How often have you used the phrase, “it took my breath away?” The other day I pulled over to allow an ambulance safe passage. As I listened to the screaming vehicle fast approaching, the sound literally took my breath away. Finally I saw the ambulance come over the hill and the driver barely looked both [...]
It's the end of the second week of Advent, the week we focus on Peace, and I am wondering how much peace everyone is feeling or practicing in light of recent events, both here at home and abroad. Sometimes peace can seem a little out of reach or maybe for a few folks, even difficult [...]
Rarely do I think about the spiritual journey as something fast. And yet, how often do I hear the phrase “a quickening of Spirit?” Just saying the word quickening, I can sense the energy ramping up inside me. Sometimes this energy feels frenetic, while at other times it feels lighthearted – like the easygoing innocence [...]
Disclaimer: This is a warning rant of the most irreverent Reverend Kelly. This is only a rant. The broadcasters of this blog in voluntary cooperation with absolutely no one have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of a real rant. If this had been an actual rant, the screaming you may [...]
I have never outgrown my delight in smelling coffee brewing first thing in the morning. Especially during my morning contemplative time. Wherever I am, at home or traveling, there is something about that earthy aroma that makes me pause while a smile spreads across my face, like warm syrup over a pancake. As I breathe [...]
Sometimes when I consult with churches, I provide marketing and communications support. Before ministry I was the Creative and Art Director for a design and marketing agency in Phoenix. So for more than 23 years, I have kept myself on the cutting edge of advertising and helping people grow their businesses (including churches) - well, [...]
Everywhere I look there are TV shows, articles, pictures, poems, reflections and pithy aphorisms about love, oneness and seeing or knowing God. If I didn’t know better I would think we were hungry, or even starving, to see Spirit! In our spiritual journey we seek to define God, to manifest Spirit, to know our faith and to live it. I sometimes find myself drifting in and out of knowing the Divine, and what it means to fully “see” God, or even to have faith in what I am doing.
One of the treasures in my life is the ability to lose myself in a song. Closing my eyes and allowing the words and music to play through me – to stop listening with my ears and listen with my heart. As the music washes over me, my mind relaxes, my breathing slows and I quietly drift into unexpected places of creation. This is the sacred discipline of deep listening, of being spiritually attentive through our hearing sense.
Take a strawberry into your hand. Notice the brilliant color, the sweet aroma, the texture of its seeds. Consider these as you sink your thumbnail into the skin of the strawberry… the membrane that so carefully holds the precious juice inside. Notice the burst of aroma and the spray of juice. Feel the sweet, sticky coolness [...]
In the previous blog I talked about the spiritual sense of smell, as akin to our physical sense of smell, which can be a powerful attraction to something. The spiritual sense of smell is a symbol, a metaphor for that attraction to being attentive to Spirit that is hidden all around us, as well as [...]
