These ponderings originally appeared one per day via MailChimp. This weekly version keeps them in one place for people who missed the daily postings. If you would like to sign up to get them daily, you can do so by filling out the Mailing List Form HERE. Setting the Bar The greater danger for most …
We sat together and cried for almost two hours, sometimes holding hands, sometimes wiping our eyes or noses with tissues (we emptied a whole box). And two days later we did it all over again. She is a professor with a doctorate in the hard sciences. Years ago, as an undergraduate, she made the decision she …
This is the time of year when thoughts turn to gifts: giving and receiving. Most of us in the parts of the world where Christianity and/or Judaism have a presence are busy thinking about what we can buy (or, less often, make) as gifts for a list that might range from only one or two …
Planning a trip to a familiar part of the world is always a challenge for me. Do I return to places I have seen before, places I have loved for their beauty or their power or their mystery? Or do I seek out new places, new perspectives, new opportunities to fall in love, new experiences …
In the Christian church, Lent began on Ash Wednesday (February 18). Although penitence and penance (words most of us have come to hate without really understanding what they mean) have long been associated with Lent, it would be less emotionally laden to describe this season as one of intentional metanoia: a season about turning toward …
The spiritual practice that anchors Samhain is attentive, intentional waiting which, let’s face it, is not a highly developed skill or favorite activity of our culture. In fact, the resistance to waiting has become almost pathological. Case in point: those two women who camped out in front of Best Buy for 22 days so they …
Many years ago, I discovered that Orthodox Jews have a prayer for every activity and event in the day, a short prayer of gratitude that acknowledges the wonder and grace of the unfolding moment: a prayer for awakening, for rising from bed, for washing hands, drinking water, preparing food, eating food, dressing. Literally everything. This …
This was first posted on 2 April 2014– before many of you were reading my blogs. During my retreat, I am taking the time to revisit some of the exercises that have been most fruitful in my own spiritual journey and to see what new revelations might appear. As we lean into the season that …
I finally had an entry in the Lughnasadh Give-Away! Maybe it is appropriate that my daughter won since her second anniversary is tomorrow. I will be doing another give-away mid-Samhain for a chance to win six Solstice or Christmas cards. Here in Colorado most of the deciduous trees have shed their color as the predominant …
Today is the Feast of St Francis, that delightfully eccentric saint whose scandalous conversion is the stuff of legend. From a distance, it is easy to love and admire him…although he drove many of those who knew him in person to total distraction. This is true of a lot of loose cannons; in fact, it …