As we enter Lent this reflection seems even more pertinent. Where are you creating silent spaces into your day and in this season? 

I want us to start looking ahead to Lent and what that season can hold for us. This is a beautiful reflection on pilgrimage. 

Leaves and Blossoms Along the Way: A Poem

BY

MARY OLIVER

,  SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR

If you're John Muir you want trees to live among. If you're Emily, a garden will do. Try to find the right place for yourself. If you can't find it, at least dream of it.                                             • When one is alone and lonely, the body gladly lingers in the wind or the rain, or splashes into the cold river, or pushes through the ice-crusted snow. Anything that touches.                                             • God, or the gods, are invisible, quite understandable. But holiness is visible, entirely.                                             • Some words will never leave God's mouth, no matter how hard you listen.                                               • In all the works of Beethoven, you will not find a single lie.                                             • All important ideas must include the trees, the mountains, and the rivers.                                             • To understand many things you must reach out of your own condition.                                             • For how many years did I wander slowly through the forest. What wonder and glory I would have missed had I ever been in a hurry!                                             • Beauty can both shout and whisper, and still it explains nothing.                                             • The point is, you're you, and that's for keeps.

Week 3 and 4 - We will be on a two week break for these weeks. But here is something different than the first two podcasts. I recently discovered Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project. She and her sister do a podcast based on that book and it’s full of tips and tricks that have to do with happiness hacks. It’s light and pretty short. I hope you enjoy!