Stranded on the Mainland: Inner Pilgrimage and Living Alone as a Spiritual Path:

"Lent is not about a hungry Jesus." --Bishop Greg Homeming O.C.D. Continuing. The context, as I'm feeling it for this Lent, is one of being in the middle of a Canadian election and unwanted trade war with the United States-- also of being at the beginning of the  Jubilee Year of Hope (Pope Francis). Which makes me wonder: As a woman who struggles with herself and God can I even be a pilgrim of hope? Can the politicians I'm voting for and the people I'm trying to love be pilgrims of hope? Can the elephant in the room be a pilgrim of hope? What love drives me into the desert? What love drives me to the polls? Beloved. Cb Amen PS. I'm thinking of Bishop Greg's three Lenten talks for 2025.  I think the additional talk below could have been the 4th even though it's from 2019-- so I'm adding it. Lenten Talk 4 – Jesus as He relates to Himself

We are coming to the end of the first week of Lent.   That said, I'm asking myself the same question I heard someone else being asked on TV-- "What is the end game for your life?" At first I thought this was good and wise, practical question to be asking of myself too. I never thought it might be a temptation not to hope.  Now I'm thinking that's exactly what it is, especially after listening to the Lenten talk below, in this,  The Jubilee Year of Hope: 2025 Lenten Talk 1 Bishop Greg Homeming OCD Lismore Australia Continuing. With everything happening in the world right now, I'm grateful to find these beautiful talks while so much of my Lenten journey is still ahead of me.  "There is still hope for a future and we are part of it." --Bishop Greg Homeming OCD. I am a part of it too, and you. Cb Amen

I finish my blog today (March 2nd) grateful for Fr. Richard Rohr's teaching on:  My Story, Our Story, THE Story — Center for Action and Contemplation .  And grateful to Fr. Morgan who introduced me to the CAC. With that said, last Friday Donald Trump ambushed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a meeting in the Oval Office (was it only a week ago?). Then Trump had Zelenskyy thrown out of the White House for seemingly trying to defend himself and his country-- for correcting untruths and for continuing to put truth on the record .  It took me back to a time when I was thrown out of the house for rightly or wrongly trying to defend myself and someone else. Breathe. There was a time when the Oval Office fight would have triggered a days-long (and not minutes-long), post traumatic distress response in me-- instead it turned out to be an opportunity to heal a memory. Continuing. So I think what a good political therapist might say about all this is that: " Hurting peopl...

I'm reading Hafiz and stop at this line:  "Stay close to any sounds that make you glad you are alive."  (254, The Gift).  I write in my journal:  Birds singing, kids playing outside, rain on a tin roof. Then I read a poem by Palestinian poet Masab Abu Toha in CAC's Daily Mediation for Ash Wednesday.  The poem is called Sobbing Without Sound : See :  Universal Sadness — Center for Action and Contemplation .    I'm right there with the poet-- his poem a cross on my forehead as Lent begins. Next, I respond to Masab's poem with one of my own. Poets are connected to each other. Meeting up on our oceans of grief, and deserts of longing-- We can break at a little. We can break at a lot. Ah, but when we bend, " the so called 'tin cry' can be heard. Cb Amen I want Masab to know that the sound of the silent sobbing he writes about, is heard like big tin sheets being struck within me and others. I'm thinking of the Hafiz quote I used at the beginning of ...