Reflections
Christmas Joy and Gladness
The photo above shows Advent wreath candles, and we light the pink candle...
Winter Caravans: A Fruitful Year
Our Winter 2024 Caravans newsletter is now available here. We celebrate a fruitful 2024 and look forward to celebrating our twenty-fifth anniversary with you in 2025. Read about Tessa’s joyful experience as World Wisdom Teacher at Naropa University. Ponder Dave’s reflections on the nightmare of Gaza, with suggestions for how to help. Fortify...
Thanksgiving: A Constant State
When I think of gratitude, pilgrims are not my first thought. Nor even my grandmother’s deliciously unhealthy Thanksgiving dumplings. Instead, I remember the voice of our old friend Bro. David Steindl-Rast, with its melodic Austrian accent. He insists that true gratitude can become a constant state of mind. It isn’t that I’m grateful for this...
Seasons of the Soul
Eido Roshi and Tessa Bielecki add levity to Naropa Institute’s Buddhist-Christian dialogue by singing Tessa's parody of “Do You Love Me?” from Fiddler on the Roof.Tessa Bielecki, our Desert Foundation Executive Co-Director, is delighted to offer reflections on Buddhist-Christian dialogue and on “Seasons of the Soul” at Naropa University...
Sabeel: A Spring of Hope
I am a big fan of Mark Longhurst’s “The Holy Ordinary” posts on Substack. He shares his spiritual pilgrimage with intelligence and humility. Anyone aiming to live contemplatively can benefit from his work. I was moved recently by his discovery of Sabeel, an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement...
Seed, Flame, Opening: A Soulscape Meditation
In our August 2024 Fire and Light podcast, we offer a guided meditation on a “soulscape” that changed your life. If you prefer reading to listening to a meditation, we post the reflection here. Take your time as you read; feel free to stop at any point and let your memory and imagination ponder,...
Communion in the Differences
In the torpor of Tucson’s summer heat, it can be hard to think. I walk or bike along the Santa Cruz River at dawn, or even shoot hoops in the park. Then I hole up and focus on survival as temperatures soar. But here are three book reflections and some thoughts that simmer in my heat-muddled...
Protected by Giants
Just before dawn, stand in the cool desert. Eastward, a dark butte protects you from the light that soon will strike. The oblong moon hovers, waning, in pale silver sky. Walk, and your foot crunches the gravelly earth, loud in the silence. But then it isn’t silent, is it? Before and behind you birds make music. Skinny lizard skitters ahead of you. Farther on, a soft young cottontail disappears into the rattlebush. Wend between the sticky green leaves and furry-globe pods of creosote. Meander...
Summer Caravans: Oracle and Miracle
Caravans...
The Desert: Bright, Brave, and Beautiful
What comes to mind when you...