Category: Mystery / Unknown

Separating the Wheat of Life from the Chaff — some wisdom from Helen Luke’s essay, “The Odyssey”:
“Why do you speak of a winnowing fan,” said Odysseus, “when you must know very well that this is a beautiful oar with which I cleave the great waters of the wine-dark seas around us?” …

“You are right, I am not ignorant of the oar… I was not pretending by using the words ‘winnowing fan’…I ask you now only to think of the meaning of that image.”
Continue reading “Separating the Wheat of Life from the Chaff” →

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Receiving the Precious Gift of Time

By Friday night, March 13, all organized activities and classes were cancelled, and I realized the pandemic had cleared my calendar for at least two weeks. Life suddenly became uncrowded as daily routines were swept away.

In the clearing, I saw the precious gift we have received:
the gift of time.

For at least the next two weeks, there is an abundance of unscheduled time. How often does this happen in a lifetime? What discoveries are within reach if one’s focus shifts away from scarcity to recognizing this unexpected opportunity in this present life?

The gift has been given and although I cannot hold it in my hands, I can acknowledge the gift and receive it. Continue reading “Receiving the Precious Gift of Time” →

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Gifts that Keep Giving

I just cycled back to Phil Constineau’s pilgrimage to Angkor Wat. I bought The Art of Pilgrimage when it was just published in 1998.  Only recently I recognized the deeper connections: Angkor Wat was the center of Phil’s book, and the spark that would light his travelers lamp was a book from Phil’s dad.

This book quietly illuminates the full circuit of a living gift.  It keeps giving and the reach continues to expand.

Discovering the Hidden Beauty of the World

Phil received the book about Angkor Wat on his eleventh birthday.  It wasn’t a gift he had asked for, but the bronze-tinted book depicted sculptures of the long forgotten world of the Khmers that transported the eleven-year old beyond known boundaries. Continue reading “Gifts that Keep Giving” →

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Life’s Reflection at 47E – the Interconnectedness of One Veteran’s Action to Remember Them

I visited 47E at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Labor Day. It’s been over two decades since my last visit. The photo is my attempt to capture the light, life’s reflections and the promise of RESURGAM, which is a vast interconnectedness that keeps weaving through time.

As for words, remembering Phil Woodall is important. His name is not on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He’s the Vietnam veteran who drew my attention to 47E with two written words: Alpha Company.

Continue reading “Life’s Reflection at 47E – the Interconnectedness of One Veteran’s Action to Remember Them” →

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Sitting Under Such Enormous Space

Stars above Mount Kilimanjaro

From “Learning to Walk in the Dark” by Barbara Brown Taylor:
“How long since we have done this?” Ed asks in my ear.
How long since we have left our house, which we know so well, to climb a hill and sit next to each other in the dark with nothing to do but wait for the moon to rise? How long since we have sat quietly under such enormous space?
“Twenty years,” I say.
“Why is that?” he says.
He and I both know why, but the answer makes me so sad that I cannot say it out loud. We have been busy. For twenty years.
Busy? The word loses all meaning under the canopy of this sky.

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Look with the Heart, Not the Eye of a Stranger

rustic wood plank exterior with aged patina

So much truth in the words from the banquet speech of the 2015 Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, Svetlana Alexievich.

“Why do I write? I have been called a writer of catastrophes, but that isn’t true. I am always looking for words of love. Hate will not save us. Only love. And I have hope.

… In one Belarusian village, an old woman bade me farewell with the following words: “Soon we will go our separate ways. Thank you for listening to me and for conveying my pain to other people. I beg you, as you leave, to have a look at my little cabin not only once, but twice. When a person looks a second time, it is not with the eye of a stranger, it is a look with the heart …”

(Excerpts are from Svetlana Alexievich’s banquet speech during the Nobel Prize Banquet on December 10, 2015)

Continue reading “Look with the Heart, Not the Eye of a Stranger” →

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Leaning into the Unknown image

What is Liminal space? Richard Rohr writes: “Liminal space (from the Latin limen for “threshold”) is an inner state and sometimes an outer situation where we can begin to think and act in genuinely new ways. It is when we are betwixt and between, having left one room or stage of life but not yet entered the next.” Continue reading →

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