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?