day 10: for beauty

If anyone happened to be near the fountain which Scripture says rose from the earth at the beginning of creation … he would approach it marvelling at the endless stream of water gushing forth and bubbling out.  Never could he say that he had seen all the water … In the same way, the personContinue reading “day 10: for beauty”

Sunday 2: for curiosity

Things – including concepts and bodies – are inexhaustible; they show up only partially.  If you can see everything, then you’ve already missed a spot. Bayo Akomolafe, These Wilds beyond our Fences (155) To seek context is already to acknowledge you don’t have the whole story … an ecological understanding takes time.  Context is whatContinue reading “Sunday 2: for curiosity”

day 2: for emptiness

It might seem that we have to generate the sense of openness, freshness, joy, revelry, or stillness we touch in such moments. From the Buddhist perspective, however, such a state of being is already there within us and has been so since the beginning. It’s tantalizing to think that perhaps expansiveness lies waiting to beContinue reading “day 2: for emptiness”

All Hallows. All Souls. All Saints. 2021.

All Hallows. All Souls. All Saints. This is one of my favourite liturgical seasons. A mini-season of three days which encapsulate so much of my faith about people and place. All Hallows. All Holies. Celebrating how we can hallow our daily surroundings. How the world of spirit is perhaps not so distant from the worldContinue reading “All Hallows. All Souls. All Saints. 2021.”

a monk in the world of 2021

I am honoured to have written another guest post for the Abbey of the Arts, which was published yesterday: As a contemplative photographer I thought I knew quite a bit about light and brightness, shadow  and darkness.  It appears I was wrong.  During 2020 and 2021 a series of COVID-19 ‘Lockdowns’ have been offering meContinue reading “a monk in the world of 2021”

day 17

She,In the dark,Found lightBrighter than many ever see.She,Within herself,Found loveliness,Through the soul’s own mastery.And now the world receivesFrom her dower:The message of the strengthOf inner power. ‘She’ Langston Hughes In a meditation on the ‘night hour’, Macrina Wiederkehr includes Helen Keller’s description of her faith, in the midst of permanent silence and darkness, being aContinue reading “day 17”

day 10

Sometimes, gliding at night in a plane over New York City I have felt like some messenger called to enter, called to engage this field of light and darkness. A grandiose idea, born of flying. But underneath the grandiose idea is the thought that what I must engage after the plane has raged onto theContinue reading “day 10”

psalms for passiontide: Holy Wednesday Psalm 70

I find it fascinating that the Lectionary gives two days for me to contemplate this psalm in Holy Week.  What can possibly be so important in it that I need to hear it twice? The subtitle of this psalm reads, ‘To the leader. Of David, for the memorial offering’ and there is an academic theoryContinue reading “psalms for passiontide: Holy Wednesday Psalm 70”

advent apertures 2019: day 16

It has frequently been remarked, about my own writings, that I emphasize the notion of attention. This began simply enough: to see that the way the flicker flies is greatly different from the way the swallow plays in the golden air of summer. It was my pleasure to notice such things, it was a goodContinue reading “advent apertures 2019: day 16”

advent apertures 2019: day 13

What little I know, I hold closer, more dear, especially now that I take the daily reinvention of loss as my teacher. I will never graduate from this college, whose M.A. translates “Master of Absence,” with a subtext in the imperative: Misplace Anything. If there’s anything I want, it’s that more people I love joinContinue reading “advent apertures 2019: day 13”