The Only Way Out In the dream, the lady said all this is very important. The Mother of Shadows embraces all, welcomes all into her soft arms, allowing the weight of the Cold Father, the brute and brittle one, to collapse under its own absurdity, its own blind pursuit of power. The hungry one who... Continue Reading →

Inhabiting Time and Space: The Christian Liturgical Cycle as a Mandala of Incarnation and Transformation Stuart Higginbotham The Wisdom of Mandalas On a recent youth pilgrimage to New York City, I found myself immersed in a special exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There in the Lehmann Wing, I discovered a curated collection of... Continue Reading →

The Leaf For Dale What is it that holds the last leaf on the tree, the redbud, the Judas tree, whose wood you cannot trust but whose wisdom whispers beneath the chaos of life? Or the maple with its edges and boldness of being, with the tilt of the earth and the waxing moon watching... Continue Reading →

The Paradox of Belonging The call of Christ is to be a whole human being, incarnated, infused, illumined by a love uncontained. The only way to be a whole human being is to embrace the being of the one I would deem other, the one I view as separate. Only when I see Christ looking... Continue Reading →

Be Salty September 29, 2024 James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50 Stuart Higginbotham Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another. The other day, I was talking with a dear soul in the parish, and we looked at each... Continue Reading →

Temet nosce Anger is metal on the tongue, sharp and quick to register pain in our mind, a burn that craves to be seen, a danger, a fierce brightness. You take the stage and you are a mirror of our own inner rage. A voice echoing back our own disdain for powers that have squeezed... Continue Reading →

Axis The light is turning now. In the first moment of sunrise, that first glow of fledgling light, The new day calls the shadows to bow. The truth now sung by the birds and the leaves with open mouths that drink their fill, here before the great release when they give themselves back. The light... Continue Reading →

State of Grace Can you taste the light with your mouth wide open to the blue sky? The trees teach us how to eat the sun. We need only move  our bodies like theirs, a slow stretch toward the holy, arms spread far to catch every drop of the Spirit suspended in the morning air,... Continue Reading →

Treasures of darkness (Isaiah 45:1-7) Whatever the soul is, it is thirsty. It craves the water of life from the hidden rivers within the earth that carry truth from the deep places up to the surface where I can taste it. We exhaust ourselves into hope, breaking our bones on walls we build. Our tired... Continue Reading →

“We are what we eat” Proper 14, Year B August 11, 2024 Stuart Higginbotham We are what we eat Taste and see that the Lord is good. One of our wedding gifts was a cookbook that my grandmother, Grandy, made us. She took a journal with lined pages and hand wrote my favorite recipes from... Continue Reading →