Photography
-
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 You Own Blog! (Part 3)
It's my final morning staying with the Sisters of Loretto, reading, writing, breathing, meditating, being. Since I'm away, this blog's all yours. I thought you might like to respond to this quote, from Fr. James Clark: "The best place to… 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
-
Write Your Own Blog! (Part 1)
I'm staying for a few days with the Sisters of Loretto at their Spirituality Center southwest of Denver. In my absence, feel free to complete today's blog yourself. You might respond to this quote from Sister Miriam Therese Winter (author… Continue reading
-
The River
In Hidalgo there's a riverthat's renewed my faith in grace;strongly flows with cooling waterfor my body and my face. Lord, you knew that this was coming,placed it on our journey back,knew our bodies needed cleansing,and our souls refreshment lacked. So we… Continue reading
-
The Ultimate Liberal
How ironic that many conservative Christians use the word liberal to brand their political enemies, as if that's a bad thing. It's ironic, because the Christian faith is founded on one simple concept: grace. Hmm. Grace? Liberality? Generosity? God, according to… Continue reading
-
Live, Finally
Stop trying to domesticate the divine. God is sensuous, unpredictable, vulnerable, tender, lonesome, dangerous, arbitrary. Throw yourself over the rim, into the depths. Live, finally. Text and image © 2010 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 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