10:25 am, Dec. 12, 2009 Have you ever been in an altercation and witty articulation eludes you? 15 minutes later the perfect comeback is evident, but in the moment you are so clouded by emotion and passion that you stand silent and stunned. Or worse yet, you mumble something an 8 year old would come […]
4:04 pm, July 5, 2009 We’ve been in Colorado for about a week now, and have spent the weekend in Boulder. It has been great to have some family time with the Razavi’s, and we are staying at Michael and Laura Collins’ house. They are gracious and mellow hosts with a beautiful house on the […]
10:30 am, June 11, 2009 So who am I, and what am I to do? Those are the big questions for me this week. The latter is fairly mysterious, while the first one is more tangible, and I have a better handle for. I think I know most of who I am and who I […]
11:24 am, June 11, 2009 Everybody has their own version of what perfect is, and it messes up the rest of us. The evil in the world is someone else trying to write your story. Don’t impose your world on someone else. We need to let God write each of our stories. You have to […]
10:05 pm, June 10, 2009 I’ve been reading a bit from Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation. It is painful for me at times, re-reading paragraphs and struggling to understand what he is saying. At times it feels like jumbled Zen jargon and is nothing more than words on a page. Other times I break through […]
12:10 am, June 10, 2009 I think I have been on a road of transformation the last year or two, and because I am at the beginning of this journey, I haven’t known how to talk about or process it. This week God is giving me language for it. The conviction I am experiencing is […]
10:00 am, June 10, 2009 Fr. Damien, the Guest Master, held a conference this morning at 8:30, and had some great insights on identity and our weaknesses. Here are my notes: We need to admit that we have weaknesses so that we do not cast aside others with weakness. Everybody has a defect. If I […]
7:52 am, June 10, 2009 Yesterday a one-hour hike turned into three. It began on paved road that turned to dirt road that turned to forest path that turned to forest. I took my time, enjoying both nature and being an amateur photographer. I took over 100 pictures, and feel confident about 2-3 of them, […]
11:45 am, June 9, 2009 I have not begun to read anything yet, and want to breathe and rest a bit before I engage at that level. I plan to take a long walk after lunch, and take some pictures of God’s creation. I want to soak in this place where so many have heard […]
11:20 am, June 9, 2009 I got up this morning just in time for breakfast. In the main dining area, they play tapes of sermons and book readings. I chose to eat in the side dining room by myself in silence. As I sat there, a monk, (I presume to be the chaplain), approached me […]