Gratitude for legacy and heritage have been on our praiseful lips these past two daysas we have made our way to Big Sky, Montanta for a week of skiing with family. We overnighted in Butte, MT the birthplace of both of my parents and a landscape both sets of my grandparents intimately knew and loved
Read MoreWalking through the streets of Seattle's New Rainier Vista neighborhood can seem somewhat like a maze. If you don't keep your bearings on Mt. Rainier (easy to lose for non-natives on a cloudy day), you can effortlessly get turned about. As we walked along the sidewalks of this redevelopment, the children picked up garbage; it seemed the only familiar act in which to respond to the ever-present litter lined up along some of these unfamiliar lanes.
Read MoreToday's prayer walk was under cloudless skies, which is a rarity for Seattle in February. And instead of 10 prayerful feet, it was simply my own and Anna's. Funny thing how as soon as you draw your line in the sand around an intention, circumstances immediately set themselves up against it. I've learned to identify this as the Pilgrim's Path, others may call it Murphy's Law; be it as it may, the boys were unable to get in on the practice today. Whatever laws were against our family participating today in our Lenten commitment, Anna had clarity of purpose and firmly directed our route. These pictures represent the prayers for our community, on Anna's Spirit-led route.
Read MoreThe work of bringing down heaven to earth is no easy task. And it always takes time...and a lot of it. This is the epic work of pilgrimages and journeys, deserts and dreams. There is always such fanfare and exhilaration when one picks up the walking stick and marks, and crosses into, the beginning of the journey. The vision of the destination is so clear, so lucid--it seems you could just reach across a short breadth of time and realize every desired detail. But soon you find your arm is tired from being extended for so long...for so very long.
Read MoreThe amazing, magical thing that always happened-whether I was sad, depressed, lonely, dejected, or vulnerable-was that this process of baking cookies and giving them away truly sorted me out! I could be in the most dispirited of states and as the baking ritual commenced, I could feel myself lifting. My mind would initially focus on the chemistry of the cookie (1 tsp baking soda, 1 cup sugar, 4 cups flour...) and then center on the recipient. My thoughts were no longer wallowing in self-proclaimed pity, they were reaching out to someone else, and to another's story, who needed an extra dose of sweetness in their given season. The cookies created a shared moment that acknowledged another and put life back in perspective.
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