What I am seeing these days.

This sculpture outside the Portland Art Museum.  It's all language symbols-fantastic.

Eagle Talon marks in the sand.

There were five eagles on the edge of the water.  They let us come pretty close...but not too close (see talon marks above!)

This charming little Rufous Towhee and his mate visit us regularly.  They are very fun to watch.

We have a community garden plot this summer across the street from the church.

Hilltop nursery-family owned and amazing. Can you see the top of Mt. St. Helen's in the distance?

Flowers on the campus where I work.

Life is full and busy these days. Elisabeth is getting ready to go to the Philippines this summer.  She is blogging at http://elbegoes.wordpress.com/ about her trip.  She will be regularly updating throughout the summer.

Paul continues to preach and teach at our small Chinese church.  I continue to teach ESL at a small program in Portland. Some days are happy and some days are sad.  We miss China and our life there.  We miss our foster son.  We miss our daughter.  

We also have days where we are blown away by the beauty that surrounds us.  It's just kind of a mixed bag right now.

Weaving Silence- a Celtic Prayer

I Weave a Silence 

I weave a silence onto my lips
I weave a silence into my mind,
I weave a silence within my heart.

I close my ears to distractions,
I close my eyes to attractions
I close my heart to temptations.
Calm me, Lord,
As you calmed the storm,

Still me, Lord, keep me from harm,  
Let all tumult within me cease
Fold me in your peace.

                                         

Found originally here http://godspace.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/celtic-spirituality-what-is-the-attraction-2/

Book Title Poetry.

One of my favorite publishing houses is T.S. Poetry Press.  They publish a weekly newsletter that comes with all kinds of great prompts, links and writing about poetry.  Here is the link to the site. http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/
One of their fun prompts was to gather books that were near you and form the title into a poem.  I gathered books off the coffee table and a near bookshelf and made this poem about this last year.

Otherwise

Year of Wonders

God in the Yard

God in the Dark

I told my soul to sing

A Sacrifice of Praise

Holy Silence

Benediction.

That pretty much says it about the last 9 months!  God has been with us in this otherwise year of wonders!  He has been with us in the yard and in the dark.  At times we have had to tell our souls to sing a sacrifice of praise.  Holy silence has been essential.  Amen.

I've been enchanted by another book title Poemcrazy. http://www.amazon.com/Poemcrazy-Freeing-Your-Life-Words/dp/0609800981  The writer lives in Chico where I went to college.  It's still a place that I love.  The author makes writing poetry so accessible.  She has great ideas for prompts and word play and so much more.  Highly Recommended.

Truth in Beauty

This made my morning...

International Women's Day...and Poetry.

A friend of mine posted this link on her Facebook page and it struck me as very powerful.

The Power of Poetry  The article is from Christianity Today.

Here is the original story from the New York Times.

Why Afghan Women Risk Death To Write Poetry

From Deborah Hirt, A Franciscan Intern

Lord, make me an instrument of peace:

Bless all women who daily strive to bring peace to their communities, their homes and their hearts. Give them strength to continue to turn swords into plowshares.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love:

We pray for all women who face prejudice, inequality and gender disparities. Help us seeand to face the discrimination against women inall the many forms it may take.

Where there is injury, pardon:

Comfort all women who suffer from the pain of war, violence, and abuse. Help them to become instruments of their own reconciliation and peace.

Where there is division, unity:

Forgive all women and men who let differences breed hate and discrimination. Let your example of valuing all of creation help us to see that we are equal partners in the stewardship of your world.

Where there is darkness, light; where there is untruth, truth:

Comfort all women who struggle in the darkness of abuse, poverty, and loneliness. May we stand with them in light to acknowledge their suffering and strive to remove the burdens of shame or embarrassment.

Where there is doubt, true faith:

We pray for all women who live in fear of their husbands, fathers, and forces that control their lives. Help them to be empowered to be their true selves through your everlasting love and faith.

Where there is despair, hope:

We pray for all women who live in the despair of poverty, violence, trafficking, slavery,and abuse. May the light of your love bring them hope.

Where there is sadness, new joy:

Help us to see the strength and goodness in all women and men.
Transform our hearts to celebrate the love and grace of all people.
And may we be blessed with the courage of St. Clare of Assisi to follow our own path of love for you and all sisters and brothers.

Learning to See

During this time of readjustment to the US, I have learned the value of silence.  I've learned the value of slowing down, of reading the Bible slowly and reflectively, of letting God speak to me.  One of the hardest things for me about living in China was the constant noise and chaos.  Sometimes it was fun but often overwhelming.  Now I am in a phase of my life where I crave silence.  Silence helps me to hear and it helps me to see.

Last week I went to a birding class at the Portland Audubon Society.  It was a basic class on identifying birds.  The basic message?  Stand still and look. Look for shape, look for marking, look for size.  We looked at guide books, identified similar birds by pictures.  On Sunday, a Rufous Towhee came to my feeder.  How did I know it wasn't a strangely marked robin?  By looking.  By seeing.  Today a peregrine landed on our fence.  How did I know?  By looking, by seeing, by checking the guidebook.

Wendell Berry says this.

How to Be a Poet.

i   

Make a place to sit down.   

Sit down. Be quiet.   

You must depend upon   

affection, reading, knowledge,   

skill—more of each   

than you have—inspiration,   

work, growing older, patience,   

for patience joins time   

to eternity. Any readers   

who like your poems,   

doubt their judgment.   

ii   

Breathe with unconditional breath   

the unconditioned air.   

Shun electric wire.   

Communicate slowly. Live   

a three-dimensioned life;   

stay away from screens.   

Stay away from anything   

that obscures the place it is in.   

There are no unsacred places;   

there are only sacred places   

and desecrated places.   

iii   

Accept what comes from silence.   

Make the best you can of it.   

Of the little words that come   

out of the silence, like prayers   

prayed back to the one who prays,   

make a poem that does not disturb   

the silence from which it came.

On Ash Wednesday, I went to an all day reflective retreat.  During a time of individual silence, I looked out of the chapel window and saw this.

Can you see it?  Look closely.  There is a scrub jay hidden in those bushes.  I spent quite a bit of time watching him fly in and out of that bush. Fascinating.

As I walked on the grounds of the retreat center, I saw the stations of the cross.  I am not normally drawn to stations of the cross but these were quite lovely in their simplicity.

The women at the cross.  

This year, I am trying to have a quiet and reflective Lent.  I am taking things out so that God can put what I need in.  I am reading the gospel of John with its beautiful words and imagery slowly.  Phrases like "Bread of Life, Living Water" are staying in my mind.  I've put several things around our home to remind us of this dark season.

A cross made of rose thorns and tied with purple and black ribbon.

Seven candles for the seven weeks of Lent.  Each week, we light one less until we reach Maundy Thursday. We have less and less light as we enter  further into the darkness of Lent.

Three purple candles for the three days between Maundy Thursday and Easter.

I've often felt a loss when Easter came and I hadn't spent time really preparing and thinking.  This year, I hope it's different, as I take time to slow down and to really see.

More poetry and a lovely piece on memorizing by heart.

Memorizing by Heart  An interview with a new program in Great Great Britain where they are wanting to memorize by heart, not by rote.



This is so lovely I may have to memorize it.



Happiness

There's just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.

And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.

No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.

It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basket maker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.
It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine. 

Jane Kenyon