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 apologies for the broken link in the 16 August blog mailing. There was an error in copying the URL. The world — this world, our beloved home planet — and the species that inhabit it have been blessed with amazing gifts: air to breathe, fresh water, food sources appropriate to our needs, oceans teeming …
Our daughter grew up as a Preacher’s Kid Squared, so she heard her father and me talk more than once at the dinner table about weddings and marriages, and from a very young age she heard us discuss the kinds of questions we asked the couples who came for pre-marital counseling: questions about values, about …
Our travels have brought us to Mesa Verde, one of the truly extraordinary landscapes of the United States. Indeed, it is more than a piece of North American geography and history; it is a World Heritage Site. Our guide explained the World Heritage designation comes not from Mesa Verde’s past, but from the fact that …
Beltane begins with fire – specifically with the bonfires lit from the nine sacred woods (birch, oak, hazel, rowan (mountain ash), hawthorne, willow, fir, apple, and ivy). From that bonfire, the hearth fire in each home is renewed and rekindled. These woods symbolize the female and male energies, wisdom, birth and rebirth, life and death, …
Whether we are Christian or not, our sisters and brothers of that faith are moving into the final week of Lent, considering the death of Jesus from many perspectives, seeking to understand his witness on behalf of the vast majority of humanity who live on the margins of power. His teaching (in common with the …
In mid-March, I flew from Colorado to Massachusetts to spend three weeks with my father. This is a trip I make twice a year, staying for two or three weeks of concentrated time talking, doing small errands or chores, seeing my sister — the only sibling who lives close to our father — and sharing …
In the west, the issue of water runs just beneath the surface of our lives. Or, increasingly, is being drained away, insuring that much of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and northern Mexico will be a wasteland in two or three more generations. Already the Colorado River ends miles north of where it flowed only …
Today – on a gusty, cold, and brilliantly sunny day – I got to thinking about embodiment. My nose was running, my earlobes were freezing, the wind was blowing sharp bits of this and that into my face, but I found myself celebrating the miraculous fact that my spirit and mind have a physical home. …