bounty
In the Hopi language, this plant is called Masi ousvie. It lives in the desert and thrives even in such harsh landscapes. It's nick-name in the west is Mormon Tea…
lenten terrain
The terrain of lent can be daunting. Truly looking hard at our lives in this season is not so much about how sinful you are (though the church will…
Beauty-seeing is a choice
The Buddhists say that dissatisfaction is a threat to a happy life. Jesus invites us to consider the lilies of the fields and it is the saying which I most…
an icon to God’s Glory
Someone once helped me to express my belief in God by using the creation as a pathway to that belief. We sometimes know people not simply by what we experience…
limiting beliefs
There is life in the desert. It is hard to face one's preconceptions of a place or a people or a person or a liturgy or a musical style or…
desert pilgrimage
noqkwivi and triffle
It is so easy to wax poetic about simplicity or transformation in Lent when writing from a well-appointed house in Denver's metropolis. I can simply skip one meal, have another…
pueblo echo
From within this room I can hear the longings of men and women who laid these stones in 1100. As Christians in Europe fought their fights. The Pueblo people, they…
retreats: demons and desert
Yesterday, day three of my retreat, I spent most of the day here, looking out at this desert space. After a long hike, I sat on a smooth rock, looked…
desert places
A retreat, done well, can be a time of deep reflection, observation and integration. And one in a desert can be grounding. As I think back on the retreats I…
steel cut oats, butter and a silver spoon
Steel cut oats There are few things in life I love more than butter and God. Steel cut oats in a wooden bowl with a silver spoon on a…