Real is Real is Real (Sorry, Gertrude…)

It’s a pansy, not a rose…ergo the apologies to Gertrude Stein who pointed out that a rose is a rose is a rose… But the “equality of real” was something from a conversation yesterday when noting with a friend that no one thing taken in by the senses is any more ‘real’ than any other…

Paris-Pace

A simple thought this Saturday… The other day I met a friend to walk back over toward her house to get a coffee/nibble at a local bakery I’d never tried. I remarked that it took far less time to walk there than I had thought it would. She laughed and said “Well, you are with…

Never too old for a blankie

The theme of the school year next door is Choosing Love, Hope, and Compassion for our world… I was invited to speak to the Junior Primaries thru Grade 2s about this theme at the opening of their school year, which happened today. Thought I’d share it here… (Side note…Yes, that picture is of a blankie…specifically,…

New out of Nothing and Everything

Creating something new out of nothing and everything… I recently heard a friend preach and she used this line to refer to God’s work of shaping new from what already is… I heard it, wrote it down immediately, and then felt a niggle of familiarity once the words settled… A new way of saying it,…

Breaking into lines

One of the fifteen RSCJ staying at our house these days is a musician well known within Latin America for her singing, lyrics, and guitar playing. At some moment we were talking about how experiences become language which can then become poetry or lyrics. And, sometimes one type of writing becomes something else entirely when…

All that and Ice Cream to Boot

There are currently two guests staying with the community—one from Uganda and one from Japan. We had finished dinner, just the three of us, and I suggested a walk to get ice cream at a popular local place called the Dairy Bar. It is known for its interesting flavors and long lines in the summer….

Resonance

From the journal… In the Public Gardens on a bench by the dahlias. Lunch is wrapped in a cloth napkin in my bag, tucked in among crosswords, a novel, and assorted writing implements. This journal was in there, but is now flopped open on my thigh. Somewhere I am remembering that the column width of…

At Ease with Belonging…a Poem

At a recent gathering I attended, multiple people mentioned that they were seeing new facets of me, new aspects of who I was. I found this fascinating because at this gathering, I was, in part, doing what I do regularly…I was writing, helping the group pray… The people there had read and prayed with my…

The There and The Then and the What Will Be… a Poem

The There and the Then and the What Will Be There were things that I could have donebefore leaving:The sink which hadn’t seemedall that bad; the community of goodsgathered in the fridgewho since my goingand returning once again,have overstayed their welcome;desktop mountain rangeswith would-be landslidesarranged to topplewith the slightest addition.However, standing as I amin a…

Who Do you Say…

I have answered this question many times in my life…Who do you say that I am? And while there are a few elements in common over the years, I am equally grateful to know that there is no limit…that there remains the impossibility of containing; that more remains than I can possibly hope for or…