothing. Text and image © 2013… Continue reading

  • Native Tongue

    English is my second language. Poetry is my first. Do you want to understand me?Do you want to be understood?Engage me with symbol and simile,metaphor and ritual,evocation and allusion,the resonant, resounding play of syllables,the engaging, enriching arc of imagery. This… Continue reading

  • Greasing the Skids

    "Grease the skids,"said his father. He had no ideawhat skids were,or where or how to grease them,or what relevance either grease or skids hadto his current problem. His father was proneto sudden, short and seemingly certain solutionsto any problem,all of… Continue reading

  • Slots

    I walk through the casinoto get to the pool.Slot machinesin a taped-off area,have been opened uplike patients undergoing heart surgery,their dark, mechanical innards exposed–lights off,sounds silenced,hearts excised. Not playmates.Not friends.Simply gutless machinesprogrammed to fool  youinto giving them your money. I… Continue reading

  • Times Square, September, 2012

    I just returned from NYC.Each day,to get to the office,I walked through Times Square. People come from around the worldto stand in Times Square–crowded, noisy, littered–and take picture after pictureof gigantic advertisements.That's all Times Square is–enormous, stories-tall advertisements. I don't… Continue reading

  • Fill in the Blanks

    blank page    blank heart a page of possibilities    a heart of possibilities with what will you fill yours?  Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.   Continue reading

  • The Purpose of Beauty

    While walking solitary in the mountains, I emerge from the woodsand step out into clear and open air,into a vista of astonishing beauty,into sacred space beyond breathing. I ask:"Am I the only one to see this–beauty this piercingly expansive–which may… Continue reading

  • Doing What We Can

    I feel small today,sitting in the presence of Eboo Pateland a panel of volunteer participants,who have, it seems,done more to advance the cause of world peaceby the age of 30,than I will in my lifetime.  But then I remind myselfof… Continue reading

  • The Meaning of Life

    Two martinis now within,just east of my usual filters,I'm close to asking the waiter,"What do you think is the meaning of life?What, in you opinion, is the point?" My notebook and penwait open beside my now-empty plate. But alas,perhaps a… Continue reading

  • Great and Historic Virtue

    We see our lives small:what have we accomplished, really? Yesterday I spent three hours ironing–did this heal the world?Did this advance the reign of God? From the 13th centuryechoes the voice of St. Bonaventure:"The perfection of a spiritual man [woman]is… Continue reading