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• the *dialectic of ever-bigger circles

  Outwitted He drew a circle that shut me out - Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout But love and I had the will to win We drew a circle and drew him in. -- Edwin Markham The walls of human understanding have various purposes, textures, designs. But their intent Read More... Posted Sunday, June 14, 2009 1:59 AM by Beth Patterson | 22 Comments Filed under: acceptance, calling things by their right name, compassion

• 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

• words gone amuck

  two letters universes of difference how did we get here? has this happened in other worlds or only ours? what kind of quirky, convoluted Mind designed us to think we're so separate we can make stuff like this up? legal or illegal words gone amuck designing Read More... Posted Sunday, April 26, 2009 11:32 AM by Beth Patterson | 23 Comments Filed under: becoming more human, calling things by their right name, compassion, connections

• No padding needed...artfull bra project (Breast Cancer Awareness)

  These works of art and obvious love will amaze you. The page loads oddly on my laptop--you have to scroll left/right to see the whole page, but it's worth the effort. Thanks to Michelle Meech , a blogger on the Virtual Tea House, for sending the link Read More... Posted Sunday, March 01, 2009 12:48 PM by Beth Patterson | 3 Comments Filed under: acceptance, becoming more human, calling things by their right name, humor, in memorium, wonder

• food shortages may be around the corner

  'Stay awake, friends. Don't scatter and sleep. Our friendship is made of staying awake.' --Rumi Most North Americans think food shortages or famine are something that only happen in Africa and Asia. How could such catastrophe happen to us? Easy. What Read More... Posted Sunday, February 22, 2009 4:08 PM by Beth Patterson | 7 Comments Filed under: 7 generations, acceptance, blooming where we're planted, calling things by their right name, capacity, community-building, complaint-free world, hope, hospitality, life finds a way

• The first humbling experience for today: an interactive map

  Thanks to Adele for always sending challenging things to think about. This week's humbling submission is an interactive map of the middle-east and northern Africa. You 'just' have to click and drag the names of the countries to their rightful place, and Read More... Posted Saturday, February 21, 2009 8:28 AM by Beth Patterson | 2 Comments Filed under: calling things by their right name, cartography, civic responsibility, curiosity, site fidelity

• postmodern princesses parading pixilated perfection

  The title of this post is reconstituted words from Floreta's poem described below. A couple weeks back One Single Impression , a poetry site that solicits poetry on a given prompt each week, threw out the prompt skin to our muses. There were many excellent Read More... Posted Tuesday, January 20, 2009 12:50 AM by Beth Patterson | 0 Comments Filed under: acceptance, adolescents, aging gracefully, art, beauty, calling things by their right name

• 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

• Just doing my part

  Barb Torke 2008 shared with permission The Christmas of 1962 was one of personal foreshadowing. I had just turned eight years old. I was gifted with passel of cousins my own age, some older and a lot younger. They all liked to come to our farm during Read More... Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2008 3:06 AM by Beth Patterson | 0 Comments Filed under: advent, beauty, calling things by their right name, civic responsibility, rites of passage, sehnsucht

• What's next?

  As part of the Virtual Tea House being-with-advent... This is a post to a blog I read regularly, How to Save the World. Dave Pollard is a Canadian philosopher, environmentalist, business analyst. He is a big picture thinker with attention to the details Read More... Posted Friday, December 12, 2008 10:48 AM by Beth Patterson | 2 Comments Filed under: advent, calling things by their right name, capacity, community, connections, courage

• doodling all the way home

  This collage is called, 'reading the tea leaves' for the Virtual Tea House. I made it with a very fun program called 'wordle'. Doodling allows the brain to stop driving the car and the mind to see more clearly what's really what. Those off track excursions Read More... Posted Sunday, December 07, 2008 12:54 PM by Beth Patterson | 15 Comments Filed under: art, calling things by their right name, doodling, fun

• How to change the world...one girl at a time

  If you're looking for a project to invest in as part of your family holiday giving , please take a moment to look over this simple, profound way to help change the world...one girl at a time. The Girl Effect Check out the YouTube video. Besides the main Read More... Posted Sunday, November 30, 2008 10:44 PM by Beth Patterson | 0 Comments Filed under: 7 generations, abundance, blessings, calling things by their right name, children, youtube

• memories of a third kind

  Visit for a plethora of poems about the November 23 prompt: childhood memories on the move, south mother with crushing sadness worse in winter loving the warm sand and gentle breezes palm bay me, two, sitting on the john somewhere south of the mason-dixon Read More... Posted Sunday, November 23, 2008 11:00 AM by Beth Patterson | 19 Comments Filed under: acceptance, aging gracefully, ancestors, blessings, calling things by their right name, gratitude

• no good answer

  I think these are actually geese and not 'dox', but you get the picture. If one plans to have baby-dox it's easier to have a para-dox but only because it takes an entire village to raise them. Here's the real puzzle: If a man raised in foreign places Read More... Posted Saturday, November 08, 2008 4:19 PM by Beth Patterson | 27 Comments Filed under: becoming more human, calling things by their right name, compassion

• 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