Summer is here!

Hi,
The weather in this incredible part of the world has been stunning, clear and sunny with cool nights....a clarity of light we rarely see quite this etched, and at times like these, BC is hard to beat anywhere!

It's been a busy time for book events and for family visits. And now, I've been asked to consider presenting a session next year, looking at the themes in my book (Havens in a Hectic World: Finding Sacred Places) from the "health and wellness" perspective. This sounds intriguing, especially since CBC radio host Jo-Ann Roberts and I have already produced our Radio One special "Healing the Heart" looking at the places we go to and the music we listen to when we need to heal.

Speaking of Jo-Ann, she and I camped recently at one of MY sacred places, Sombrio Beach, and we were joined on the beach by Mama Bear and her twins,...made life just that much more tangy and exciting!

A sunny Sunday, and next: Metchosin!

Well, the Whistler reading drew about a dozen diehards on a gorgeous Friday evening in May, in the spacious new Whistler Library, but to my surprise the Spirit of Place event last Sunday at the Interfaith Chapel at UVic, sponsored by the Victoria Multifaith Society, drew 45 people on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I was amazed and pleased!
At one point we went around to let people identify their own sacred places, if they chose, and these included a frog pond on the way home from school (childhood memory), the Ganges River, and the memorial garden area in Finnerty Gardens, just outside the chapel, where a beloved family member is interred. It was quite moving to hear the personal choices.

Henri Lock, a chaplain at the Chapel, graciously introduced me, and talked about the chapel and grounds as his sacred places, which helped him get through cancer treatment many years ago, and where he was introduced to meditation, which he continues with a group there to this day. I was really thrilled to be the guest of the Multifaith Society in that Interfaith Chapel...it reflects where I believe and hope we're moving as a society, and was a wonderful, warm group event.

Next Wednesday night, June 24, at 7 p.m., I'll be speaking in the Metchosin Community House, at 4430 Happy Valley Road, and my topic is ""Spirit of Place: How the spiritual geography of the BC Coast may help us save the planet!"...first reading in my own backyard, and I'm really looking forward to it. See you there!

Next up: Whistler

Hi all,
Well, next week we'll be in Whistler, and I've just been interviewed by both the media there, the Pique Magazine and the Whistler Question, and thoroughy enjoyed both interviews...love the questions, especially when they're fresh and different. One reporter asked if people get put off by the word "sacred" in the title of my book (Havens in a Hectic World: Finding Sacred Places) and I'm sure some do....but what I love is how many people, more and more I think, see the word "sacred" as far-reaching, inclusive and not scary, as in the "sacred Earth" and "sacred sites" for the First Nations. I think the word has morphed into something still powerful, but much less "religious" in the last 20 years.
I'll be giving a Book Talk at the Whistler Library at 7 p.m. next Friday night, May 22, and hope that people will talk about their own sacred places...I love hearing every story. Tell me about yours!

Thoughts after last weekend at Queenswood....

Hi there,

Last weekend I led a retreat at Queenswood Retreat Centre here in Victoria, with topics based on themes from my book Havens in a Hectic World: Finding Sacred Places. We were so incredibly lucky with the weather patterns...lovely balmy night Friday for our rooftop stargazing session, stormy Saturday night, as we talked by candlelight and listened to the wind, and gorgeous sun on Sunday morning as we wandered the fragrant, flowered grounds.


We got into some pretty esoteric discussions, which I so appreciated...topics like the way Matthew Fox's creation spirituality is playing out in our postmodern, post-denominational world; and discussions around the duality of life (with its home and away urges, its balance between the "tent and the Temple" and between tradition and exploration) and a new environmentally-aware paradigm for our spiritual life on the West Coast. Whew!


And we laughed hard too...enough to be noticed in the dining room (man, is that food good!) What a great sacred place and what a great group of people.
So, I'm reflecting on all that this week, and it makes me optimistic that the movement towards something new, inclusive, and positive, as we meander along in our search for the big answers here in Cascadia, is hopeful, and possible. What do you think?

Two months into 2009....

Hi All,

I know, I know, this update is a bit overdue. But lots has been simmering and even bubbling up in my life cauldron. While followup events related to Havens in a Hectic World continue, I'm now getting more and more involved in researching a new topic for future writing: my mother's letters from postwar Berlin, 1946-47, and I'm learning about the situation there then for the Occupying forces, the dependents and their families, and the German people.


On that note, we're just back from a trip to Pennsylvania (for a family birthday), and a side trip to the Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pa, which has an archives that includes diaries,letters and writings of various military people involved in postwar Berlin, including a transcription of the oral history report given by General Lucius Clay, head of the US forces in Berlin. His wife Marjorie was quite a woman and helped organize American women to assist Germans in need and especially their children. Mom wrote about this and about seeing Marjorie Clay at the beauty parlour! (I love these personal details), and I find her observations fascinating, along with being at the centre of our Weiss family history.

I've also made contact with a group called Berlin Brats, alumni of the American high school in Berlin from 1946 on, and that's been exciting too! Now, next stop: Berlin, as I hope to plan a trip there before the year is out!

Feel free to send me any thoughts, contacts, or advice on any of this, btw!
More before too long....

prelude to Christmas

As I look out on this wintry scene, (unusual here in Victoria), I'm thinking of how the way I feel at Christmastime has evolved over the years, from the pure joy and impatience of childhood to the parental excitement of going through Christmas with my own children, to now, the more interwoven feelings of both nostalgia and hope.
This is our first Christmas without my mother, and even though she was usually far away at Christmas, just knowing her big-hearted spirit and love was being sent out to all of us made Christmas feel right. So, things feel a bit sad and the loss is felt in unexpected moments and ways.
At the same time, seeing our granddaughter, now 20 months old, put ornaments on and take ornaments off her tree, listen and look as a Christmas book is read, and experience so many seasonal joys, like ice skating, for the first time, is such a complete wonder and delight.

Of course the word "sacred" rises to the top of the charts this time of year too, and since I've spent lots of time thinking about the ways we use that term in today's world, I'm wondering how each of you find the sacred moments in your lives at Christmas. For me, more and more, it's in the simple moments like writing cards by the fire as a Xmas CD plays; or in music. The recent Vancouver City Lights concert we attended, with both our daughters singing together for the first time, was one of those special times. And more to come...a Blue Moon Christmas night of music and readings (I'll do one too) on Dec. 18, and then the musica intima concert in Christ Church Cathedral on Dec. 19...wow. May music and memories be part of your Christmas.

Back from "the east"

Hi there,

I'm back from a 12 day trip to the US to see family, and while there was asked to do a reading from Havens at the seniors' housing complex where my Dad lives. I was surprised and pleased when about 35 people attended the event, and when I asked people where their sacred places were, we had some fascinating responses like:

...the battlefield cemeteries of WW 2. A woman from Britain said those fields of crosses affected her more than any other losses she heard about during the war.

...entering the Mormon Tabernacle in Utah. A woman said the feeling there was overwhelming, even though she was not a Mormon.

...standing looking at a starry sky on a clear night.

...riding horseback beside my daughter across the range

...being under the big desert sky in the Southwest

I loved listening as people talked, and those continue to be some of my favourite moments since the book came out. Do let me know if you have a place to share.
I was also interviewed recently by a writer for the Edmonton Sun for her column on Sacred Spaces and the results of that should be in her Dec. 7 column. Stay tuned!