vespers Archives - The Dewdrop

Brother David Steindl-Rast

‘Better to Light a Candle’ – The Healing Power of Vespers

October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 Vanessa Able

Brother David Steindl-Rast hones in on a transcendental moment of the day which in the monastic tradition is a time of reflection and healing.

Helen Macdonald

The Magic Lives of Swifts

October 9, 2020December 29, 2020 Vanessa Able

The twilight excursions of swifts echo the solemnity of certain spiritual rituals, when the earth is quiet enough that we can relocate our own bearings in relation to the world.

The First Door of Liberation: Thich Nhat Hanh’s Vision of Emptiness and Interbeing
Rather than signifying a lack or a void, Thich Nhat Hanh took emptiness to be a state of inextricable and fundamental interconnectedness.
Giving Away More Than We Keep – Ayya Khema on Cultivating Generosity
Buddhist teacher Ayya Khema on the highest level of generosity: dedicating one's own life to the service of others.
The Courage of Our Mistakes – Joan Didion on Self-Respect and Moral Nerve
In this excerpt from a 1961 essay titled On Self-Respect, Didion argued for a morally robust state of being and looked back a generation to a value that was once called 'character'.
The Glimpse of Eternity – Martin Buber and Our Relationship With The Divine
One of the central themes of the work of the Jewish mystical philosopher Martin Buber was the question of understanding our relation to God.
The Expression of a Better World – Anaïs Nin on Transience and the Painful, Familiar Beauty of Music
Anaïs Nin on music, mortality, and what it is to glimpse a joyful vision of a land from which we came and which we have forgotten.