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• Lenten reflection 5: I’m probably way off base

  A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That are Transforming the Faith by Brian McLaren A Christian synchroblog that I have written with sometimes in the last few years has sort of gone extinct. Every now and again a theme for a synchronized blog raises Read More... Posted Tuesday, March 09, 2010 1:27 AM by Beth Patterson | 12 Comments Filed under: ancestors, birth, lent, questions

• wings of understanding

  “In a boat down a fast-running creek, it feels like trees on the bank are rushing by. What seems to be changing around us is rather the speed of our craft leaving this world.” --Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī Photo taken at springs flowing directly out of Read More... Posted Saturday, January 02, 2010 9:24 PM by Beth Patterson | 20 Comments Filed under: amazement, ancestors, beauty, becoming more human, dreams, one single impression

• Sobonfu Some talks about Women’s Wisdom and Grief

  Many of you are familiar with Malidoma Some’s work with men and initiation, flowing from his tribal connections to the African Dagara. His now ex wife Sobonfu Some has some equally powerful things to say about women’s processes. This video is especially Read More... Posted Sunday, December 20, 2009 12:25 PM by Beth Patterson | 2 Comments Filed under: aging gracefully, alchemy, ancestors, grief

• Where Michelangelo may have gotten his inspiration

  Wait. Hold the phone. Did Michelangelo take one of those Inland Passage tours? Had a hard time getting to Vancouver from Rome in the 1500’s? Maybe he just dreamed the scene above and here came the hands of man and god, voila. The creative process is like Read More... Posted Sunday, November 22, 2009 11:31 AM by Beth Patterson | 11 Comments Filed under: ancestors, creativity, one single impression

• Guest post by Kathy Powell: 'Salmon Becomes Them'

  One of the best parts of the Virtual Tea House is that it is becoming an incubator for new voices. Out of the recent Nature of Words workshops here in Bend, I met a new-to-be friend, Kathy Powell who lives here in Central Oregon. This is her first post Read More... Posted Saturday, November 14, 2009 4:33 PM by Beth Patterson | 5 Comments Filed under: ancestors, connection, guest posts

• forgiveness in the thin places

  Samhain Day of the Dead All Soul’s Day Our prayer: Bring us to the edge of the known Allow us access to what we swim in but don’t usually breathe. These thin days shift us like turned pages like the enter key like sleep. We enter the darkness of the year Read More... Posted Sunday, November 01, 2009 6:26 PM by Beth Patterson | 18 Comments Filed under: ancestors, forgiveness, one single impression

• Sentenced: Skinned into life

  As we near one of the 'thin places' in the calendar year-- All Soul's Day, All Hallow's E'en, and yes, even the Day of the Dead, those who have gone before are working with me even harder than usual to make contact and to teach me through my thick skin. Read More... Posted Saturday, October 10, 2009 11:47 AM by Beth Patterson | 30 Comments Filed under: ancestors, one single impression

• It's elemental, Watson

  It's rudimentary, my dear Watson. Why do you struggle to experience yourself as separate from the basic building blocks of the universe? W hy do you discriminate between Sky God and Earth Goddess? How can you have one without the other? Fire's in our Read More... Posted Tuesday, April 28, 2009 1:32 PM by Beth Patterson | 7 Comments Filed under: alchemy, ancestors, burning, calling things by their right name, cartography, connections

• hope and other non-sequiturs

  A couple weeks ago I posted on hope   and posited some ideas about both some things that I don't hope for during these times, mostly that our lives return to what they were...and some things that I do hope for: a return to knowing that we don't want Read More... Posted Sunday, April 12, 2009 1:36 PM by Beth Patterson | 0 Comments Filed under: 7 generations, ancestors, connectivity, faith, hope, prayers

• Afterwhile, Crocodile

  The coming two weeks honor the death of my paternal grandmother, Mildred (Millie) on March 18, 1989. She was 96. It also honors the death of my mother, Agnes (Aggie Ginny Shinny) on March 23, 1978 at the age of 58 and my father Richard (Pat) on March Read More... Posted Sunday, March 15, 2009 12:19 PM by Beth Patterson | 23 Comments Filed under: 7 generations, abandonment, ancestors, angels, one single impression

• The Lost...or not... Generation

  Make sure to watch this youtube video on 'The (so-called) Lost Generation' all the way to the end--it is profoundly hopeful. Those born totally of post-modernity face special risks and bring potential gifts we can't fathom. Thanks to my friend Carl McColman Read More... Posted Monday, February 23, 2009 11:17 AM by Beth Patterson | 1 Comments Filed under: 7 generations, adolescents, ancestors, brokenness, hope

• a slow turning

  Submission for this week's One Single Impression prompt: slowly Visit this link for connections to a plentitude of particular poems about this prompt. Inspired by Quiet Path's post of January 31 titled A tad more each day . It's just a slow turning. Snow Read More... Posted Sunday, February 01, 2009 8:40 AM by Beth Patterson | 28 Comments Filed under: 7 generations, ancestors, blooming where we're planted, community, light, liminal space

• how to grow some wings, quick like

  This is the 30th Poetry Party on Abbey of the Arts. The prompt for this Party is 'wings' . Please feel free to write a poem or reflection and post to Christine's beautiful site. We'd love for you to share her site and the Party with others-- the more Read More... Posted Friday, January 23, 2009 2:00 AM by Beth Patterson | 1 Comments Filed under: ancestors, angels, faith development, gotta play to win

• All spiritual traditions arise from the land

  by Jonathan Merritt Portland, OR Posted from an article at the Sacred Fire Magazine Photo by Craig Sandler All spiritual traditions arise from the land. For weeks, this line plagues me. Finally, I go outside on an unseasonably warm February day. I sit Read More... Posted Friday, January 02, 2009 6:05 PM by Beth Patterson | 1 Comments Filed under: 7 generations, ancestors, calling things by their right name, elders, listening, sacred fire

• Dialogue on emergent communities: an interview with Stephen Harrod Buhner

  Just came across an interesting site, Future Primitive . Out of the box thinkers are interviewed and the interviews are archived. Here are the categories of topics in this archive: Destiny in the Stars (3) Gaialogues (66) Organic Light (1) Rapture & Read More... Posted Thursday, December 11, 2008 7:58 PM by Beth Patterson | 0 Comments Filed under: ancestors, animal-human connection, beauty, brokenness, compassion