R. Mark Liebenow's Blog: Nature, Grief, and Laughter, page 3

In Merton's Hermitage with Griffin

 My essay in the spring issue of The Merton Seasonal is called “In the Hermitage with John Howard Griffin.” In reading about how Griffin felt living in Thomas Merton’s hermitage for months as he worked on Merton’s biography, I debated whether I would ever want to stay there, if given the chance, as well as if I would want to be a hermit somewhere else.

The Merton Seasonal comes out quarterly from the International Thomas Merton Society. Each issue focuses on exploring Thomas Merton's writings for today's world, and on reviewing new books that have come out about him. If you don’t have a yearly subscription to the Seasonal, you can buy this issue, as well as other earlier issues in stock, for $5 per issue, or 3 issues for $12, 5 issues for $18, postage is included to U.S. addresses.

 Checks made payable to “ITMS” should be sent to: Dr Paul M Pearson. Thomas Merton Center, Bellarmine University, 2001 Newburg Road, Louisville KY 40205

At Merton's Gethsemani Monastery

At Merton's Gethsemani Monastery    Trappist, Kentucky
Pray for us, Thomas Merton,who’ve come for consolation.
Pray for those who rise with the bell at 3 a.m. to touch the incorporeal, who enter heaven’s silenceand wonder if they’ve heard things right.
Pray for the farmer driving holy rolls of Cistercian hay to pay the bills.  Pray for monks pouring good bourbon into fruitcake and fudge to sell.  
Pray for the cheesemakers filling molds with fresh milk.Pray for those who study mysteries they can never clearly explain.
Pray for the comely lass at Vesperswho distracts from Gregorian chant.
And pray for me, a Protestant in Catholic’s clothing, who meditates under the ginkgo treewhere the Dalai Lama once sat,
who bows at the right time, kneels with the wrong knee, almost remembers to cross himselfwhen passing by the sacred Host. 
Pray for us—the confused and fakes, the spectacular failures and saints.  Ratchet up our screw-loose hearts.Orphans at your gate.
first published in Liturgical Credo
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My essay "Tinkering with Grief in the Woods," about spending a week at Gethsemani Monastery while dealing with grief, was published by Literal Latte: https://www.literal-latte.com/2012/09...

Easter Dawn

 

Easter Dawn

The air is cool and hesitant.

Stars twinkle out slowly 

as the black sky gives way 

to the promise of the hidden sun.

Feelings of longing, belief,

and hope fill my body 

and surge with unspeakable joy!

Expectant grays give way

to the pink, orange, and yellow of dawn

as the light of the young sun 

rises slowly over dark shadowed trees.

People gather as the sky deepens to blue.

The excited chatter and songs of the birds 

lift our hearts that rise 

with the steady strokes of wings,

rising towards the unknowable 

Presence.

Mark Liebenow

Listen

 In the morning, before you begin your activities, find a quiet place where you can listen to the day opening up. - Mark

Find a Bench

 

Find a bench where you can pause your busyness. - Mark

Simplify Your Life

            Simplify your life. Listen. Take care of others. - Mark

Prayer

        I don’t know how to pray. I only know to sit in a quiet place and listen.  - Mark

This Blog is Moving

This blog is combining with my blog that helps people as they journey through grief, as well as help their friends and family understand what they can do and say to help. http://widowersgrief.blogspot.com

You can also check my full author website at http://markliebenow.com

Or catch me on Facebook, Instagram (MarkYosemite), or Twitter (MarkLiebenow2).

Heart Mountain Internment Camp

I stood by the remaining guard tower that watches over the dry, windy landscape in Wyoming. This was the site of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp during World War II. Ten thousand Americans lived here in 650 barracks. Little remains of the camp now, one of ten such camps where fear triumphed over humanity. In the distance was Heart Mountain, named by the Crow people because it looked like the heart of a bison.
The camps were set up in isolated and harsh regions of the country. Barracks were hastily assembled out of green wood and tarpaper. Not insulated, as the wood dried, gaps formed between the boards and dust constantly drifted in. In winter, when temperatures dropped to 20 degrees below zero, the inmates had to stuff newspaper and remnants of cloth into the cracks to block the cold.

Their crime? Being of Japanese ancestry. Without a trial or due process, they were pulled out of their homes on the West Coast and locked up. Then, in an act of chutzpah, the government still thought it proper to draft the camp’s young men into the military, and over 800 men from Heart Mountain willing fought during the war.
Although called relocations centers, they were internment camps with armed military guards in the towers and barbed wire and held over 120,000 people. Perhaps the best known camps were Manzanar in California, because of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s book, Farewell to Manzanar and Ansel Adams’ photography book; and Topaz in Utah, because of Chiura Obata’s moving book of watercolor paintings, Topaz Moon.
President Roosevelt, Congress, the Military, and even the Supreme Court said it was necessary and right to lock them up. Later they would say their decisions were wrong.
When World War II ended, the United States gave $13 billion to rebuild Germany and Europe, and provided money to rebuild Japan. After being held for three years, each Heart Mountain internee was given $25 and a train ticket. No longer having homes to return to, with businesses that had been looted, everyone had to start over. Some were not able to.
It would take more than 40 years for the U.S. to decide to pay partial reparations to its own citizens who were forced into the internment camps. The bill, signed by President Ronald Reagan, was co-sponsored by congressmen Al Simpson and Norman Mineta, who met as young Boy Scouts at the Heart Mountain camp.

The American system of justice failed its own citizens because of wartime hysteria, racial prejudice, and the failure of political leadership.

Heat Mountain Internment Camp

I stood by the remaining guard tower that watches over the dry, windy landscape in Wyoming. This was the site of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp during World War II. Ten thousand Americans lived here in 650 barracks. Little remains of the camp now, one of ten such camps where fear triumphed over humanity. In the distance was Heart Mountain, named by the Crow people because it looked like the heart of a bison.
The camps were set up in isolated and harsh regions of the country. Barracks were hastily assembled out of green wood and tarpaper. Not insulated, as the wood dried, gaps formed between the boards and dust constantly drifted in. In winter, when temperatures dropped to 20 degrees below zero, the inmates had to stuff newspaper and remnants of cloth into the cracks to block the cold.

Their crime? Being of Japanese ancestry. Without a trial or due process, they were pulled out of their homes on the West Coast and locked up. Then, in an act of chutzpah, the government still thought it proper to draft the camp’s young men into the military, and over 800 men from Heart Mountain willing fought during the war.
Although called relocations centers, they were internment camps with armed military guards in the towers and barbed wire and held over 120,000 people. Perhaps the best known camps were Manzanar in California, because of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s book, Farewell to Manzanar and Ansel Adams’ photography book; and Topaz in Utah, because of Chiura Obata’s moving book of watercolor paintings, Topaz Moon.
President Roosevelt, Congress, the Military, and even the Supreme Court said it was necessary and right to lock them up. Later they would say their decisions were wrong.
When World War II ended, the United States gave $13 billion to rebuild Germany and Europe, and provided money to rebuild Japan. After being held for three years, each Heart Mountain internee was given $25 and a train ticket. No longer having homes to return to, with businesses that had been looted, everyone had to start over. Some were not able to.
It would take more than 40 years for the U.S. to decide to pay partial reparations to its own citizens who were forced into the internment camps. The bill, signed by President Ronald Reagan, was co-sponsored by congressmen Al Simpson and Norman Mineta, who met as young Boy Scouts at the Heart Mountain camp.

The American system of justice failed its own citizens because of wartime hysteria, racial prejudice, and the failure of political leadership.