I came across this quotation the other day and I have not been able to shake it from my mind. Some of its power comes from timing. I read it on the anniversary of a sad and difficult event in my life. Just about a year ago now, I was with a family member I…
Author: Kimberly M. King
I am a Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ) living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I am the director of Barat Spirituality Centre, www.baratspirituality.org, a writer, a juggler, a quick wit, a walker. I enjoy reading all sorts of fiction and non-fiction and regularly write both essays and poetry. Other interests and abilities include Spanish/English written translation and simultaneous interpretation, cooking, and time spent thinking and observing.
The Long Way Round
Longest way round is the shortest way home. ~~James Joyce in Ulysses~~ I read this quotation somewhere a number of days ago and it has stayed with me…I played around with it while thinking too of the mathematical principle of the shortest distance between two objects being a straight line. They seem to be saying…
The Divine Poetic
Non coerceri a maximo, sed contineri a minimo divinum est. Not to be limited by the greatest, yet to be contained in the tiniest– this is the divine. Ignatius of Loyola Conversations about poetry continued in the classroom this week. We re-enacted a 125 year old ball game while reciting the stanzas of Casey…
Sing it out!
I gave my students a test last week…which meant that the first book we read as a literature class is now over…which means I need to know what comes next. I didn’t. Until last night. And now, egad, I am thrilled. We’re doing poetry…long poetry. Story-telling poetry. Salty-sweet-tang-for-the-tongue-deeply-musical-visual poetry. Interestingly enough, the idea for this…
Sacred moment, sacred trust
Yesterday I had a third grader bless me…and I am still left with the sensation of awe, respect, and humility that I experienced in that moment and in the hours that followed. After her class trip to the library, a student approached me, telling me that her grandmother had died and that the funeral is…
An Act of Creation a day…
“In the time that I have been sitting and looking at the screen or staring off into the seemingly greener grass distance, I could be making scones.” This is the salvific thought I had this afternoon. Words are no more at the ready than they were before and my thoughts are no more ordered, but…
Mystical Immediate
Late afternoon this past Tuesday, I returned from a month of helping out with an RSCJ project in Cuba. Over the course of three weeks, we put on 11 different day-camps at different sites for over 360 children. It was a phenomenal experience and I offer below some reflections from my journal…. 14 July, 2013….
An Adventure
It isn’t as though I don’t know that an adventure is coming. I have been making piles for a while now and going over lists. I have purchased what new is needed and found what has been tucked away since the last time. I have washed, folded, selected, bagged, and packed. I have copied documents,…
Kindred Company
Of late I have been reading Paul Elie’s book, The Life You Save may be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage. Hmm…reading it…no, that is not entirely accurate. Savoring it. Sipping it slowly. Feeling it bloom within me, warming me, teasing my senses with hints of something familiar and yet a distinct combination of flavors all…
Here and There: Cartography.
I recently began reading a book about maps and the influence of cartography on society throughout history. It sounds weighty, but honestly, it is a fascinating and humorously engaging read. One of the things it has made me think about is the fact that far from the fixed and firm directional tools many maps are…
Consider the Lilies 