~ POEM OF THE MONTH Valentine For Ernest Mann You can’t order a poem like you order a taco. Walk up to the counter, say, “I’ll take two” and expect it to be handed back to you on a shiny plate. Still, I like your spirit. Anyone who says, “Here’s my address, write me [...]
Guest post from Elizabeth Stauder. Liz lives in Central Oregon, but even as a young adult, she knows that her home is the world. She has just returned from living for eight months in Guatemala. During the time she was gone, her beloved friend Penny, a beautiful Golden Retriever, who had come into Liz’s life as a puppy on [...]
Linda Johnson’s journals from Ethiopia. See part 1 for more information. Ethiopian Journal 6-9-11 The past 48 hours have been incredible, challenging, and very emotional for me. The best way I can think to describe it is when deepest dreams meet natural gifts to become reality. More of an explanation is in order. The pace [...]
You’ve heard the Buddhist wisdom of “die a thousand deaths”? I find, as I stop more often during each day to allow myself to be present, I am aware of the millions of times I fall back into conditioned thinking and my heart is broken over and over by circumstances, by people I love, even by the [...]
People stand on Glastonbury Tor hill in England watching the moon as it progresses across the sky, at its closest point to the Earth for almost two decades, earlier today, March 19, 2011. It is the first time since 1992 that the Moon has been this close to the Earth. The other day I was trying [...]
There are those spaces in life, the liminal times of transition and uncertainty, when nothing seems to make sense. I’m weary of abiding in such a space, trying to walk sure-footedly on quicksand, to smile and sound confident as I’m riding the tiger, tense and unsure where I’m going, not in control. I don’t feel [...]
Derek Amato MSN video: Ingenious Minds: Seeing Pictures in Music Even though he had always been interested in musick Derek Amato had never played any type of music before a brain trauma. Immediately after the trauma he began to play the piano with virtuosity. He says he sees music in images that wash over him and [...]
POEM OF THE MONTH ~ February 2011 Here’s to seeing differently! What if you look into your own heart, hear a new song sung in a bold voice, soak in your juicy imagination, and from that mysterious place within, express your tender, true, undomesticated dream. Hey, if this is crazy, sign me up! May crazy [...]
When I awoke this morning, there was a strange plan in my head. It was totally foreign to me and yet there it was. As the warm shower hit my skin I became more and more aware of it. The plan involved baking Morning Glory Muffins. I have never baked Morning Glories nor have I [...]
I longed for the fog yesterday, something to cover my world in dense grey mist, an external manifestation of my internal lostness, that terrible sense that I’m not sure why I’m here or where I’m going. Instead, it was gloriously sunny outside. And the stargazer lilies were finally beginning to bloom, offering up their enchanting [...]