Category: kathrynkong
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The Blessing in the Breaking
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be […]
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Impermanence
“Is not impermanence the very fragrance of our days?” – Rainer Maria Rilke The days have shortened, but summer has stretched long. It is mid-October, and the thermometer reads upwards of 80 degrees. I live in a liminal space where the heat beats and time is suspended. My sight turns inward; I move through my […]
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Liminality
Do you see yet? Do you see how to love the wave already breaking because it is a wave? Because it breaks? – Marilyn McEntyre, “Nothing Gold” liminality (n.) The transitional period or phase of a rite of passage, during which the participant lacks social status or rank, remains anonymous, shows obedience and humility, and […]
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The Great Homecoming
“You, the great homesickness we could never shake off…” – Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours After I’d left London, well-intentioned strangers tried to forge a connection in our common love for the city. I was skeptical. How could these people, who had spent mere days traveling through, love it as I did? I […]
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Small Things, Simple Things, Nothings
What can anyone give you greater than now, Starting here, right in this room, when you turn around? William Stafford, from “You, Reading This, Be Ready” I dreamed last night I was sitting at K and E’s kitchen table, drinking tea and eating a slice of pear and stem ginger cake. It was cold and […]
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Pure Autumn Fragrance River
I traveled through time this weekend. In the grey in-between time when light fades fast and crickets start to sing, I sat on a swing in the woods of my childhood home, and I found myself fifteen again on a sad and sleepless night, swinging my sorrows away. In that season, one who loved me […]
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Look, I Am Alive
D used to study his hands. He stretched his fingers out wide, curled them into fists. He turned his palms over and back, tracing veins and creases. He said to me, “Look, these are my hands. Look, I’m alive. How strange.” How strange indeed. It is August 29th, 2014, and look, I am alive. * […]
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Sincere
“Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling.” C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce The days have been sweet and beautiful, full and expansive. Unfamiliar faces have become dear and precious. We have laughed and healed and changed. Still, something […]
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Curator
Some days I fear I have lost myself: the creative, the explorer, the treasure-hunter, the one who savors my days. In more solitary, slower-paced seasons of life, I paid attention to the inner workings of my being, found words for the process, and named themes in my seasons. But the last months have gone fast, […]
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Have You Forgotten?
For Good Friday this year I had the privilege of performing a spoken word piece at my church. The words are below; the backing track was “Slow Your Breath Down” by Future of Forestry, the piano and strings, instrumental version, which can be found on Noisetrade. Press play and relive the experience. Have you forgotten […]
Kathryn Kong 