“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I left town mid-February, following the Mississippi as it twists and turns to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. A life-long Minnesotan, I have stepped across that river over worn stones at its source in Itasca State …
“The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope.” Barbara Kingsolver We are halfway through the 2020s, 25% through the 21st century. Startling! This 20s decade has been off to a rough start. The COVID-19 virus that …
“Autumn demands that I release what I think is important to do and returns me to the only thing which matters that I remember—to love and to allow love to sculpt me, even as it breaks my heart.” Christine Valters Paintner Autumn. The closing of a year. The last burst of color and abundance as …
“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.” Karl Barth I have been remembering joy—the exuberance of youth, the thrill of nature’s beauty, the energy of feeling connected. I have missed joy, her delight with both the spectacular and the ordinary. Anxiety, fear, and doom have permeated the last several years. They roll in like a …
“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Marcel Proust She looked interesting. Unconventional in dress, not afraid of dirty garden hands as she worked the soil of her urban terrain. She propped plants on imaginative metal sculptures. Her pure white hair was …
“Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.” Soren Kierkegaard Here at The Phoenix Spirit, we take time each spring to reflect on and explore the practice of retreating. Retreats, like most rituals, come with a familiarity and a structure that can mask the magic of the experience. Whether you take a retreat …
“All dreams reflect inborn creativity and ability to face and solve life’s problems.” —Jeremy Taylor Do dreams come true? Or are dreams true? What do our dreams tell us? We have all awakened with dreams that grabbed our attention. Some frighten us as when a beast pursues us or we careen down a mountain road …
“One can waste years this way, systematically postponing precisely the things one cares about the most.” ― Oliver Burkeman Another year dawns. Here in the northern hemisphere, we begin the year in darkness—our earth’s fallow time, rest time, quiet time. Yet I hurry to make lists to accomplish, to acquire, to get somewhere rather than …
“It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.” ― Aristotle Peace. Holidays are supposed to be the season of peace—a time when we gather in gratitude with friends and family; when we celebrate love, goodness, abundance; when we make memories to savor for the inevitable dark times ahead. …
“In the short term if I feel loneliness, it’s like any other biological signals. It’s like hunger or thirst. It’s alerting me that something that’s critical for my survival is missing. ” —Vivek Murthy I suppose it was inevitable. I thought I was past the possibility. We were done with Covid—a story to tell our …
