milk & honey

Peace

I cannot hear Your peace today.
The storms are madly raging.
The swell and burst of fear and pain
have drowned my ears for You.

But I will wait and wait to hear,
Your quiet, gentle whisper.
My anxious heart awaits for You
and I will hear again:
again the sounds of stillness near
and comfort from within;
again Your Voice,
and warm embrace,
that leaves me
rested,
whole,
at peace.

Do not let me hear again
until my ears are clear,
until the waves break
on my heart and shatter
every lie.
Until I’m quite prepared to go
with You through every storm,
do not let me hear again.
Yet keep me in Your arms.

{Paul Moser}

{ Every summer the lilies rise

and open their white hands until they almost

cover the black waters of the pond. And I give

thanks but it does not seem like adequate thanks,

it doesn’t seem

festive enough or constant enough, nor does the

name of the Lord or the words of thanksgiving come

into it often enough.  Everywhere I go I am

treated like royalty, which I am not. I thirst

and am given water. My eyes thirst and I am given

the white lilies on the black water. My heart

sings but the apparatus of singing doesn’t convey

half of what it feels and means. In spring there’s hope,

in fall the exquisite, necessary diminishing, in

winter I am sleepy as any beast in its 

leafy cave, but in summer there is

everywhere the luminous sprawl of gifts,

the hospitality of the Lord and my 

inadequate answers as I row my beautiful, temporary body

through this water-lily world. }

mary oliver.

Program Description 

The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology offers the M.A. in Counseling Psychology degree for students seeking graduate education in the area of counseling. As a learning community informed by incarnational theology, we believe that our Triune God is continually made known through relationship. As persons created in the image of God we seek to honor the other as sacred and adopt a way of thinking and being that is filled with awe, gratitude and hope. Our calling is to face our fallenness and embrace suffering as we move toward reconciliation and restoration. Our purpose is to unite Christian theology with philosophy and interpersonal psychology. We teach and practice the art of psychotherapy as a discipline insistent upon finding meaning in the nature and purpose of the human encounter.

 

 

{yes, I’m ready.}

Letter To ________

You have broken my heart.

Just as well. Now

I am learning to rise

above all that, learning

the thin life, waking up

simply to praise

everything in this world that is

strong & beautiful

always - the trees, the rocks,

the fields, the news

from heaven, the laughter

that comes back

all the same.  Just as well. Time

to read books, rake the lawn 

in peace, sweep the floor, scour

the faces of the pans,

anything.  And I have been so

diligent it is almost

over, I am growing myself

as strong as a rock, as a tree

which, if I put my arms around it, does not

lean away. It is a

wonderful life. Comfortable.

I read the papers. Maybe

I will go on a cruise, maybe I will

cross the entire ocean, more than once.

Whatever you think, I have scarcely

thought of you. Whatever you imagine,

it never really happened. Only a few

evenings of nonsense. Whatever you believe-

dear one, dear one-

do not believe this letter.

::: Mary Oliver