Tomorrow is Father’s Day and across the United States, family groups will be gathering for barbecues or picnics; some restaurants are featuring special menus — not as many as for Mother’s Day, but some. Lowe’s and Home Depot have been running ads (disparaging ties and lauding power drills) during sporting events for the past two …
As I keep reminding us both, Beltane is a time of creation and a time of re-creation. The word ‘recreation’ has become rather trite and superficial in common 21st century usage. We use it primarily to categorize non-work activities, but the attitude we bring to most recreational activities is so rigid and demanding that what …
Beltane is the season in which the Christian feast of Pentecost falls — a feast filled with tempestuous wind and sparkling fire. The Christian church inherited Pentecost (which simply means “the 50th day” ) from Judaism, where the 50th day after Passover is now more commonly called Shavu’ot (or the Feast of Weeks). In Judaism, …
Dear Subscribers — This means YOU if you are currently subscribed to receive my blog. You will NOT receive a blog on Saturday or Sunday. Instead, I am changing over my feed service on Saturday (June 7) from Feedburner to WordPress Subscribe 2. There are two reasons for this. First, Feedburner insists that I have …
My last Musings was about relationship and community. May is coming to an end (already!?) and June is beginning; it’s “that time of year” and I am pondering a different kind of relationship, a different kind of community. Since my beloved husband and I are both ordained clergy, we have attended well more than a …
I have been traveling through New Mexico and the edges of the Four Corners region with my husband and we were privileged to visit a kiva, discovered in the 1930s and rebuilt using the old techniques. We were allowed to descend into the kiva, but not to take photos — although it is no …
Our travels have brought us to Mesa Verde, one of the truly extraordinary landscapes of the United States. Indeed, it is more than a piece of North American geography and history; it is a World Heritage Site. Our guide explained the World Heritage designation comes not from Mesa Verde’s past, but from the fact that …
Beltane is not only about looking around us and honoring those persons and places and experiences that have shaped us; it is also about looking within and noting our limitations and our life-giving, expansive well of authentic energy. One of our on-going summer tasks is to notice and to weed the former (insuring that limitations …
As we have journeyed, we have been following a trail of petroglyphs across northern New Mexico, admiring the stunning quality of some, puzzling over others. We are fascinated by what wisdom they may have been communicating, what news they may have been sharing. We have pondered whether they are religious or spiritual illustrations (since there …
Even though, chronologically, I am past the summer quarter of my life, each year continues to have its cycle of seasons. In his book, Naked Spirituality, Brian McLaren calls spiritual summer (the inward Beltane), The Season of Complexity. It is a season of mastering skills, achieving goals, and conquering challenges (maturing and ripening). As with …