Aligning with Grace

It was beautiful on the river this morning. The water was as calm as its been in a long time, even though it is still pretty muddy from all the rain we have had. I have not been able to get a glimpse of the riverbed - except for a brief one when I emerged by the boat launch. I paddled today with a minimum of effort, and once more found myself heading upstream in the middle of the river...Humm.... I watched a blue heron fly over me - and then slowly and gracefully amble its way along the banks of the first island I tend to paddle towards. When I rounded the corner of the island and reached that place between islands and straddling two states that I love, I saw a much younger heron perched on the corner, surveying the river upstream... As I floated for a while, I reflected on how it has nearly been a year since I bought Grace, my kayak, and came into the river, very unexpectedly, after nearly a year of meditating by its banks. My journey began with me sitting by a bench for about nine mo...

On Friday, I was in the water by 6:30 AM, and it was absolutely delicious. I came back and sat for a two hour meditation that was just as exquisite. When I came out of my morning meditation, I found an email waiting for me in my inbox from a friend who had been kayaking around the lake that is very close to where she lives, about the same time I was kayaking in the river that is just as close to where I live... Frederic Brussat and his wife Mary Ann have a lovely website which features all kinds of wonderful and inspirational insights and suggestions - all related to spiritual practice. In one section of their site, they list a number of suggestions for summertime practice. Here is an entry on this list: 23. WALK AROUND THE LAKE In one of his poems, Wallace Stevens observed: "Perhaps the truth depends upon a walk around the lake." Ponder that thought as you circumnavigate a lake, a pond, a field, or even your block. Just the experience of moving puts things in perspective a...

An affirmation arose in my heart during my yoga class on Thursday. It has merged with a prayer and has now become a mantra - repeated in the depths of my meditation... While I will not record it here, this simple mantra bears similarity with several prayers that have been my favorites, at various junctures of my life. The first one, is one I have loved since I was in my teens, and it has found its way back into the cave of my heart once more - and has been whispered fervently for several weeks... The second was a favorite in my twenties, while I worked on my M.A. at St. Louis University , a Jesuit institution, and moonlighted as a liturgical musician. I often played and prayed a musical rendition of this prayer... The third comes from a beloved mystic - who was beatified on my 50th birthday, which I celebrated in Paris. I began that Sunday morning by exploring Notre Dame during Mass, never feeling as much energy in a church as I did in that one. Significantly, my 50th fell on a Sunday...

The river calls me in darkness...I cannot sleep...For days it seems to elude me...Is this a new pattern in my life? I arise and am in the water paddling upstream very early in the morning. Once more, I angle up the river by paddling in the center, something I never really do...And once more I sense the river is urging me to seek balance... It is hazy, quiet, and as still as the river has been in a very long time. The surface of the water is covered with many little pools of bubbles, looking almost as if someone has spit into the river all over the place. It reminds me of the physical - as well as the spiritual act of purgation - a step on the ladder of Divine ascent - reaching out hungrily towards illumination... My soul is in such need of illumination... I paddle and an interior voice prays and sings a song by Cat Stevens: "I listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul. Where I'll end up, I think Only God really knows..." I am in a place between places - once more in ...

I've spent a portion of this day putting the finishing touches on a series of yoga classes I am going to do for clergy men and women at the Virginia Theological Seminary . I am excited because it allows me to combine my two loves of yoga and spirituality. During the course of three days we will dance our way from the practice of yoga as one that contributes to greater wellness - to one that is best expressed in the physical embodiment of prayer. From time to time during the course of the day, I have checked for inspiration here and there from my various online friends. It seems we support one another sometimes in ways that are both unexpected and timely. These are some of the morsels that fed my soul today... "When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy." - Rumi "Dream big! Journey far! But inhabit each step …with joy! " "I live in the hope of meeting HIM but the meeting is not yet. There is the agony of wishing, my...

I awaken early, and the river calls - it draws me strongly - even before my meditation cushion does. So I follow its urgent beckoning, and arrive at a river that is still, and quiet, and empty, with these words of Rumi, skipping in my heart: "You are not just a drop in the ocean, You are the mighty ocean in the drop." But these are the words that my heart hears instead: "You are not just a drop in this river, You are this mighty river in the drop." Can it be true? Am I really this body of water in the drop? I know this is what Yogananda so often teaches in his writings. It is a lesson I have been struggling to learn and embody... I paddle away from the launch area and travel up the center of the river - something I rarely do. Perhaps it is a message for me to seek greater balance in my life. This seems to be a kind of perennial message for me. Yet this paddling upstream in the center is also symbolic of uniting two halves of my life... It is warm - with a shot of c...

This beautiful prayer was posted by a wonderful soul I've met through Twitter by the name of Pamir Kiciman, who is shining light into the farthest corners of cyberspace. It is so appropriate for this moment in time when the world is witnessing conflicts on so many levels. Yet, it also speaks to the heart, and quietly addresses many of the internal conflicts that simply go undetected by others, and which often silently fester within... Peace Prayer by Lama Gangchen Rinpoche Peace to the inner and outer environments. Peace to the five elements within and without. Peace to this body. Peace to this mind. Peace to this huge ocean of emotions and feelings. By the power of the truth and for the happiness of all beings, may we have a culture of peace, a society of peace, a world of peace, where we can have days of peace, nights of peace, sleep with peace and dreams of peace. By the power of the truth and for the healing of all beings, may we have peace in all mom...