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• God is always needing to be born

  If you want, the Virgin will come walking down the road pregnant with the holy and say… “I need shelter for the night, please take me inside your heart, My time is so close.” Then under the roof of your soul, you will witness the sublime intimacy, the Read More... Posted Wednesday, December 23, 2009 11:19 AM by Beth Patterson | 7 Comments Filed under: advent, brokenness, presence, suffering

• ashes of a common comet

  'What is to give light must endure burning.' --Viktor Frankl This post is a response to Christine over at Abbey of the Arts, who hosts Poetry Party twice a month. Since this is the week of Ash Wednesday, the topic for the week is 'ashes to ashes'. She Read More... Posted Thursday, February 26, 2009 11:47 AM by Beth Patterson | 7 Comments Filed under: ashes, brokenness, burning, viktor frankl

• 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

• this may be a crime scene

  This week's submission to One Single Impression prompt: fading memories 'You're not dead until you're forgotten.' --Jewish proverb Chalk outlines old lovers discarded friends misunderstood enemies splayed and distorted on the dusty, musty floor of truth. Read More... Posted Sunday, January 18, 2009 4:40 PM by Beth Patterson | 26 Comments Filed under: brokenness, humanity, one single impression, where's home?

• What every salmon knows

  This is a 2 page spread from Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life you Have What struck me about this meditation is that it is so earthy, so right where we live, so pragmatic. The salmon know how to expose Read More... Posted Sunday, December 28, 2008 5:21 PM by Beth Patterson | 2 Comments Filed under: abandonment, abundance, acceptance, amazement, animal totems, animal-human connection, beauty, brokenness, vision quest, vulnerability

• We're nomads, for God's sake

  "Religion is nice, but even without all that divine revelatory hullabaloo, the Creator left us enough information in the earth about how to live in balance. If we did not have the Torah, we could have learned everything that we needed to know from the Read More... Posted Saturday, December 13, 2008 12:45 PM by Beth Patterson | 0 Comments Filed under: advent, animal-human connection, becoming more human, blessings, brokenness, chanukah, gifts, humanity

• 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

• Advent: awaiting the ancient and the ever new

  Posted to Blog Carnival on Engaged Spirituality: Engaging Advent. Also posted to a synchroblog on 'Light and Dark as Motifs of Spirituality', on the web on December 10th. Check out some great thinking and processing on 'light and dark' in the following Read More... Posted Saturday, December 06, 2008 11:07 PM by Beth Patterson | 23 Comments Filed under: advent, brokenness, life finds a way, light, liminal space

• Voting for hope

  “Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them and they flew.” Guillaume Apollinaire (French poet and critic who helped to direct poetry into unexplored channels, 1880-1918) The Hindu Goddess Read More... Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 6:52 AM by Beth Patterson | 23 Comments Filed under: 7 generations, ancestors, brokenness, calling things by their right name, civic responsibility, community, compassion, courage, culture

• The future is ours to see: crumbling like a mountain

  This post is part of a synchroblog hosted on the site Square No More . The topic for this month's synchroblog is maturity in the light of our faith. Please visit these blogs for excellent posts related to this topic: Phil Wyman asks Is Maturity Really Read More... Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2008 1:30 AM by Beth Patterson | 26 Comments Filed under: 7 generations, abundance, aging gracefully, ancestors, becoming more human, brokenness, courage, faith development, spirituality of subtraction

• Nothing spectacular

  This post is for last week's writing prompt: One Single Impression: Spectacle If I could see with the eyes of love Nothing could be a spectacle. Nothing could be outside the circle. If I would see with the eyes of love All would be spectacular. All would Read More... Posted Monday, September 01, 2008 3:03 PM by Beth Patterson | 10 Comments Filed under: acceptance, brokenness, delight, engaged spirituality, joy, one single impression, prayer

• Today's tip on how to save the world: Stop Multi-Tasking!

  A tip of the hat to my friend Dave Pollard for using the name of his excellent blog ( How to Save the World ), and large bow of thanks to J.D. Roth's site, Get Rich Slowly for the concept and grit of this post. Newsflash: To do two things at once is to Read More... Posted Saturday, August 23, 2008 7:02 AM by Beth Patterson | 6 Comments Filed under: brokenness, contentment, creativity, living life on purpose

• An expected loss: Ling-Bing goes after the big Ball

  My ex-husband, Tom and I are grieving today the impending death of the last of 3 amazing German Shepherds that we were graced to belong to during our life together. I know that many of you who have experienced the death of a beloved pet will find your Read More... Posted Saturday, August 16, 2008 8:20 AM by Beth Patterson | 8 Comments Filed under: angels, brokenness, grief, home, unconditional love

• Losing it

  So this has been a week/month of losing things. I don't normally lose things like keys and such. But this week, I left my purse in a restaurant--the same lunch restaurant that I left my purse in 2 weeks ago. I don't ever remember leaving my purse anywhere Read More... Posted Saturday, July 26, 2008 6:27 AM by Beth Patterson | 1 Comments Filed under: attachment, becoming more human, brokenness

• Learners inheriting the earth: the politics of God

  In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. --- attributed to either Al Rogers or Eric Hoffer [quoted from How to Save the World ] This Read More... Posted Monday, July 21, 2008 5:14 PM by Beth Patterson | 20 Comments Filed under: 7 generations, acceptance, attachment, brokenness, hope, sacred fire