“The present moment is all that is real. The past is gone. The future is not yet. We remember the past and anticipate the future, but we always do so in the present. “Reality is always now. And the single most important aspect of reality is that God is present in it every moment. To […]
Dreaming With Darwish: Nurture Hope
The poet Mahmoud Darwish believed there needed to be a time gap between an event and the writing about it. My thoughts about this latest dare are like “cotton ginned by the wind.” Maybe I need a wider gap. I’ve sat most of this past week in “A State of Siege,” a long text […]
Still Saturday: Key Moments
See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness, touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace. Listening to Your […]
Still Saturday: Glimpses of Glory
One of the great gifts of God is the wonder and diversity of the world that is around us. From the book in your hands to the sky above you, the physical world invites amazement. In Romans 1 Paul says that we are without excuse precisely because of the glory that shines forth from everything […]
Still Saturday: Shut Up
“Sandra, shut up and vacation!” Orbitz sent me an email with those words in the subject line. “Seriously, get going!” they continued in the body. “Go somewhere!” Seriously, how does one ignore that? We are going to get going for a few days… “Each of us needs to withdraw from the […]
Still Saturday: It Is Time Now
Swimming, One Day in August It is time now, I said, for the deepening and quieting of the spirit among the flux of happenings. Something had pestered me so much I thought my heart would break. I mean, the mechanical part. I went down in the afternoon to the sea which held […]
Becoming Mindful in Place: Proof
Proof If I’d not glanced out the window at just that moment, I would have missed the flash of blue against blue. I wouldn’t have seen it dart onto a crabapple branch and then light on the backboard behind the net, unmistakable in its orange vest. I scooped up my camera and […]
Still Saturday – Stay Your Soul
“Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is.” ~Amy Carmichael (as quoted by […]
Live Happy: What Happiness Means To Me
Every year my heart pounds for our hometown Alpenfest Queen’s Pageant contestants during the impromptu question time. I still remember the question I drew when I ran a bazillion years back: “What does happiness mean to you?” I stammered an answer I’m sure was unintelligible. Afterwards, my mom told me I should have said something like, “Happiness means […]
Still Saturday: Imitating God
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children” (Eph. 5:1, NIV). . . . To be an imitator of God, requires that we come to terms with the value of quietness, slowing down, coming apart from the noise and speed of today’s pace, and broadening our lives with a view of the eternal […]
