Poet, Author, Composer....
Quieter Grace to Begin My Day
Quieter Grace to
Begin My Day
I’ve written a lot of graces and collected some others and I sing a different one every morning. Some of them are spoken ones—some are rhythmic—and a lot of them are a smidge too enthusiastic for me on a few of my days.
So I wrote a quieter one. It does have music, which is quieter too; but I just tried out saying it and it works as a spoken grace also. Try it in the morning.
Chant for Today
the moment is new – my God is here
to help me live – another day
O thank you God – for food and breath
and all the bits of joy I’ll find along the way
I Can Convince You
I Can Convince You
I Know I Can!
I have gathered quotes I like and now have a collection of two years and four months worth of wonderful sayings or very, very short poems. On February 12 this one emerged again:
Try never to ignore or talk away someone’s perception. Instead, try to understand where it is rooted. ——John Paul Lederach
In 2006 I read his book The Little Book of Conflict Transformation, and in 2010 I read The Moral Imagination. He has been at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame for many years. And then he has traveled all over the world to put his teachings into practice in places of conflict.
But go back to the quote a minute: Try never to ignore or talk away someone’s perception. Instead, try to understand where it is rooted.— Lederach
Sometimes I do the opposite in a conversation, try to talk so that you give up what you believe and jump right over to what I believe.
Hmmm…I might just try Lederach’s tactic: try to understand the roots of where you’re coming from.
Cinderella Smart
Cinderella SMART
Is Coming Soon
It’s a new book and it’s called Cinderella SMART. It is mostly for youth and adults and helps you re-think those old, old stories. I wrote the poem a number of years ago on the New York City Subway. My granddaughter, Lissa Siew did the illustrations. My daughter, Donna Price, pulled it all together.
One summer I was going to Cuddyhunk Island to visit friends. I called the husband and asked him what he was preaching on that Sunday. I often did that and tried to write a song to go with his sermon. This time he said “Fairy Tails” and I said, “Oh have I got a song for you.” When I got to Cuddyhunk I let him hear it to make sure it would fit. It did and I performed it at the Protestant service. And it did—it fit exactly with his sermon!
It’s got a beat. It’s got a message. Now it’s about to be a book, and I’ll let you know when and where it is available.
Singing Chants
Singing Chants
I can’t remember when I first started loving and singing chants. But by now I’m deep into them. If you have the Daybook of My Personal Faith that I published this year, you know that there is a chant in every month, and occasionally there are two. And on February 10th of the Daybook, I wrote about learning from Walter Wink the results of singing a chant over and over for thirty minutes. But normally I don’t do thirty minutes.
However, I always sing a chant at least three times in a row—and then throughout the day. I cement it into my life that day and it’s just about as good as singing it for thirty minutes.
Sometimes I play with it a little. For instance, in the chant “Turn Around,” (February 14) I sang it as written probably for half the day, and then as I was singing it again, I thought: this chant keeps saying “you”. What if I change it to “me”? Well, I tried it, and it catapulted into the very personal and after doing it three or four times, I felt forgiven and like starting over.
turn around – God forgives
mistakes I make – as I live
turn around – God alone
says to me – “come on home”
So sing the chants, feel free to play with them a little, and try out different things with them.
I got a new book on chants for Christmas. When I finish it, you’ll hear about it.
Be sure to check out the Day Book of My Personal Faith
Books for January
So many good books I read in January—a total of 24. Keep in mind that nineteen of these were adult books and five were children or youth books.
I think my favorite one was Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall. It was her account of becoming involved with chimps and of establishing Gombe, and led me through her journey to helping others see that everything is connected. On her website, www.janegoodall.org the statistic is pointed out that in 1900 it is estimated that one million chimpanzees lived in the wild, and that today there are as few as 340,000.
One of the children’s books which was gentle and beautifully illustrated was A Different Pond by Bao Phi—about a Vietnamese father and his son as they go fishing each morning.
A disturbing book was Caste—The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson. This was about the caste system in the U.S. and was an eye-opener to me. One of my book groups discussed it and it was good to have a group.
Two books filled my need for historical fiction, The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard; and The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict.
Lenten Lands by Douglas H. Gresham was satisfying. Last year I read C. S. Lewis’ book, A Grief Observed. Douglas Gresham was Joy’s son from her first marriage and it was somehow settling to fit his perspective into this part of their joint lives through his eye-witness account of Lewis and his mother, Joy Davidman.
