Author Archives: luminousimmensity
Orange Bowl
Holly-berry, moist chalk pyracantha beads beckon from a woody stalk; small fingers smash the pulp against an orange-striped bowl, stained from weeks of outdoor kitchen play amidst mud, twigs, tiny muscari hyacinth, honeysuckle nectar gleaned from tens of stolen flowers, camelia stamens and heady scotch-broom sunshine. From the brick-red playhouse tumble brown legs, round thighs, […]
As a bird in the redwoods
As the day closes, turns dim in the forest, my soul wells up into a chitter of praise. I offer a song of the magnificence of life, of this day, of this blessed moment — this elongated blink between day and night. Let me hold on, hold out for the great sun that brightened and […]
Letter to Pope Francis
Most Holy Father, Thank you for saying NO to power and YES to love in so many beautiful and radical ways. As a non-practicing Catholic, your example has stirred my hope for the future of the church and the world. I am writing with a simple and humble appeal as you research and write the […]
Water
It came to me this morning casually pouring a glass of water: here is depth, here in my hand, liquid stardust, billions of years old, the elixir of life on earth and I can drink it. Millions of molecules have traveled billions of places and come to me, come through me, from that deep, dark past bearing […]
King’s Canyon
She said to go depth, find my place in the deep of things, travel down, down to the canyon bottom, feel those granite walls, majestic, decorated in scraps of life, and the smaller sky, swimming among the clouds, covering me in my hidden abode. There in that secret place, find the windy arms to hold […]
Presence in the Wild
How to love and defend the earth? I recently spent two weeks exploring my connection with wilderness in Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra mountains. My companions? Thomas Berry and The Great Work, natural history guide books, land/earth, air/wind, water/river/creek, and a multitude of beings who surrounded me with their integrity, purpose, and presence. Before […]
Mystic Dance of Mortality
My journey away from theism hasn’t entirely landed in the atheism camp; as I said in my last post, I seem to live in the borderlands between religion and atheism, with connections to both. But what brings me to this vast wilderness out of the comfy Christianity I used to know? Mortality. Here’s the old […]
Divesting Theism: Learning A New Mentality
Since my last post, just a short three weeks ago, my understanding of atheism has increased dramatically, because I have gone on a podcast and web surfing binge exploring the issues almost daily. My favorite podcast is one with Seth Andrews at thethinkingatheist.com. I’ve gotten through about 20 episodes with this gentle soul who treats his […]
Divesting Theism: Kill the Buddha
My long-standing theism and the process of divesting it over the past two decades is curious to me. My compelling existentialist non-theistic Christianity is powerfully and paradoxically tempered with a mystical evolutionary sense of God in nature and a deeply personal internal relationship/dialogue/devotion to Jesus, as well as a deep embedded experience of God as […]
Forgiveness
I never seem to be able to choose to forgive someone. I will think I’ve done it, and then the resentment comes back in short order. As I was cleaning up the kitchen this morning I was reflecting on forgiveness. For about 18 months in 2010-11, it was a big theme for me and during […]
luminous immensity 