I praise you because you are artist and scientist in one. When I am somewhat fearful of your power, your ability to work miracles with a set-square, I hear you murmuring to yourself in a notation Beethoven dreamed of but never achieved. You run off your scales of rain water and sea water, play theContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 19”
Tag Archives: gift
#adventapertures2025: Sunday 3
‘It was said of Rabbi Simcha Bunim that he carried two slips of paper, one in each pocket. On one he wrote: Bishvili nivra ha’olam – “For my sake the world was created.” On the other he wrote: V’anokhi afar v’aefer – “I am but dust and ashes.” He would take out each slip ofContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: Sunday 3”
#adventapertures2025: day 5
I carry with me the awareness that many people find that this season brings not tidings of comfort and joy but of frustration and grief…. I believe… that in this season [we are invited] to carry the light, yes, but also to see in the dark and to find the shape of things in theContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 5”
day 23: for gratitude
If you find yourself half nakedand barefoot in the frosty grass, hearing,again, the earth’s great, sonorous moan that saysyou are the air of the now and gone, that saysall you love will turn to dust,and will meet you there, do notraise your fist. Do not raiseyour small voice against it. And do nottake cover. Instead,Continue reading “day 23: for gratitude”
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”
gospel 7: take & give
I AM the Giver so take of Me. I AM the Giver so give from Me. I AM your hands so receive and distribute My blessings. I AM giving you what you need, all the time, so take from Me – then give what others need, all the time. Take from My Hands and giveContinue reading “gospel 7: take & give”
Christmas Eve 2020
Here, where the rivers dredge upthe very stone of Heaven, we name its colors—muttonfat jade, kingfisher jade, jade of appleskin green. And here, in the glitteringhues of the Flemish Masters, we sample their wine;rest in their windows’ sun warmth,cross with pleasure their scrubbed tile floors.Everywhere the details leap like fish— bright shardsof water out ofContinue reading “Christmas Eve 2020”
day 24
This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,I fell in love with a wrenand later in the day with a mousethe cat had dropped under the dining room table. In the shadows of an autumn evening,I fell for a seamstressstill at her machine in the tailor’s window,and later for a bowl of broth,steam rising likeContinue reading “day 24”
image into ikon 