You’re the Beautiful Resistance
There’s something about your sharing with me Tears usually are the result Not sadness as in Ach But gratitude as in Ah I’ve known you nine years plus So, of course, we inter-are Muriel Ruykeyser:…
Category: Correspondence
The Simple Things
Walking in Forest Park Watching the baby ducks Receiving each others’ stories Seeing the blue sky Smiling in the present moment There we were: Paradise –from novel-in-progress, Our Heroic and Ceaseless 24/7 Struggle against Tsuris
Cece’s Smile
For Mary and Matt A while after Mev died I went to a gathering at Jesuit Hall In honor of Guadalupe Carney Who had lived in Honduras with the poor Scores of people were there…
The Miracle of Being Cheerful
Years of nausea Anxiety Affliction Heart being battered Hourly taking up your cross And carrying it Night after day Day after night And when I’ve seen you Always that smile Always that glow Always that…
What You Understand Depends on Where You Stand & Where You Stand Depends on What You Understand
for Ellen Mev looked up to Ann Manganaro Co-founder of Karen Catholic Worker House Sister of Loretto medical doctor Compañera to Father John Kavanaugh When Mev went to El Salvador in 1993 For the annual…
Happy Every Day
I take both grace and insult With cheerful equanimity — Du Fu Dear Wendy, Congrats on your decision to move to China and, as Kerouac advised, be in love with your Shanghai life. I marvel…
For Lindsay
After the evening sharing on “coming alive” You told me with a tear You want to be at a monastery You want to be silent for days The Sufis say don’t speak unless you can…
Good Citizens/1
Dear Friends in the Sangha, I first encountered The Miracle of Being Awake (later published as The Miracle of Mindfulness) in 1982, when a monk from the Abbey of Gethsemani gave me a mimeograph of…
¡Presente!
I received this email today from Marty King… I have pulled out my precious copy of The Struggle Is One, a present from Mev, inscribed to us. I cannot put it down, and am reminded…
To a Friend in Africa
Opening your heart is like opening the door You don’t just have to fling it open every hour of the day That would be exhausting There’s a time to crack the door a little Take…