Spiritual Direction

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

So Much Sorrow


 So Much Sorrow

that doesn't stop coming
Like the parched autumn
landscape
day after day of drought
Or skinny deer
in a lean mast year
wandering in search of acorns
Or tree swallows' fruitless
flights
to gather insects
in a drizzling cold
April

Like wilted September spicebushes
who wait for rain
perhaps
someday
showers will fall
and we
will be revived
once again




Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Hallowed Ordinary Morning

 


Droplets of dew on towering jewelweed
    sparkle like a thousand diamonds at dawn

Breeze-blown sassafras cast shadows at sunrise
    light and dark dancing at daybreak

Young catbirds splash in shallow puddles
    each drop the sun’s prism suspended in mid-air

Ruby-throats thread through stalks of crimson cardinal flowers
    swaying with stationary partners at first light

The rising sun creeps over the horizon
    bathing the morning in gold


Sunday, September 14, 2025

Ripples

 


A casual breeze
ripples
across
the whole
pond.

Can a casual act
of goodness
ripple
across
the whole 
world?



Thursday, September 4, 2025

Incognito






 Saucy chipmunks belt out fall proclamations
    Migrating blue jays announce their place in the world

Tree crickets trill nocturnal melodies into the wee hours
    Handsome trigs' sweet staccato punctuates the day

Ruby-throats threaten and feud in restless frenzy
    Bumblebees burrow down deep into orange jewelweed blooms

Sassafras' first leaves blush into crimson
    Butter-yellow black walnut trees loosen their grip

Indian grass blankets the field in bronze
    Mistflower billows into fuzzy blue clouds 

Amid the social order's slow crumbling
    the Holy lives among us.