Tag: spirit

body, Dogs, neighborhood, Outdoors, prayer, spirit

A Blessing of Waters

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Color photograph of dog on a leash standing on a rocky beach looking with alert ears and eyes at small waves on the shore.
My girl Thaia’s first visit to the Chesapeake Bay at Point Lookout State Park

As soon as we come in out of the heat, she heads for the kitchen. First stop is the food bowl in case something new has materialized. Then it’s to the water. She gives it a few good laps then ambles over to collapse on her bed by the balcony doors. 

I try to keep her water filled. Sometimes I forget and all that greets her is a rank two-day old puddle, if that. She doesn’t know how to signal it’s time for a refill. It’s up to me to remember to keep track but lately my attention is slippery. These are not my proudest moments, when I can’t recall the last time she had something within reach to drink.

Continue reading “A Blessing of Waters” →
body, Change, Fitness

Conversion

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spine

Some people have spiritual journeys. Like the woman at the pool today. She gave me a copy of her book, the one she’s self-published about her awakening. Praise and bible verses sing their glory from the pages. She told me Satan still tempts her sometimes.

I’m going to have to read this because we’re neighbors. We need each other more than I need the security of my convictions. I’ll learn about her journey. No matter how indirect its impact on my life, a person’s story is a big deal. Reading a slice of it is a small task.

Lately, my journey has strayed far from the spiritual. I’ve gone on a physical detour, as if I’ve stumbled upon some hidden hatch and tripped into my own body. I wander through this wondrous machine, in awe of what I’m witnessing. Connections! Understanding! Everyone needs to hear about this transformation — You! Yes, you! — because it could be this good for you too! Really! This one simple set of practices could give you back life you didn’t even know you’d lost!

Because who doesn’t love hearing yet another opinion about how to improve oneself?

Continue reading “Conversion” →

Writing

How Much Like Gravity

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Her endeavor was misguided and wrong and maybe plain crazy, akin to someone waking up one day and deciding he’s going to scale Kilamanjaro because he can’t stop imagining the view from the top, the picture so arresting and beautiful that it too soon delivers him to a precarious ledge, where he can no longer turn back. And while it’s easy to say this is a situation to be avoided, isn’t this what we also fear and crave simultaneously, that some internal force which defies understanding might remake us into the people we dream we are?

– Chang Rae Lee, On Such a Full Sea

The spirit buckles your knees even as you grip the rung of disbelief.

body, Creativity, Living in the Moment

This Dance

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Simone Forti

Only after the herd thunders past, then the chewing snapping locust swarm, then the boulder storm, only after all of these have carried themselves off into the collapsing distance does the gesture peek out from its hushed cave.

The ribbon unfurls from my wrist. A glass staircase bears the weight of fear. A feral pup  in its winter wool climbs to the cliff edge and readies its throat.

The wing, first opening, closes.

Opens again.  Continue reading “This Dance” →