My dear Neighbours
Every minute of this adventure has been full and wonderful so far. (chocolate martinis were a great beginning) Oregon was just beautiful. I forget how extreme the seasons are here and have gotten used to the subtle seasonal changes in NZ. Spring here is just sensational. It screams out at you constantly. All the streets in Portland, Oregon are lined with thousands of cherry trees which are all in blossom and the whole city is awash in gently falling pink and white blossoms. It feels like a dream. The city itself is so civilized! It prides itself on its public transport, which works seamlessly. All transport in the city itself is free. There are yellow bicycles stratigically placed all over the city that you can just TAKE and use and leave at designated spots...and then it is just a beautiful city as well. Very impressive.
The Spiritual Directors conference was mind blowing. Its going to take me some time to digest it all. Ive got books and tapes to share with you THe key note speaker was a guy called Dr Brian Swimme, a mathematical cosmologist (??) on the graduate faculty of the California Institute of Integral studies in San Francisco (of course). We talked (among so many other things) about integrating our new knowledge of the universe. For example, we say we watch the sun go down, and it looks like it is going down of course, but now we know that it only looks like the sun is going down because the earth is spinning. Our challenge is to move from ordinary consciousness to a new kind of what he calls, "planetary wisdom". We talked about the transformative process needed to see and feel the world as we understand it intellectually. Feel the earth turning, look down at the stars....feel a part of the universe...As I slowly begin to understand I'll keep you posted. THere were 600 spiritual directors from around the world at the conference, (30 Jewish ones). Now in upstate New YOrk with my folks. GOing down to the city with my brother next week.
Here is a line from a poem by Mary Oliver which was a theme of the conference:
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
Love
JoEllen
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Sunset over York Bay, 2006
A space for us to keep in touch with friends while they're travelling...
Welcome to Waitohu Rovers!
The Waitohu Rovers blog has been set up to help keep in touch with our friend JoEllen as she travels. She'll tell us what she's doing, and we can keep her up to date with what's going on back home.
Look forward to hearing all the goss!
Look forward to hearing all the goss!
Sunset over York Bay, 2006
1 comment:
I LOVE Mary Oliver's poetry! Here's the whole poem that line comes from...
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
The Summer Day
- 1990
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
(from http://www.mrbauld.com/oliverpms.html )
Post a Comment