We are well into the last month of Samhain. Although the morning darkness will continue for another month or more, the daylight is almost perceptibly longer and Imbolc (the spring quarter) will be upon us very soon. Whether Samhain has brought rest and renewal and refreshment; or a growing sense of peace with the soft, silken darkness; or …
My mother was a people person who was endlessly fascinated by the human eccentricities and idiosyncracies she observed around her. She was a delighted visual and, when possible, audio eavesdropper on everyone, everywhere. As a result, she had a well-developed sense of the ridiculous. She loved slapstick. She adored droll and self-deprecating British humor. When …
I was born not far from the ocean and have lived most of my life within an hour of one of the two huge bodies of water that give our planet its distinctive color from space. Anyone who has spent any length of time along a coastline knows that drowning is not something that happens …
High Holy Days open conversations in paradoxical ways. Sometimes dialogue around the extended family table seems anything but. Often it is a rote repetition of past years, little more than familiar monologues competing for airspace. A neutral observer might wonder if there had been an intervening year, or growth, or change, or world (national, community, …
The end of September marks the beginning of my personal new year. November 1 began Samhain, the first season of the new year in the ancient calendar. But January 1 is the beginning of the year in the Gregorian calendar by which most of us mark time in our secular world. It is a time …
Christmas Eve is a particularly busy and special time in clergy households. The whole day focuses toward the services that mark this night in a profound and intense way that is hard to explain to others. Everything else becomes peripheral to that worship and the preparation for it. No matter how stressed the days leading …
In the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice is upon us. On December 21 at 4:03 MST, the North Pole reaches the point at which it is tilted furthest – 23.5 degrees – away from the Sun. One breath later, we begin to tilt slowly back toward the light, toward warmth, toward longer days and shorter …
I suspect that your life is as full or fuller than mine at the moment. I suspect that, even with the best of intentions and the most careful of plans, you have more on your schedule than you want. I suspect that at least some of you are reacting to the days getting shorter and …
Back in April, I wrote a blog on the spirituality of paying taxes…which I happen to think is, actually, a spiritual discipline. As Christmas draws closer, I find myself reflecting on the spirituality of giving gratuities. Or sharing largesse. Or practicing some small kind of equity in my particular micro-environment. My training in this area …
The world has trained us to think that winter (especially December) is about giving. We are all supposed to rush around giving things – preferably lots of things – to one another. There is nothing wrong with giving: the world can certainly use more generosity of heart, spirit, mind, time, love, and money. Moreover, there …