Category: Religion
Possibly tomorrow if all goes well. I’ve been offline, ignoring most email, personal messages, and news. I haven’t meant to be rude, but I’ve been sunk in a funk, and a deep dark one at that. Wintery temps and record-setting rains haven’t helped matters. This morning I received a feast of spiritual sustenance from my friend Alexander. I’d sent him a selfish and whiny missive. He must have spent his entire evening responding to it. He sent humor, love, scholarship, and entertainingly unconventional theology. It reset my perspective. It cheered me as no standard attempt at cheer could have done.…
My friend Alexander was “executed” and reborn today. One journey over, one begun. This was not an impulse decision. It was a long, arduous venture into the depths of spiritual mystery. I’m as religious as a lump of lead, yet somehow Alexander brought me along with him, through it all. My part began with music — specifically this music. Then Alexander carried me along, though history, art, humor, more art (lots of art), personal struggle, philosophy, tears, synchronicity (lots of synchronicity), and general wonders. I was privileged to play a small part in an enormous adventure. Many thanks, all thanks,…
I ate breakfast this morning on the screen porch. Fresh blueberries in Greek yogurt with honey from the dear Friends of the Blog at Molon Labe Apiary. (I used the honey their bees produced during last summer’s wildfires, which I hope they did end up calling Smoking Gun, per Ellendra’s suggestion.) It was only in the low 40s, but mild and pleasant. The screen porch looks out on the fern-covered hill that rises just 12 feet from the back wall. Between house and hill is a small gravel plain that will eventually be a patio. It’s a teeny, tiny view,…
I mentioned to a friend that I could do with a few days silent retreat. He came right back with a link to the St. Nilus Skete. And I said, “Um. Wow. But um. No freakin’ way!” A skete is a religious community midway between a monastery and a hermitage. Monks or nuns (nuns, in the case of St. Nilus), largely live and work solo, avoiding the communal perils of cenobitic life. But they gather for religious observances and meals to avoid the emotional and intellectual perils of pure solitude. Far as I know there are only a handful of…