And the last book I’d mention for January is This Is My Story, This Is My Song by Jerome Hines. I am not a fan of opera but I read about Hines in a book by Madeleine L’Engle and it led me to his autobiography (short, very readable book). He told of his daily relationship with God and his asking for and receiving guidance directly.
What a varied bunch of books for one month.
Resolutions 2021 – January
It is February and this is my end-of-January report on New Year’s Resolutions. I made nine this year and as I accomplish them, I’ll reveal what they were.
Resolutions 2021 Update
Out of the nine, I did something on five of them in the month of January; and did nothing on four of them. That’s better than 50 / 50 — pretty good for the first month.
This is the first year that I’m doing a tally at the end of each month. I think it’s a good idea and keeps me planning to do better.
Last year one of my accomplishments was to publish Daybook of My Personal Faith, and in that book in the month of January I write one day about setting goals (or resolutions) for the year. One of my guidelines is that I can add resolutions anytime and if something is truly not working and seems like it’s not going to work, I can drop it. So it’s a flexible plan.
Now that I’m doing a monthly tally, I’m also adding the guideline that I can catch up. If I did nothing in the first month, I can catch up in the second or third or fourth month.
In the year 2020, I made seven resolutions. Two of them I did nothing on all year. Two resolutions I kept and completed. And three of them I did partially.
So here’s to 2021 and having resolutions work for me!
The Chant Sounds Throughout the Day
The Chant Sounds Throughout the Day
In my most recently published book, Daybook of My Personal Faith, there is a chant to sing in every month. I discovered this month that it was wonderful to sing it not only on the day it appeared in the book, but to just keep singing it.
It would come to my mind over and over, and when I would think of it, I’d sing it—and sing it multiple times. The December chant focuses on that phrase: Peace, be still, and know that I am God. So, to sing that over and over is a calming, peaceful thing to do.
I guess I’ll just keep singing it until I come to the one in January and then I’ll switch!
Look Well To This Day
Look Well to This Day
Look well to this day
For it and it alone is life.
In its brief course
Lie all the essence of your existence:
The Glory of Growth
The Satisfaction of Achievement
The Splendor of Beauty
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is but a vision.
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
—Kalidasa, Indian Poet, Fifth Century A.D.
This poem fits well for today and yet was written in the fifth century, where I’m guessing it also fit well. And perhaps that’s because in every period of time we have to remind ourselves that it is today that matters. So make it the best “today” you can.
Getting Ready to Start the Year with “Daybook of My Personal Faith”
Getting Ready to Start the Year with Daybook of My Personal Faith
Daybook of My Personal Faith came out in the middle of summer, and many who now have it, have already started reading it, including me who wrote it.
And yet as we come closer to the end of the year, I find myself getting eager to start it again on January 1st. That’s when you usually start reading a daybook.
I tried to write it so you could start anywhere, and in fact, you can. But even for me there’s going to be something special about starting again in January. This daybook builds. For instance one of the days in January you go outside and take a picture, and then each month after that you do it again, so that by December you have a rotogravure of photos from each month of the year. Each of the months has a short Bible verse to memorize, and so by the end of the year, you will have twelve in your brain filed under “Bible Verses I Know.”
The Daybook is more than just reading (as the photo-taking shows.) There’s a plan to it. Each month has new words to a well-known hymn; a recommended book for that month; a chant to sing; a mandala to color; something about the power of music; something about peace and justice; an old hymn to read out loud; meditations; some kind of active worship; poetry; something about prayer; a favorite quote of the month; new poems on the Ecclesiastes verses about time; and a grace for the month. So there is variety.
In the middle of all those things, Daybook was also designed to spur the reader to think about your own faith and what’s important to you. For each of us have pieces of our faith that are unique to us.
So…read on…day by day in Daybook of My Personal Faith.
Daybook of My Personal Faith
It’s done!
My latest publication is finished and available. The title is Daybook of My Personal Faith and I started working on it in June of 2012—eight years ago. It went through many transformations and rearrangements.
Here’s what’s in it. Being a daybook it has 366 entries—one for each day of the year including a day for those years with a February 29.
I designed it so that it would be more than a book to read. There are active things to do both outside and inside, chants and hymns to sing, mandalas to color, meditations, poetry and practices to try in your life, favorite books I’ve read. Already I’m enjoying reading each day’s entry and it reminds again of the writing of it and the determination I challenged myself with every single day. I’m hoping you’ll like it too.
Pick up your copy today: HERE
New Release!!
Daybook of Personal Faith
Mama and Me
