Thresholds.  The boundary point between two spaces.  A threshold may be as subtle as the delineation leading from one room to the next.  In its complexity, a threshold is a moment in time that requires the response to a specific call.  A call where a choice must be discerned. Thresholds may be challenging and disorienting.  They may also lead to portals of transformation and celebration. There is, by way of obvious example, the age old custom of a bride being... Read more

  Time seems to be a topic of conversation in many circles these days.  Lack of time, the acceleration of time, and the myriad of ways we keep track of each hour of the day, all of these issues create interference to finding inner peace.  How does one attain a state of spiritual centeredness while in the midst of schedules, clock-watching, and the daily demands of life?  Perhaps the ancient Greeks offer us a possible starting point. The Greeks had... Read more

“You say God speaks to you, but it’s only your imagination.” These are the words spoken by the inquisitor to Joan of Arc during her trial for heresy. “How else would God speak to me, if not through my imagination?” Joan replied. We know the story of Saint Joan and her visions and voices that led her to victory for France several hundred years ago. Her sacred imagination was the fertile field where her human self journeyed to co-create with... Read more

  Life, throughout the ages, has metaphorically been viewed as a pilgrimage. The labyrinth mirrors this inner journey over and over again. We  step onto the labyrinth’s singular path and begin the walk.  We experience Purgation (shedding, letting go) so when we come to the center we are open to Illumination,  guidance and inspiration of the Spirit.   We leave the center and follow the path to the rim once more. This part of the walk symbolizes Union.  We are... Read more

The recent liturgical seasons of Easter and Pentecost have stirred my thoughts about the first century Church…. or actually, the first century gatherings of those who responded to the call to follow the Way of Jesus.  I’ve spent some time examining imagery of various archaeological sites where remnants and relics of those early communities offer hints to the humble beginnings of the Christian faith. From historical implications, these were table communities of men, women, and children who were seeking the sacred... Read more

The sculpture you place in your garden is your signature on nature. Anonymous Garden accoutrements seem to be displayed everywhere this time of year. Statues including pink flamingos, smiling gnomes, somersaulting children, flop-eared bunnies, and plump frogs are tucked into shrubs and carefully arranged on lawns. Art for the garden makes a statement.  A statement that can appear to be whimsical, classical or sometimes… sacred. The garden.  Saints and poets have found inspiration there.  The word garden, for some, evokes... Read more

The year has circumnavigated it’s course and the holidays (Holy Days) have arrived once again.  No matter where you might be on your life’s journey, this sacred season opens portals for a variety of experiences for your spirit, psyche, and heart. Nurturing your spirit in the midst of the frenetic busyness that accompanies this time of year offers the opportunity for  celebration of another kind. Like so many aspects of life, the holidays present the invitation to live in balance,... Read more

Everyday life often feels disjointed and fragmented, like pieces of a puzzle to be sorted and made into something recognizable. How do we work with the various seemingly disparate tasks, opportunities, challenges, and relationships that constitute our lives? How do we transform the fragments and shards of life’s joys, disappointments, passions, and questions into a mosaic reflecting who we are? The art forms of collage and mosaics become sacred expressions when used to metaphorically describe one’s life journey. Both collage... Read more

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. Wendell Berry Autumn offers an invitation to make an inner soujourn… a pilgrimage to explore the terrain and landscape of the heart and soul.  This is the season that has been referred to as melancholic, nostalgic, the season of souvenir.... Read more

We are dressed in the scaffold of creation:  in seeing . . . to recognize all the world, in hearing . . . to understand, in smelling . . . to discern, in tasting . . . to nurture, in touching . . . to govern. In this way humankind comes to know God, for God is the author of all creation. These words by 12th century Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, visionary, writer, founder of monasteries, Christian mystic, and composer inspire the call to awaken the senses.  The senses, from Hildegard’s point of view, are conduits to the... Read more