Wild Mustang: Lover of Soul and Inviter to the Dance

Poem for Camp Gilmont: Come and Connect   I sense in me and in others a deep yearning  to connect and experience and know God, the one who creates us, calls us and gives our lives meaning. In this yearning is the desire To have extended moments, A time for listen and being and learning with Christ That is outside of our normal routine. This is Gilmont I sense in me and in others a desire To connect and know others In ways I cannot through emails and meetings and lunches. I want to be known and to know others Deeper than just their names or the work they do or where they live. I want to encounter their soul and they encounter mine. This is Gilmont I sense in me and in others a profound wanting To connect with myself. To be willing to be present with me Beyond the distractions of everyday life. To bring together all the scatter pieces of me That run in many directions. I want some way to see me, know me. Truly love me and ...

Prayer of  Lament Oh Lord, who is ever before me, beside me, behind me, and within me, In this time of deepening awareness of the brokenness of racism in our land, I  lament :             How often I have looked outward to see racism yet have failed to look within;             How complex and messy racism is and how difficult to address.             How little I have truly done in the midst of all I see;             How I often did not know what to do when I am aware of the deep pain of racism;             How often I have been speechless when a word was needed;           How again and again, Blacks end up dead at the hands of the police who have sworn to prot...

Racism in Me             The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor and the responses and protests to those deaths have created an opening unlike any I have seen in my lifetime. Unfortunately, black men and women have been dying at the hands of the police for a long time. The anger and grief have been simmering a while and have now boiled over. This anger and grief do not simply need a release so things can return to normal. They need to push us into the very issues that are causing the anger and grief.             Racism is systemic and pervasive. Though changes in law and police polices will help, these changes do not address depth of racism. Racism has been a part of the fabric of our country since the first settlers came from Europe. The horrendous treatment and destruction of the indigenous people. The discrimination of people based on the color o...

Play Two weeks ago in my blog, I shared pictures I had painted as part of the Contemplative Painting Class at the Retreat House Spirituality Center. I shared 5 paintings with comments. The above painting I did not share. It was the last painting I did in the second class. I didn't really like it. It didn't speak to my spiritual journey, or so I thought. On my way to Gilmont Conference Center for a board meeting, I listened to Brene Brown and the Power of Vulnerability. This is a series of teachings Brene did for Sounds True. In one of her talks Brene Brown talked about the importance of play for wholehearted living. Brene's first response when play came up in her research data was to discount it. Then it was to realize that she didn't know how to play, didn't have time to play, and had too many important things to do rather than play. Brene defined play as " time spent without purpose. " Based on that definition, I realized that I don't kn...

Contemplative Painting Over twenty years ago my friend Glennietta gave me some paints and paper for my birthday.  I told Glennietta that I was not an artist.  She said she was not asking me to be an artist.  Simply put paint on paper. If you want to splash some purple, splash purple.  See a green that grabs you, paint that shade of green.  Just play with it. See what happens. What I discovered when I did this simply process, when I got out of my head, and just slipped into creative, messy, paint play, I would enter into deep soul work. It is amazing what shows up on the paper. For two and a half years, I have been leading Contemplative Painting at the Retreat House Spirituality Center in Richardson, Texas. We gather, introduce ourselves, choose some colors that speak to us, do a brief meditation, and paint.  At the end of our time, we share what the experience was like - what (or who) showed up, what we felt, what we see in our paintings and in the...

R.I.P. My Friend, the Thistle             Each day as part of the Seminary of the Wild virtual retreat we were invited to go out onto the land. We were instructed to find a portal, something we could cross over or ask permission of in order to begin our wanderings. These portals are important because they help us shift from our ordinary time into the mysterious, where we don’t know what might happen.             On the first day of my wanderings at Erwin Park in McKinney, as I walked from my car, I saw a thistle plant standing tall above the surrounding grasses. I was drawn to this particular thistle plant and went over to look at her.   The thistle had one bud at the top of the stem and a smaller one coming forth from a lower branch. Thistles are fast growing plants and I knew I would enjoy coming each day to see what new growth she had had. I looked at the leave...

