Rocking and Feeling the Breeze This summer is an excellent opportunity for us to spend some time rocking and feeling the breeze. The last year and a half have been full of anxiety and fear for many of us. Now, as some of us begin to glimpse the return of something like normal life, we can take time to reflect. Some us are eager to get moving again, frustrated by our months of isolation at home. We want to get... Read more
A Summer of Drought and Fire When I was growing up, the place where I live now was a land of endless summer, filled with sun and surfing. Now we are beginning another summer of drought and fire. I drive up the coast each summer to spend time on retreat at New Camaldoli, the hermitage where I am a lay oblate. One summer I was not able to go because a winter storm had washed out the highway both north... Read more
Sometimes Spiritual Life Can Be a Pain Many of us assume spiritual life is about the thoughts we think or the emotions we feel. We live as if spiritual life lives in our heads or in our hearts. It can be tempting for us to try to ignore how spiritual life is incarnate throughout the rest of our bodies. We forget how spiritual life can live in our pain. Some of us are experiencing spiritual life as a sense of... Read more
Each Morning We Begin Again Many of us think of spiritual life as an overwhelming path we struggle to continue following. We think of monks who seem to spend their entire lives reflecting and practicing. In fact, spiritual life is something we begin again each morning. In his rule which governs monastic communities, Benedict writes, Always we begin again. People who embrace monastic life make commitments for the rest of their lives. They live into their commitments in new ways... Read more
Pilgrims in a Public Garden One of the places my neighborhood pilgrimages take me is wandering in a public garden. I am fortunate to live in a place where we can wander in a public garden during daylight hours all year long. The garden where my pilgrimages take me most often exists as a refuge for native fauna. It has a meadow as well as citrus, olive, and pine trees. There is a labyrinth, an amphitheater, and a formal terrace.... Read more
Where Are We Looking For God? Some of the people who come to me for spiritual direction are looking for God. Many of us have a hazy picture of God. We may have had an understanding of God when we were younger, but we have since lost it. Some of us grew up without any particular formal view of God. Some people have thought about God a great deal. They may have a professional interest in God, or a longstanding... Read more
Time Alone With Stillness It is a challenge for us to find opportunities to spend time alone with stillness. Most of us live our lives filled with intrusions. We get phone calls and emails from machines trying to sell us something. There seems to be a constant background noise of music and television and people talking. Even when we sit in a room by ourselves there is almost always a book or a computer demanding our attention. We are preoccupied... Read more
What Do We Want to Believe? Every so often each of us needs to tilt our heads back to look into the sky and ask ourselves, How do we choose what to believe? What is real for us, and what do we want to believe? Some of us have learned things for so long we assume they are our beliefs. We need time to ask questions, to examine the truth of what we think we believe. It can be easy... Read more
Taking Time to Remember This weekend we take time to remember and reflect on how we remember. In the moments between staying in bed, grilling and eating, sporting events, and retail sales, we take time to remember. Remembering is not something we necessarily enjoy doing. It is not because we have problems remembering facts or information. We no longer need to remember phone numbers, and are not particularly good at remembering our passwords. The real challenge for us is remembering what... Read more
Recognizing Our Fellow Pilgrims Many of us have been keeping ourselves isolated for months. We are slowly beginning to emerge again. It might be safe to begin practicing neighborhood pilgrimage again and renew our acquaintance with our fellow pilgrims. A couple of months ago one of the people I meet for spiritual direction and I decided to read a book together. We chose Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. But there is more to the present than a series... Read more
Strategic Monk
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