Sunday, June 2 Introduction
“...the
reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot [of
heaven, spirituality] is because we are standing on it.” p. xvii
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| Photograph: The Matterhorn, Switzerland |
Monday, June 3
Chapter One - The Practice of Waking Up to God
Have
we forgotten that the whole world is the House of God? When had I
made the subtle switch myself, becoming convinced that church bodies
and buildings were the safest and most reliable places to encounter
the living God? (p.4)
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| Photograph: Church of St. Catherine in Corvara, Italy with Sassongher in background |
Thursday, June 6
Somewhere
along the line we bought – or were sold – the idea that God is
chiefly interested in religion. We believed that God’s home was
the church…. p. 6
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| Church at Oxararfoss, Thingvellir National Park, Iceland |
“Surely
the Lord is present in this place, and I did not know it!” When
those words came out of Jacob’s mouth, there was no temple in
Jerusalem. Without one designated place to make their offerings,
people were free to see the whole world as an altar. p. 8
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| Internet photo of stone altar |
Do we build God a house so that we can choose when to go see God? Do we build God a house in lieu of having God stay at ours? p. 9
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| I used the front of our Broadway Street house for this prayer drawing. |
Tuesday, June 11
The
House of God stretches from one corner of the universe to the other.
Sea monsters and ostriches live in it, along with people who pray in
languages I do not speak, whose names I will never know. p. 13 |
| Internet photos |
Thursday, June 13
As
with Jacob’s, most of my visions of the divine have happened while
I was busy doing something else. I did nothing to make them happen.
p. 14
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| Photo: Stretch of US 40 between Duquesne and Heber City, Utah. |
Friday, June 14
Earth
is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk
anywhere without cracking our shins on altars. p. 15
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| Photo: Oregon Coast Trail hike south of Bandon, mid-June when the wild iris were abloom on the forest floor. |
Monday, June 17
How I respond to God’s presence is of importance: I can ignore or I can set a little altar, in the world or in my heart. I can stop what I am doing long enough to see where I am, who I am there with, and how awesome the place is. p. 15
How I respond to God’s presence is of importance: I can ignore or I can set a little altar, in the world or in my heart. I can stop what I am doing long enough to see where I am, who I am there with, and how awesome the place is. p. 15
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Photo:
Lakes Lookout from south side on Crest Trail.
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“The
day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw – and knew I saw –
all things in God and God in all things.” - Mechtild of Magdeburg
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Fall hike in Flathead Valley, Montana
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CHAPTER 2 - The Practice of Paying Attention
Everything
has being through the love of God.- Julian of Norwich
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| Photo: Meadow near Santa Croce Chapel, Dolomites of Italy |
Reverence Is the virtue that keeps people from trying to act like gods. - Paul Woodruff p21
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| Photo: Hraunfosser Barnafoss, Iceland |
Monday, June 24
Reverence
stands in awe of something – something that dwarfs the self, that
allows human beings to sense the full extent of our limits – so
that we can begin to see one another more reverently as well. p. 21
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| Photo: Seljalandsfoss,
Southern Coast, Iceland |
Reverence
may take all kinds of forms, depending on what it is that awakens awe
in you by reminding you of your true size. P22
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| Photo: Sassongher Peak, Dolomites of Italy |
Wednesday, June 26
The easiest practice of reverence I know is simply to sit down somewhere outside...and pay attention for at least twenty minutes. P22
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| Photo: Bandon beach, below my Mom's house |
Thursday, June 27
You are a guest here [on earth]. You have been given a free pass to this modest domain and everything in it. P23
You are a guest here [on earth]. You have been given a free pass to this modest domain and everything in it. P23
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| Photo: Anthony Lake, Elkhorn Mts, Oregon |
Friday, June 28
I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it. - Shug Avery in The Color Purple p26
Saturday, June 29
Reverence for creation comes fairly easily for most people. Reverence for other people presents more of a challenge. P27
Sunday, June 30
Monday, July 1
Regarded properly, anything can become a sacrament, in which I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual connection. P30
Tuesday, July 2
The practice of paying attention is as simple as looking twice at people and things you might just as easily ignore. P31
CHAPTER 3 - The Practice of Wearing Skin: Incarnation
Thursday, July 4
People ask me: why do you write about food, and eating and drinking? Why don’t you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do? The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry. - MRK Fisher
Friday, July 5
Whether you are sick or well, lovely or irregular, there comes a time when it is vitally important for your spiritual health to drop your clothes, look in the mirror, and say, ‘Here I am. This is the body that life has shaped. I live here. This is my soul’s address.’ p. 38
Saturday, July 6
It is time to do a better job of wearing my skin with gratitude rather than loathing. No matter what I think of my body, I can still offer it to God to go on being useful to the world in ways both sublime and ridiculous. p. 38
Sunday, July 7
God loves all of me – not just my spirit but also my flesh. p. 41
Tuesday, July 9 (Happy Anniversary, Rick!)
