The View Up Here

 In no particular order: 1. God is not "the universe" nor is the universe God. God is a personal being who is defined as Love and who has revealed himself as Trinitarian: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This community of Love begets all of creation and all life. The "universe" doesn't create itself, nor does it reward you for being a good egg or making a vision board in your home office. 2. Putting man at the center of everything and relegating everything to man's thought is tantamount to declaring war on reality. "I think, therefore I am" (the foundational battle cry of rationalism and the un-deification of the Western World) means we create ourselves and our reality, which we do not, and that the human power to understand and manipulate the created world is the Ultimate Supreme (i.e. who needs a God and all those pesky morals?). The power of the mind to understand is posited as the only marker of humanness. Rather, "I exist, therefore I think...

I really dislike winter. Well, to be more accurate, I dislike the long, cold, damp of winter in the Northeast. Specifically, in Western New York. Winter in Salt Lake was cold but dry, so it was tolerable. Winter here - and the scary thing is we haven't even begun, really, with all these warm temps in the 50s and 60s - is going be a bear. Since I can't change the weather, I need to change my 'tude. I also need to recognize that I can take better care of myself in winter. Maybe you have similar problems with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) aka "the winter blues." Of course, exercise is one key way of being healthier in winter, but for many of us, it's not enough. Here are some ways to make the best of things this winter: Find beautiful places to go for a walk. Maybe it's close by your home, maybe you have to drive to get there. But seeing the beauty in wintry nature on a sunny (if cold) day will do much to lift your spirits. Take soothing hot ...

Thanksgiving is next week! What the... how did that happen? It seems like I was just in Giselle's garden in Salt Lake City, picking cosmos for the living room table, and cherry tomatoes and basil to make a batch of The Sauce. This year has been big for me - paying off credit card debt, getting new (bifocal) glasses and two root canals, moving from Utah to New York, and of course being granted a way to handle the student loan debt when I find the right community to enter. I also had my heart broken over two Carmels that didn't end up working out (it's okay! better things were on the way), only to be introduced to St. Clare and a deepening awareness of my own Franciscan/Clarian charism, leading up to my live-in with a Poor Clare monastic community in Massachusetts in January, 2016. I am humbled by all of this incredible grace. Can I just empty this thing and crawl inside until Jan. 2? And now we're all looking at the calendar, realizing that Thanksgiving is ...

Vitamin D supplements only go so far in helping me keep my head above water in these weary, bleary, dreary days of late fall and winter. Here are some other suggestions for surviving in Ithaca or other places that are bereft of sunshine for days and weeks at a time. Of course if you like to freeze your ass off in winter, go skiing or skating or ice fishing or snow shoeing. But if you're like me (poor circulation in my fingers and toes, a crappy knee and an abhorrence of the bitter cold), those aren't really options, now are they? Pandora.com - The music genome project allows you to create "stations" that play the kind of music you want to hear. I rely on this as a free alternative to the music in my iTunes that I've heard a hundred times. Currently I have a number of stations that provide me with everything from ambient trance music to 70s R&B to trip hop to classical. Movies - Go to a theatre, not just Netflix. Yes, it's expensive, but it also gives ...

I painted my stubby fingernails scalding scarlet last night. Honestly, I need to keep my nails painted in winter or they shred down to the quick and bleed all over the place (makes it hard to type). I just reached into the basket of 30 seconds dry nail polish (because I am WAY too busy/impatient to do two coats and let it dry for an hour before I do anything) and pulled out the first one I grabbed. At first I thought, "Oh. Damn." Then I thought, "Well why the hell not? Why should this color be reserved for toes? I'm on retreat this week so who cares?" Between the incredible amount of snow, the lack of sunshine (although the sun is out in full force today, it's the first day in 2 weeks that I've seen the orb in the sky), and the usual post-holiday doldrums, I needs me some scarlet fingernails to cheer me up every time I look down at the keyboard. (Also, it brings to mind early 90s television glam where all the women had their nails painted this color, fil...

This cold is really hanging on and wiping me out. I finally got the xmas decorations down, and Epiphany was well over a week ago. What can I say; I'm Buddhist. I'm excited because tomorrow starts Part Deux of my writing retreat at the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts . I'm trying to use today to get ready, dealing with mundane stuff at home so that I can get to work with a clear mind. Unfortunately, the congestion in my ears is still making me want to claw my head off like that poor chap in The Caterpillar from Rod Serling's Night Gallery. The never-ending gray skies and on-again-off-again snow fall in Ithaca is driving me just as batty, as it does every year about this time. A close friend of mine observed that I am usually a bitch this time of year (thanks for that). It's kind of true, though. Even with Vit D. supplements and a faux sunlight lamp, I really just despise existence from now until early April. I keep telling myself I need to move out of...