Dreams, Nature
By Dr. Carrie Sword / November 22, 2021

One Flight

It seems to me that some glimpses of beauty call to be seen in defined frames. During the recent long and stunning Autumn, I recorded many such instances during ordinary walks in ordinary settings.

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Nature
By Dr. Carrie Sword / October 28, 2021

October Silence

    The first time in October that I hiked at my favorite Minnesota lake, the foliage glowed, but the environment had lost its summer song. The bugs were gone, and silence emanated an intense peace. Long amber strands of...

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Nature
By Dr. Carrie Sword / June 28, 2021

To the Prairie

I see the prairie first as I pull in the public parking lot of a lakeside, regional Minnesota park. Every week the colors have changed. Today I don’t even go into the woods because the prairie captures me with her...

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Dreams, Nature
By Dr. Carrie Sword / June 14, 2021

Snowfall of Summer

Robins evaded my camera.  They chose the quietest spots striped with shade along an asphalt trail to forage. Cottonwood seeds lined the trail and clover continued the white lace pattern in adjacent grass. This looked like the place for a...

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Dreams, Nature
By Dr. Carrie Sword / May 31, 2021

Thrill

An unofficial path meanders from lakeshore, to hillside, and across a meadow. The smell of humus hangs suspended. The trail keeps drawing my attention downward so as not to stumble among Wild Sarsaparillas and Wood Anemones. the thrill of the...

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Dreams, Nature
By Dr. Carrie Sword / May 18, 2021

Who Else Walked

The skinny trail I walk enhances my awe of the Mississippi. Water licks the shore three feet to my right. The trail fades to open forest floor. I look up, and am dazzled by the canopy of bright May. Massive...

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Christianity
By Dr. Carrie Sword / January 25, 2021

Taoist Warfare of the Beatitudes, Part 9

“Knowing honor, but clinging to disgrace, you become the valley of the world.”   –  Tao Te Ching, Chapter 28 Food is grown in the valley. Animals find water there and thrive. A town in a valley benefits from the lush...

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Christianity
By Dr. Carrie Sword / January 11, 2021

Taoist Warfare of the Beatitudes, Part 8

“Man is ruled by Earth. Earth is ruled by Heaven. Heaven is ruled by the Way. The Way is ruled by itself.”   –  Tao Te Ching, Chapter 25 Like ancient Christians, Taoists conceive of heaven as the spiritual realm. Westerners...

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Christianity
By Dr. Carrie Sword / December 28, 2020

Taoist Warfare of the Beatitudes, Part 7

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.                           – Matthew 5:9 If offspring are the same species as their parents, then peacemakers are fledgling gods. Since making peace is almost impossible, this makes sense. Efforts...

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Christianity
By Dr. Carrie Sword / December 14, 2020

Taoist Warfare of the Beatitudes, Part 6

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”   Matthew 5:8 As a Jungian psychotherapist, I work with people to help them understand their dreams. In the Jungian framework, symbols of wholeness in dreams are sometimes understood as...

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Christianity
By Dr. Carrie Sword / November 30, 2020

Taoist Warfare of the Beatitudes, Part 5

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.    Matthew 5:7 In a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, called “The White Snake,” a man acquires the ability to understand the speech of animals. In this, he...

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Christianity
By Dr. Carrie Sword / November 16, 2020

Taoist Warfare of the Beatitudes, Part 4

From a Taoist perspective, harmonizing with the deepest spiritual impulses leads to good fortune. This happens when a person seeks to be their truest self rather than conforming with others for ego-based reasons. One complexity in the “how-to” is dealing...

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Christianity
By Dr. Carrie Sword / November 2, 2020

The Taoist Warfare of the Beatitudes, Part 3

In the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass K-T Extinction, the death of dominant land dinosaurs made-way for smaller animals to flourish. (Scoville, 2019). Duck-billed platypuses, green sea turtles, cockroaches, lobsters, sea stars, horseshoe crabs, and others. These inherited the Earth. (Blue Planet Aquarium,...

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Christianity
By Dr. Carrie Sword / October 19, 2020

The Taoist Warfare of the Beatitudes, Part 2

The second Beatitude is a powerful feminine weapon in Taoist warfare against the bitterness that can accumulate with time. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4. No one who’s truly alive escapes major loss. As...

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Christianity
By Dr. Carrie Sword / October 6, 2020

The Taoist Warfare of the Beatitudes, Part 1

For Taoist instructions on spiritual warfare, look at Matthew 5:3-12 in the Christian Bible. Taken superficially, the Beatitudes look like affirmations for polite society. But Jesus didn’t seem concerned with social etiquette nor preventing hurt feelings. The teachings sound more...

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Dreams
By Dr. Carrie Sword / June 29, 2020

Face

As a college student majoring in English, I loved reading Wordsworth. I still relate to his process of walking in nature and listening as part of the writing process. The poem featured in this post came to me that way....

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Dreams
By Dr. Carrie Sword / May 26, 2020

Dreaming Radio Streaming Reality

Under my pillow and facing upward on the bed a 3x5 inch plastic box brought the always-manifesting radio of sublime reality from the ethers into my rebellious 13-year-old ear. The King Biscuit Flour Hour and Roger Daltrey’s insistence, “See me,...

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Dreams
By Dr. Carrie Sword / May 6, 2020

In A Supernova Garden

While supernovas explode in space, I live on Earth in a body made of stardust. While I can't fathom creation, the Creator still speaks to me in my dreams. The poem that follows, The Nature of Our Relationship, centers on seeking relationship with the Creator of infinite possibilities.

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Christianity, Dreams, History, Symbols, Taoism, Yoga
By Dr. Carrie Sword / March 19, 2020

The Yoga Tiger Dream

I dreamed long ago of a tiger wearing a dhoti (a white cloth wrapped around her pelvis), sitting in a cage of iron bars, with her body twisted completely in knots, legs forward and up, ankles behind head, sitting still...

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