Isn’t curiosity marvelous? Something sparks your interest, and you’re off—questioning, learning, exploring, pondering. Say you meet someone new, share a bit about yourself, and they’re genuinely curious; suddenly you’re deep in conversation, sharing details about yourself or your work that you rarely otherwise disclose, and you begin to wonder whether this person might become a […]
The Gifts of Being Curious Read More »
The spiritual path requires letting go of what doesn’t give us life and giving ourselves wholly to what does. From the outside this can look dire, but from the inside the story’s quite different.
Freedom in Constriction Read More »
The story itself—the emergent life inside the inspiration—is a dynamic participant in the creative process.
How does creation happen? Read More »
A few years ago, I set off on a journey to the heart of Christian contemplation, both in practice and with studies. I began doing Centering Prayer, a form of meditation rooted in monasticism and the teachings of the mystics, and reading works from the mystical margins of Christian tradition—St. John of the Cross, Meister
God as Being, Being as God Read More »
Just as language can never fully represent me on the page, I, in all my thinking, breathing, creating glory, can never fully represent my ultimate Self. And so I let the little me go.
Developing the Inner Witness Read More »
None of us, it turns out, are separate, siloed identities. We’re all mash-ups of each other.
Boiled Down to a Drop Read More »
The journal is a writer’s compost bin. It’s tucked out back, behind the fence or along the alley where the smell won’t waft into the kitchen and the fruit flies won’t irritate the gardeners. You add to it daily, or at least whenever you’ve got a heaping bucket of scraps (read: baggage) to unload.
The Journal: The Writer’s Compost Read More »
We’re all Japanese kintsugi, broken pottery mended with gold, made more beautiful by its repair. These days I trust myself to do my best, but when I screw up, I’m grateful for the ways failure transforms me.
Original Sin—Original Blessing—Blessedly Sinful & Original Read More »
Writing, I suspect, is one way we can inhabit that liminal space right before prayer becomes prayer.
Writing as Listening Read More »
Revision is basically re-vising, or seeing again. The word closest to revision in English is respect. When we look a second time, then a third, fourth, and fifth, we come to know and love the complexity of what we see. There are many facets to any subject, and revision asks of us the forbearance, humility, and creativity to seek out as many facets as possible.
Revising in a Tumultuous World Read More »