Beth Patterson

more beautiful rowdy prisoners of love

2010-03-17T15:44:26Z

Some additional mug shots of rowdy riotous righteous rebels to add to yesterday’s post: has anyone seen the keys to my cell? ...(read more)

Has anyone seen the key to my cell?

2010-03-16T15:19:00Z

Dropping Keys The small man builds cages for everyone he knows. While the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low, Keeps dropping keys all night long for the Beautiful Rowdy Prisoners. ----Hafiz, that beautiful rowdy prisoner of Love Some Sistas at a local charity benefit Drag Show a couple years back. Ain't them some beautiful rowdy prisoners? Share...(read more)

the water never lies

2010-03-14T06:39:00Z

What you hear from the water Remember. --David Whyte, All the True Vows listening to your muffled breath through that place in your back smelling the distinct aroma of sleep on you finding sweet solace in your unfurrowed brow mumbling to you from deep sleep vaguely hearing your mumble back these are the murmurs of a heart that knows: this is enough My friend Patti and I, marveling at crystal clear water flowing directly out of the mountainside joining the beautiful Metolius River, Central Oregon....(read more)

putting on the mantle of our mutual longings

2010-03-12T18:10:00Z

Not hammer strokes, but dance of the water , sings the pebbles into perfection. --Rabindranath Tagore Today I voiced croaked, if you will, for the first time that I want to step out of the role of supporting cast and take on the role of teacher. I have done this informally. I have done this for years. I have done this for good and poor reasons. My friends have been encouraging me for a long long time. I've been ignoring them with flourish. And yet, with spring playing hide and seek, there's this...(read more)

Lenten reflection 5: I’m probably way off base

2010-03-09T06:27:00Z

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 its head from the mire of the busy bloggers’ lives. When Steve Hayes suggested that we all write about the 10 questions from Brian McLaren’s new book, at first I harumphed, knowing that McLaren is not my flavor of Christian, but he is admired by...(read more)

no worries, it’s just my hesitatin' heart

2010-03-07T05:19:00Z

If the car stutters just a fragment immediately I go into diagnostic mode: how long has it been since the oil was changed? how’s about that timing belt? wonder what’s in the gas line? wonder what I should do for better carburetion? And then my heart does the same thing and I brush it off with it’s just a murmur. it’s just that I forgot to take my hormones for a week or two. it’s just that I drink too much caffeine. it’s just that I’m not getting enough rest. Something that’s supposed to purr along...(read more)

Guest post by David Santangelo: We are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For

2010-03-04T15:08:00Z

I recently met a new friend, who is a friend of several ‘old’ friends (most of them in the 20’s and 30’s!). David has the gravitas of an elder, even though he is young in years. I am sitting with his new book, ‘The Way Home’, soon to be released, and marveling at the message and the messenger. More about David and his journey later, as he will soon be a blogger for the Virtual Tea House. For now, here’s an intro to the message and hence, the book. NOTE: The title of the book caught my breath, as...(read more)

Lenten reflection 4: Four Words

2010-03-02T16:21:00Z

The God Who Only knows Four Words Every child has known God. Not the God of names. Not the God of don’ts. Not the God who ever does anything weird. But the God who only knows four words And keeps repeating them, saying: “Come dance with me.” Come dance. --Hafiz This is my quiet reflection today. How could I miss a beat, a step, a nuance, a glance when I say that what I really want is to fall into the heart of God ? Do I really want to tango? My self-consciousness and fear of exposure for being on...(read more)

falling through ceilings

2010-03-01T03:22:00Z

Working with dreams is a little like creating a stained glass window blindfolded. While in Mexico recently I had dream of which I remember only a fragment. In the dream I am falling through layers of glass ceilings. In each of the four layers there are circles of stained glass, and I am falling face down in the middle of each of them, spread eagle like Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man . The first window that I fall through was similar to the Vitruvian Man and that I was matching his wide open stance. As...(read more)

the big slide

2010-02-28T15:21:00Z

what if instead of running we slid gracefully …out of time …out of space …out of patience? Sliding gracefully out of patience. Doesn’t that have a different tonal quality than ‘running out of patience’? 1910 Guy Zinn, New York AL, sliding back into first base against Boston at Hilltop Park, New York City. From the Flickr collection of the Library of Congress. No copyright restrictions known. Submission for One Single Impression’s prompt for the week: running. Thanks to that quirky Jim's Little Photo...(read more)

Lenten reflection 3: Hell is breaking out in the kingdom of God

2010-02-26T17:54:00Z

“The kingdom of God is like a feast where everyone is welcomed with a jubilant divine indiscriminacy, like the prodigal son whose return brings tears to his father’s eyes or the lost sheep that counts more than the ninety-nine that never strayed. “The kingdom of God is like a great party that is thrown for everyone, where even slightly seedy characters who were never invited are compelled to come in and have a drink. “The kingdom of God is opened up by the event of hospitality the way the day is...(read more)

tree love: out of the closet

2010-02-25T15:27:00Z

This is a submission for the 45th Festival of the Trees hosted this edition at the very cool The Voltage Gate . Here’s also the link to the Festival of the Trees homepage. I have a few trees in my slightly larger than a breadbox yard here in Bend, Oregon. Two large blue spruce, a crabapple and a dying mountain ash in my front yard. A large weeping birch, also slowly losing the battle to bronze borer beetle in the backyard, along with a couple of plum trees and an encroaching thicket of aspens. AND,...(read more)

Lenten reflection 2: Having it my way

2010-02-22T15:32:00Z

Ok. So there’s all these words and characters (some noble, some not so much) in the Bible, but for those of us born as buttoned-down Christians, or even as cultural ones, the primary relationship is with Jesus. So I’m going out on a limb here in this post. You don’t have to follow. Maybe you shouldn’t even stand close this week, as inexplicable things may happen to me. If they do, you know who to blame. Don’t you? Duck and dodge. That’s how I’ve related to Jesus. He’s my teacher and I’m afraid of...(read more)

somnambudance

2010-02-22T02:37:00Z

somnambudance: a condition of sleep-dancing with such grace, creativity and precision that one appears to be awake; condition may in rare cases imitate insomina. Making up words to describe what I dreamed after watching ‘This is It’, realizing that the profound creativity Michael Jackson manifested was with almost no natural sleep—at least in his adult life. I dreamt that Michael was a rare bird from some exotic jungle not of this world Looking for his mate. Unable to find her/him even though Michael's...(read more)

God in 100 words or less

2010-02-19T16:18:00Z

Someone wise said something like: ‘I wouldn’t walk across the street to talk to a God I could understand.’ Not this. Not that. The process of elimination the via negativa these are the most meaningful personal pilgrimages to God. Meanwhile The apricot sapling springs joyfully from the compost pile. And my heart leaps in love. So there you have it. God in and of the compost. Who knew? Written as a response to Christine Valters Paintner’s ‘God in 100 Words or Less’ blog theme for Patheos. I invite...(read more)