Photo: Central Massachusetts

 

Spirituality: from A Cherokee Feast of Days, by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

It is in the quiet times that we build our strengths and know we have something to rely on. Solitude is not withdrawal into a place where no one and no sound can penetrate. It is a sweet moment of peace with or without other people that lets us re-center and reset the rhythm of the mind, body and spirit. It is wisdom to stay close to the solitude of nature to keep us young and pliable.

Photo: God's Glory

 

Spirituality: Wendell Berry from "Two Questions"

If you provided a marriage feast

and the thankless guests crowded
at the table, gobbling the food
without tasting it, and shoving
one another away, so that some ate
too much and some ate nothing,
would you not be offended?

Or if, seated at your bountiful table,
your guests picked and finicked
over the food, eating only a little,
refusing the wine and the dessert,
claiming that to fill their bellies
and rejoice would impair their souls,
would you not be offended?

Spirituality: Dolly Parton, SongTeller

If it came down to doing just one thing, I would choose to sit, enjoy life, experience life, the sorrows and whatever else it may bring, and write about it.

Photo: Blushing

 

Prayer: Hildegard of Bingen

The earth is at the same time mother,

she is mother of all that is natural,
mother of all that is human.
She is the mother of all,
for contained in her are the seeds of all.
The earth of humankind contains all moisture,
all verdancy, all germinating power.
It is in so many ways fruitful.
All creation comes from it.
Yet it forms not only the basic raw materials
for humankind, but also
the substance of Incarnation.

Photo: Relfections

 

Poem: from "The Ponds" by Mary Oliver

 I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing—

that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.

Photo: Trees at the Abbey