#adventapertures2025: day 17

To reach the place just ahead of you, what do you do?             The shortest way between two points- that straight line, the most straight of greatest renown. You put one foot in  front of the other and carry on, repeating yourself. Until you  reach the point ahead, assuming initialContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 17”

day 12: for wisdom

In a vast untouched area like ours, you can hear what you need to hear. You can see for your own good. Messages come through your touch. You are soaked, submerged, immersed; full to the brim with beauty. Each visit can be a final answer, but the next visit brings you something else. It neverContinue reading “day 12: for wisdom”

day 9: for silence

I feel the real medium for me is silence, so I could be writing in any language.  To inflect the inner silence, to give it body, that’s all we’re doing.  You use the voice to make the silence present.  The real subject in poetry isn’t the voice.  The real subject is silence. Li Young Lee,Continue reading “day 9: for silence”

heart of stone

Once again it is my honour to contribute a reflection to the ‘monk in the world’ blog of the Abbey of the Arts. This piece was first published on May 15, 2024 (although it was written in May 2023). all words and images by Kate Kennington Steer  I arrived at February 2023 in a post-viralContinue reading “heart of stone”

Epiphany 2023: knowing in whole…

Living in the earth-deposits of our history Today a backhoe divulged out of a crumbling flank of earth one bottle amber perfect a hundred-year-old cure for fever or melancholy a tonic for living on this earth in the winters of this climate. Today I was reading about Marie Curie: she must have known she sufferedContinue reading “Epiphany 2023: knowing in whole…”

whole: day 27

He loved cherry sunsets growing heavy on the branches of the evening; He loved bud coloured dawns opening from the east’s earth. He loved the sea, green in its happiness, seeking the shore; He loved to see it languishing back stonily from its crest to its groove. He loved the character of birds, the flockContinue reading “whole: day 27”

whole: Sunday 3

I understand now that I’m not a mess but a deeply feeling person in a messy world.  I explain that now, when someone asks me why I cry so often, I say, “For the same reason I laugh so often – because I’m paying attention.” Glennon Doyle Melton FOR NOW WE SHALL SEE THROUGH AContinue reading “whole: Sunday 3”

Christmas Day 2020

O Colors of Earth, anoint me and robe me with all the attributes I need for my life work: purple for wisdom, meditation, transformation and spirituality; red for passion, energy and courage; blues and greens for calm restfulness, balance, healing, hope, serenity, and contemplation; golden yellows for optimism and joy, lucidity, compassion and illumination, andContinue reading “Christmas Day 2020”

Blue Christmas 2020

The twilight turns from amethyst  To deep and deeper blue,  The lamp fills with a pale green glow  The trees of the avenue.  The old piano plays an air,  Sedate and slow and gay;  She bends upon the yellow keys,  Her head inclines this way.  Shy thought and grave wide eyes and hands  That wanderContinue reading “Blue Christmas 2020”

standing still for solstice

(all images Kate Kennington Steer) I am drawn to light, of all kinds, in all shapes.  I am pulled towards the symbols and manifestations of the Great Light.  And yet, paradoxically, through chronic ill health, I am often dragged into the most shadowed places within.  The darknesses of depression are a constant companion lurking notContinue reading “standing still for solstice”