Knowing Eternal Life             (This blog takes a previous blog, Encountering the Woods in New Zealand and seeks to apply that insight to our knowing of God) In March I and six other family members traveled to New Zealand in March to visit our daughter and to see New Zealand. (This happened right before the covid-19 pandemic shut everything down.) We saw many wonderful sights each day.   It was a marvelous time. I want to share with you an experience I had in the rainforest of New Zealand.             Picture towering trees, over 100 feet tall. Pines. Oaks. Trees I don’t know the name of.   Picture lush vegetation, green all around. Ferns standing 6 feet tall and reach up to the sky.   Birds flying overhead. Some sitting in the trees singing. The air rich with wonderful fragrances. I placed my hand on one of the huge trees to feel the energy of this pla...

Rain in the Rainforest and My Shoes I took a break from this blog last week because I was on a Seminary of the Wild virtual retreat. This week I return to more stories of our time in New Zealand.   I enjoy the opportunity to continue to live and relive these stories again and again.             Our first full day in New Zealand it rained.   This was fine because we planned to tour the glowworm caves in Waitomo, which are deep underground.   We arrived in Waitomo in time for a quick lunch before our tour.   We walked up a hill, in the rain, to a restaurant.   My feet got wet.   This was a surprise because I had on waterproof shoes.   My feet were not supposed to be wet.   I had worn these shoes for several years, in the rain, through puddles and shallow creeks and my feet stayed dry.   Why, at the beginning of this trip, are my feet wet?       ...

Encountering the Woods of New Zealand Standing deep in a forest in New Zealand Looking up at the majestic trees Encountering the verdant ferns Listening to the strange call of birds I had never heard before. I wondered how I am to take all this in. Should it be as one who consumes? As one who tries to absorb and enjoy all I can Taking as many pictures, Collecting as many memories as possible. Perhaps. I do want to take it all in and record and remember Should it be as one who notices? Who simply observes The height of the trees The flight of the birds The green of the undergrowth The colors of the flowers The soil and leaves under my feet. Focus my mind and eyes on simply seeing. Perhaps. I do want to notice what is before me, to truly see And not miss anything. Should it be as one who is simply present? Who moves out of the head and into breath? Who feels the energy of the great forest? Who stops thinking about the next a...

Good Friday and Easter – Mammals vs Birds in New Zealand             The only mammals in New Zealand before humans came around 800 years ago were bats. Birds were the predominant species, occupying the place of mammals in the ecosystem.   The kiwi bird of New Zealand evolved to be a flightless bird because it had no reason to fly.   Nothing was chasing it or trying to get its eggs.             The first humans were the Maori, a Polynesian people.   With them came rats. Rats quickly multiplied, began wreaking havoc on the finely balanced ecological system.   The moa, a large flightless bird weighing around 500 pounds was hunted to extinction by the Maoris. Europeans came in the late 1700’s when Captain James Cook circumnavigated and mapped New Zealand. Settlers began to arrive in the early 1800’s and New Zealand joined the British Commonwealth in 184...

The Chickens and Jesus             The first week of our trip to New Zealand we experienced life in RVs. Instead of a hotel, we were able to set up camp right in the midst of the beauty of New Zealand.   Our first night we stayed outside of Auckland in a campground that was on a farm. Sheep. Cows (who were quite loud in the morning waiting for their food). Two huge draft horses. Pigs. Guineas. And chickens.   These chickens were definitely free range, roaming all over the farm and all over the campground section of the farm.             That evening we decided to have sandwiches for supper – peanut butter or ham. We made a stop earlier at a grocery store in Auckland and made a significant contribution to the New Zealand economy. We were sure to get the adult beverages.   My son Drew and I have a goal to sample as many of the beers of each country we visi...