Garden Grace I like praying when my hands smell like the garden… green and soil warm, fresh bean-snap pea sweet, earthy and close… like I just clapped my hands as You danced in the field primeval and full of creation. The other evening, I came home from school thoroughly glad to be heading into the…
Acts of Creation
It was a day to experiment. Rain brings out that desire sometimes. Somehow, the soft tikki-tum of raindrops can act as the protective curtain that says “within this space, you can try something new, something bold, something different…and if it works, great! And if it doesn’t, great!” Whether it works or not, however I understand…
Another Poem to Mary
Oh Mary (a continuation of a series…) Oh Mary, I want to keep my soul free and keep my soul wide; I want to remember the big and the details, the loose and the particular; I want to live what it feels like to center-down deep— living lightly while YES comes springing its AH! just…
Poet in the Kitchen
After the morning rituals of coffee and writing, praying, and listening, I headed to the kitchen to make dinner with enough time for it to get to know itself better before we would eat this evening. I found myself uncharacteristically working on more than one dish at a time. I usually find that rather chaotic,…
All at once
Walking home from Church,Jakarta, Indonesia I could still hear the singing that reminds me of butterflies- rising on the delicate colors of hope and humble praise when I teased outthe sweet thread of jasminefrom the rough woven clothof hard living worn by the manselling hot steamed musselsand clacking his stickagainst the cart. He passed as…
Brilliant In the shadows
These are some of the wayang gedog, gedog puppets or shadow puppets, first created and used in 16th century Indonesia….which of course wasn’t yet Indonesia. I saw them yesterday on a visit to Taman Mini cultural center, here in Jakarta. I was quite taken by them…mesmerized, really. Carved from water buffalo leather,they have extraordinary detail–the…
Jakarta, Entry II
Dalam nama Bapa, dan Putera, dan Roh Kudus…. (In the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit…) I renewed my vows in Indonesian yesterday! It was a beautiful celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart…we had mass in the house here with the entire area minus two who…
A New Corner of the Sky
I am sitting in a kitchen not my own…in a city not my own…in a state not my own… and yet, as I head out into the coming Adventure, I am feeling quite at home. These last days have been days filled with walking for miles each afternoon, long morning thinks accompanied by a strong mug…
Preparations
Of late, I have spent some considerable time thinking about and engaged in preparations for various things: helping other faculty and staff prepare for the end of the school year craziness; creating a morning prayer for our provincial assembly this summer; getting the library ready for its summer rest–checking in and shelving all returned materials,…
Birthmarks
Ink Stains The thanksgivings of humming-new images or ideasthat linger with mewhile they test their wings,still damp with the blue love of birth. c. MperiodPress I wrote this after noticing my hands yesterday as I penned several pages in my journal. I looked down and saw the filled in fingerprints of thumb and index finger and…
Consider the Lilies 