Grief is a response to an irreversible loss… To generate grief rather than sadness, the thing lost must carry great emotional weight, and it must pull back the veil that covers a transcendent aspect of the world. Breathe out to push the fog away from a brilliant pinpoint of light. … Gravity holds my feetContinue reading “Blue Christmas: for mourning”
Tag Archives: Grace
day 16: for healing
Mutuality means learning to lean into [angels’] wisdom for us and seeing angels as partners in the journey of spiritual transformation. We allow them their full agency as they allow ours. Over time, as we begin to see patterns of support emerge in our days and feel their presence in our prayer moments, trust isContinue reading “day 16: for healing”
day 14: for acceptance
I still believe mainly in the opportunities afforded by acceptance. Robert Adams If you have ever been frustrated, trying to photograph the beauty of the moon or a sunrise, then you will know that a snapshot is a mere recreation of what the human eye sees. It can’t do justice to the beauty we behold.Continue reading “day 14: for acceptance”
day 7: for discomfort
She loves the wind. There on the edge of the known world, at ninety, In her tall house, any wildness in the elements Is as welcome as an old friend. When the surgically patched elms and sycamores Crack off their heavy limbs in the freak snow storm Of October, she rejoices; the massy hail ThatContinue reading “day 7: for discomfort”
day 6: for fear
I wonder why you brought me to these splintering days, this age of dearth-death and default extinction and the smothering of constellations nostalgia claws at me screaming send me back then I sense a fire that doesn’t consume, a cloud of breath-taking holiness passing across the face of a mountain and it says I putContinue reading “day 6: for fear”
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”
well or w/hole (part iv)
I meant to write this in September 2023, but it is now February 2024. I am recovering from a reanimation of the chest infection I caught before Christmas, but it has wiped out this month. I am attempting not to fight the bouts of vertigo and dizziness which sideswipe me, even as I sit perfectlyContinue reading “well or w/hole (part iv)”
whole: day 21
We must reverse our lenses. Too often we have allowed them to lead us into a dark past. Looking through the right end, we see how that dawn had the brightness of flowers. It is the future is dark because one by one we are removing these paintings from our exhibition. We walk between blankContinue reading “whole: day 21”
whole: day 14
The quickest way for anyone to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west, chasing after the setting sun, but to head east, plunging into the darkness until one comes to the sunrise. Jerry Sittser dazzle gradually One of Emily Dickinson’s most famous poems begins ‘Tell all the truth butContinue reading “whole: day 14”
whole: day 7
There is a crack in everything God has made. Ralph Waldo Emerson I am moved by the Japanese art of Kintsugi, both for its own sake, and as a profound spiritual metaphor. Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken teaware, by reassembling the ceramic pieces in such a way that the broken/repaired/remade piece is perceivedContinue reading “whole: day 7”
image into ikon 