Want the change. Be inspired by the flamewhere everything shines as it disappears.Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII. Trans. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy More Rilke today. In this part of Costa Rica, the Christmas winds -- the vientos de Navidad -- usher in the summer season. This year, they've been delayed. Listening…
This weekend's quest(ion) comes from the end of yesterday's post. First, remembering Rilke from Monday, the task is to get small, to connect with "the things we belong to" -- each stone, blossom, child. Then, inspired by Rachel Carson, sit with an issue -- in your family, community, city, country -- that has been weighing…
This week, a question has revolved around my mind: How do I get from where I am now to what I only vaguely imagine in the future? Sometimes, our human existence can seem so begrudgingly slow, especially when we're working faithfully on building something new, and especially when we're suffering. And I've reflected on a…
This Rilke poem is at the heart of "Simple and Forgotten Things." The poem reminds me how it feels to get small again, like a wave reaches for the ocean floor to build its strength before it can form. At the start of this week, I needed a reminder of what that feels like. What…
The themes this week have been learning through experience (sitting in the middle of a forest, arms wrapped around a tree, waiting to experience what comes), and observing with one's whole being, with the heart. Those led me, not surprisingly, to this weekend's "quest" -- Practice For 20 minutes, sit yourself somewhere in nature, or…
Simple and Forgotten Things 