I love seeing the bumper sticker, ‘Practice Random Acts of Kindness.’ (Among other things, it beats most of the alternatives on the bumpers of pick-up trucks and SUVs here in Colorado.) I love the idea of random acts of kindness. But the fact is, 99.44% of them are not random at all. A week ago, …
What is your bottom line? When all is said and done, what do you consider the primary, the most important consideration, the ultimate value of your life? Or let’s come at “bottom line” slightly differently, What is the benefit (profit, net gain) you are leaving to the world? Or how about this: What is your …
As we get closer to the actual possibility of planting seeds that will germinate and produce grain and fruit, I have been pondering the reality that we rarely grow anything alone. Life (both inward and outward) is quite literally co-operation, a collaboration that stretches back through generations of DNA and natural selection and family …
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 …
There are still a few tomatoes ripening (oh, so slowly) on the two surviving tomato plants on my porch. Growing anything is a miracle; growing things at the season edges seems even more miraculous and I am grateful for the wonder of possibility. Every night the tarp goes on to conserve the daytime heat through …
I am collecting the last of the tomatoes from the plants on my porch. I missed a temperature drop and lost my chocolate mint, but (oh!) it was delicious while it lasted. The flowers I planted to refresh the pots in early September have gotten to the tired stage, and my amaryllis bulbs have been …
The other day, I stumbled on a statistic that took my breath away. According to the Washington Post (which seems to be quoting a study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Biological Science), the average US household discards between $1400 and $2300 worth of food annually. In fact, approximately 40% of the edible …
Even though, chronologically, I am past the summer quarter of my life, each year continues to have its cycle of seasons. In his book, Naked Spirituality, Brian McLaren calls spiritual summer (the inward Beltane), The Season of Complexity. It is a season of mastering skills, achieving goals, and conquering challenges (maturing and ripening). As with …