Naomi Shihab Nye is from Palestine and currently lives in San Antonio Texas. If you have never heard of or read this poet please give her a chance. Her poems are full of beauty and truth.
San Antonio
by Naomi Shihab Nye
Tonight I lingered over your name,
the delicate assembly of vowels
a voice inside my head.
You were sleeping when I arrived.
I stood by your bed
and watched the sheets rise gently.
I knew what slant of light
would make you turn over.
It was then I felt
the highways slide out of my hands.
I remembered the old men
in the west side cafe,
dealing dominoes like magical charms.
It was then I knew,
like a woman looking backward,
I could not leave you,
or find anyone I loved more.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Holy Week
This is the daily meditation from Richard Rohr:
Question of the day: How have you experienced true freedom?
"The greatest among you must behave as if you were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves" (Luke 22:26). That statement is probably the simplest and most powerful one about the Christian definition of authority to be found in all four gospels.
"For who is the greater, the one at table or the one who serves?" The world would say immediately, "The one at table." He says, "Surely, yet, here I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27). Jesus says, in effect, "I'm telling you that the world's way will not work. The essence of true freedom is the freedom to serve other people—to wait upon them."
Question of the day: How have you experienced true freedom?
"The greatest among you must behave as if you were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves" (Luke 22:26). That statement is probably the simplest and most powerful one about the Christian definition of authority to be found in all four gospels.
"For who is the greater, the one at table or the one who serves?" The world would say immediately, "The one at table." He says, "Surely, yet, here I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27). Jesus says, in effect, "I'm telling you that the world's way will not work. The essence of true freedom is the freedom to serve other people—to wait upon them."
Friday, April 3, 2009
April is Poetry Month.
Garrison Kellior offers some insight into the true 'American Dream':
In spring, a person's thoughts naturally turn toward what you would rather be doing than earning a living, and in America this usually means Being An Artist. This is the true American dream. Winning the lottery is a faint hope, becoming a sports hero is a daydream, but publishing poetry is the ambition of one-third of the American people and another third are thinking about writing a memoir. (http://www.salon.com/opinion/keillor/2009/03/25/spring/index.html)
Enjoy!
Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll
T'WAS brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Calloh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
In spring, a person's thoughts naturally turn toward what you would rather be doing than earning a living, and in America this usually means Being An Artist. This is the true American dream. Winning the lottery is a faint hope, becoming a sports hero is a daydream, but publishing poetry is the ambition of one-third of the American people and another third are thinking about writing a memoir. (http://www.salon.com/opinion/keillor/2009/03/25/spring/index.html)
Enjoy!
Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll
T'WAS brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Calloh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Ash Wednesday
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. The ashes represent mourning and repentance. Lent is to be a time of reflection and prayer. If you are not familiar with fixed hour prayer I hope you will try it this Lenten season. Below are a few sites that will walk you through the prayers.
A prayer from Thomas Merton's Dialogues with Silence:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Community
"Community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves."
-Wendell Berry
I have begun to see what individualism will do to community. Working with students makes this painfully clear. Without a second though a student will put everyone in the school/community in danger, and when they say they never thought of anyone else, they mean it. I have seen this same attitude in myself . We have turned self-reliance into a life-style and now our interactions with each other are devoid of meaning and depth. People don't ask for help, they keep their 'issues' private (even at church), we all demand certain behavior from others but excuse ourselves from that same standard. I think this is what made Berry observe,
"Novelty is a new kind of loneliness."
Thursday, February 5, 2009
E.J. Dionne is on to something...
"Republicans -- short on new ideas, low on votes and deeply unpopular in the polls -- have been winning the media war over the president's central initiative.
They have done so largely by focusing on minor bits of the stimulus that amount, as Obama said in at least two of his network interviews, to "less than 1 percent of the overall package." But Republicans have succeeded in defining the proposal by its least significant parts."
Read the whole article here...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020402835.html
They have done so largely by focusing on minor bits of the stimulus that amount, as Obama said in at least two of his network interviews, to "less than 1 percent of the overall package." But Republicans have succeeded in defining the proposal by its least significant parts."
Read the whole article here...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020402835.html
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
This album is amazing and refreshing. This guy isolated himself in the wilderness of Wisconsin and recorded this album. Bon Iver is a play on a French phrase meaning 'good winter' and while listening to these tunes it has most definitely been a good winter. For those of you who think God speaks only in a church, check out this album and be blessed.
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