Reflections
Caravans: Patagonia and Poetry
Our Summer Caravans newsletter is now available here. You'll find a description of our lovely weekend in Patagonia, Arizona, where we built an altar, explored what we can learn from scarred saguaros, and how poetry awakens us to contemplative wonder. Caravans includes responses to our Fire and Light podcast, which we launched in January. If...
A Scimitar and a Nibble
I love the word sierra, and not just because you get to roll the r in Spanish. It means a range of jagged mountains, or a sawblade. The serrated complexion of the desert cuts into me. It makes me cry out, if only silently. If I did cry out loud, it would sound like the Muslim call to prayer, a lament, a curse, or a mayday alert. That’s the...
Feast on Your Life
Twenty twenty-three marks a lot of landmarks for the Desert Foundation, including my seventieth birthday on May 2. In this month’s Fire and Light podcast, Tessa Bielecki and I explore the mystery of our lives’ stories. What does it mean when someone from Ireland says, “My story, your story”? Concrete details of the joys and sorrows in...
April’s Opulent Desert: Breathing Room
Our latest Fire and Light podcast is now available: "Breathing Room for the Spirit." We explore ways to create breathing room in a world of speed and utility. We describe a recent desert camping trip and I recite “Superbloom Toast,” the poem that appears below. Since April is National Poetry Month, we ponder the value of poetry and its...
Resurrection Superbloom
Happy Easter! Resurrection came early to the Arizona desert this year. After our winter rains and cool temperatures, we experienced a wildflower “superbloom.” And we immersed ourselves in it: luxuriant carpets of golden poppies and purple night scented stock, scorpion weed and delicate blue dicks – more lovely than their names – creamy white...
Holy Week Haiku
Photo by David Denny taken at the San Carlos Apache Reservation.
Desert Soulscape, Silence, and Poetry
Tessa Bielecki and I look forward to celebrating Easter Week with our upcoming retreat in Patagonia, Arizona. We will...
Breathing Room for the Spirit
As days lengthen and spring arrives in the Sonoran Desert, wildflower season begins. We went for a walk at nearby Sanctuary Cove and found fourteen species. My favorite is the yellow-golden Mexican poppy. We’re also planting petunias and marigolds on our porches. Tessa is a more avid and attentive gardener than I am, so her porch is...
Homeland of the Heart: The Desert and Poetry
April 14-15: Homeland of the Heart:Exploring Desert Landscape and Soulscape Cady...
Alchemy of Earth and Soul
March arrived bringing snowfall in the Sonoran Desert and the arrival of our third Fire and Light podcast: "Alchemy of Earth and Soul." Tessa rhapsodizes on the beauty of compost. She celebrates the season of Lent as alchemy: allowing the cast-off peelings, the inedible “garbage” of our lives to be transformed into fertile soil for future...