Lines of Thinking

At year’s end, I experience a heightened awareness of time and light and their interplay. The low-slung sun moves over the edge of the backyard fence; it beams through an otherwise innocuous container on the windowsill, casting a light shadow of...

Lines of thinking easily ride the river of consciousness, below or above our level of awareness. Talk about live streaming! When the proverbial dots are connected, if they are at all, we may see patterns and relationships in our lives that appear...

“Crucial to finding the way is this: there is no beginning or end.You must make your own map.” —Joy Harjo The notion of mapmaking while journeying is potent for me. Whitman and Eliot draw upon it; Strand, Rich, Bishop and Frost as well; and Homer,...

Lines of poetic thinking are seldom straightly drawn. They arch, dip, zigzag, loop, swerve or altogether leap into other places, histories and worlds, taking us for rides, by surprise, pleasantly or not, willingly or not. And this is part of their...

“I’m not living my own life … I feel refuted, abandoned, and above all threatened by a world ready to dissolve entire in such senseless disorder.” Rainer Maria Rilke, 1917, from a letter to a friend …Pittsburg, El Paso, now Dayton. Where does one...

Late last month I was very touched to be part of the life celebration for Antioch College alumna and long time faculty member and fellow student of Japanese culture, Karen Shirley ’61. This Lines of Thinking is dedicated to Karen in gratitude for...

A book I’m reading on how quantum field bridges time, space, miracles and beliefs, begins with three brief, beautiful lines from Rumi:   I have one small drop of knowing in my soul. Let it dissolve in your ocean.   There is no cited source for the...

Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. Mary Oliver Since Mary Oliver’s death in January, there has been an outpouring of remembrances, elegies and homages. I had not intended to add to that generous and...

I’ve been reflecting on the idea of silence since listening to the inspiring talks given by Tamika D. Mallory at the Coretta Scott King Legacy Luncheon and Birthday Celebration at Antioch two weeks ago. A co-chair of the Women’s March and a...

A lot of things in life take courage. Sometimes reading poetry is one of them. I once read a poem to conclude a presentation on international education and its power to get us past cultural barriers by underscoring our shared humanity. There were...