While we might not have one other thing in common, we all wear skin. We all have breath and beating hearts. p. 41
Wednesday, July 10
Do this, Jesus said, not believe this, but do this, in remembrance of me. p. 44
I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it. - Shug Avery in The Color Purple p26
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| Photo: Camas Creek Meadows, Glacier National Park, Montana |
Saturday, June 29
Reverence for creation comes fairly easily for most people. Reverence for other people presents more of a challenge. P27
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| Photo: St. Mary Falls, Glacier National Park, Montana |
Sunday, June 30
Human
beings have a hard time regarding anything beautiful without wanting
to devour it. P29
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| Photo: Lamar Valley bison, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming |
Monday, July 1
Regarded properly, anything can become a sacrament, in which I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual connection. P30
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| Photo: Bandon seastacks, Oregon |
Tuesday, July 2
The practice of paying attention is as simple as looking twice at people and things you might just as easily ignore. P31
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| Photo: Vistas along Beartooth Highway, Wyoming-Montana |
CHAPTER 3 - The Practice of Wearing Skin: Incarnation
Thursday, July 4
People ask me: why do you write about food, and eating and drinking? Why don’t you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do? The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry. - MRK Fisher
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| Photo: Bandon beach sunset |
Friday, July 5
Whether you are sick or well, lovely or irregular, there comes a time when it is vitally important for your spiritual health to drop your clothes, look in the mirror, and say, ‘Here I am. This is the body that life has shaped. I live here. This is my soul’s address.’ p. 38
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| Photo: Crab found at low tide on Bandon beach, Oregon |
Saturday, July 6
It is time to do a better job of wearing my skin with gratitude rather than loathing. No matter what I think of my body, I can still offer it to God to go on being useful to the world in ways both sublime and ridiculous. p. 38
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| Photo: Cluster of anemones hanging from rocks in Bandon, Oregon |
Sunday, July 7
God loves all of me – not just my spirit but also my flesh. p. 41
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| Photo: TishATang Access and Face Rock, Bandon, Oregon |
While we might not have one other thing in common, we all wear skin. We all have breath and beating hearts. p. 41
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| Photo: Bandon sunset during the 100th Celebration in July |
Wednesday, July 10
Do this, Jesus said, not believe this, but do this, in remembrance of me. p. 44
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| Photo: Winter ice in Waterfall Canyon, Sandia Mountains, NM. Photo credit: Luke Rembold. |
Hymn: Brian Wren
Good is the pleasure of God in our flesh, longing in all, as in Jesus to dwell,
glad of embracing, and tasting, and smell,
good is the body, for good and for God,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become. p.48
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| Photo: Large clump of lupine from High Country property |
Saturday, July 13
Do we dismiss the body’s wisdom because it does not use words? p. 51
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| Photo: Multnomah Falls, Columbia Gorge, Oregon |
Sunday, July 14
The practice of wearing skin is so obvious that almost no one engages it as spiritual practice, yet here is a place to begin: with tears, aches, moans, gooseflesh, heat. p. 51
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| Photo: Chimney Rock, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico |
CHAPTER 4 - The Practice of Walking on the Earth
The miracle is not to walk on water but on the earth. -Thich Nhat Hanh
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| Photo: Perkins Lake, Camp Perkins Lutheran Conference Center, Stanley, ID |
Tuesday, July 16
Walk by faith and not by sight - Faith not in an unseen deity, but faith in the exquisite physical fine-tuning that we don’t know we have, which allows us to find our way in the dark without light. p55
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| Photo: Forest along Hwy 21, central Idaho |
Not everyone is able to walk, but most people can, which makes walking one of the most easily available spiritual practices of all. p. 56
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| Photo: Sawtooth Mountains, Central Idaho |
To detach the walking from the destination is in fact one of the best ways to recognize the altars you are passing right by all the time. p56
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| Hoffer Lake and Shooting Stars, Elkhorn Mts, Oregon |
Sunday, July 21
The important thing to note about a labyrinth is that the path goes nowhere. You can spend an hour on it and end up twelve feet from where you began. The journey is the point. The walking is the thing. p. 56
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| Labyrinth at Ghost Ranch Conference Center, Abiquiu, New Mexico |
Monday, July 22
On a labyrinth, I realize how much more I notice when I am not preoccupied with getting somewhere. p. 58
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| Photo: Labyrinth in Pennsylvania |
Wednesday, July 24
The labyrinth may be a set path, but it does not offer a set experience. Instead, it offers a door that anyone may go through, to discover realities that meet each person where each most needs to be met. p. 58
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| Photo: Circles in the Sand, Bandon, OR |
Thursday, July 25
Spiritual practices promise to teach those who engage in them what those practitioners need to know – about being human, about being human with other people, and being human with creation, about being human before God. p. 59
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| Photo: Colorado vista...location unknown |
Friday, July 26
Sometimes we do not know what we know until it comes to us through the soles of our feet, the embrace of a tender lover, or the kindness of a stranger. Touching the truth with our minds alone is not enough. We are made to touch it with our bodies. p. 62
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| Photo Credit: Rick on a hike up in the Anthony Lakes basin, lupine and sulfur paintbrush |
Saturday, July 27
Jesus walked a lot. This gave him time to see things, like the milky eyes of a beggar by the side of the road, or the round black eyes of sparrows sitting in their cages at market. p65
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| Photo: Internet picture of Palestinian Roman road |
Monday, July 29
I would like to introduce the spiritual practice of going barefoot. This practice requires no props. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is noly ground.” p 66
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| Photo: Internet source |
Tuesday, July 30
It will help if you do not expect God to speak to you. Just give your full attention to where you are, for once. Walk as if your life depended on it. p. 67
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| Photo: Near top of Handies Peak, 14er in central Colorado |
Wednesday, July 31
You might even walk in a small circle, so that you have a chance to see the same things over and over again, seeing something different in them each time... What have you missed in your rush from here to there? p. 67
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| Photo: Internet source |
Thursday, August 1
As long as you are on the earth and you know it, you are where you are supposed to be. You have everything you need to ground yourself in God. p68
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| Photo: Waterfall near Handies Peak, Colorado |
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