On a recent morning I sit in the silence, seeking stillness. It proves elusive. Reminders chirp in my head. Thoughts flap around. Plans ping. I pause. Offload to paper. Return. Repeat. “Be still” I say. “Stop it.” “Pay attention.” And, slowly, I lift my gaze. I look out. Up. Around. The clouds hang flat and heavy on the mountains. Low and slow moving, they narrow the gap between earth and sky, concentrating my field of vision. The birds are awake and lively. Swallows push aga

For several years I lived next door to a friend who found great satisfaction in removing all Christmas décor and returning the house to order by the end of Christmas Day. The symbol of success? The tree, relieved of light and all ornament, parked at street side by nightfall. Christmas had come and gone. Another friend sees Christmas as a season - beginning on December 25 and spanning 12 days - that invites us to live all our days in the profound awareness of God-with-us alway

For everything there is a season . . . a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. -- Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7 I have been listening more of late . . . To the great pouring forth of words in this tumultuous season and to the carved-out silences of the spaces between. Pressing up against the urge to speak, I have been listening . . . and I have gotten myself outside more. With a great canopy above, and the forest floor beneath my feet, I listen. To birds. To rain. To breath. To to