Maybe we need different places for different phases of our lives. Maybe cherished places remain alive inside us even if we have to move on—our attachment to the earth not thinned, but widened.
~Deborah Tall , “From Where We Stand: Recovering a Sense of Place” ~
“Red Sun,” photo by Rev. John Millspaugh This prayer was written on October 24, 2007, by Rev. John Gibb Millspaugh, minister of Tapestry, a Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation in Mission Viejo, California, and Rev. Sarah Gibb Millspaugh, Adult Programs Director for the Unitarian Universalist Association. The Santiago fire, which had burned almost 20,000 acres that…
Happy ALL MOTHERS DAY, you mothers and others. This is a good day to recognize the truth of Tibetan Buddhism: that every being was at one time my own mother…your own mother. Hey! that means you were mine and I was yours. Taking it into present time….you are mine and I am yours. We nurture,…
My morning breakout session has a long title: “Accessing Transpersonal Dimensions of Healing Through Writing and Poetry.” Whew! I’m out of breath just saying it. It’s short and sweet, only an hour and 15 minutes including questions. What are the doors that poetry can open at the end of life? –dying hospice patients can write…
When I was growing up we still put up hay by hand, rode horses, milked cows, butchered, gardened and put up our own food, and sewed up ruptured hogs. But, most of all, when I was growing up the land nurtured me as a dreamer. The land raised me as a poet and writer. I…
Last year I met Eamon Grennan’s poetry through the Lannan Literary videos, a marvelous resource that deserves a post of its own. Eamon Grennan quickly became one of my favorite poets. Former U. S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins says of Grennan: Few poets are as generous as Eamon Grennan in the sheer volume of delight…
This flash fiction of 3 parts, or panels, was originally published in The Portland Review. I’m posting it on Riehlife in three parts. “Triptych: Jeweled Bones” links to an on-going theme of how the land nurtures us as writers and creative people. Arletta Dawdy found inspiration in this piece and I’ll be posting her story-poem…