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 [...]
Two things I love about the wisdom of the Muppets, First, their philosophy is eternal. It was here long before Jim Henson, and will be here long after the Muppets retire. The second reason I think the Muppets are necessary for life’s learning, is because it reminds me there is hope. Hope for the spiritual realities we yearn for in life, regardless of one’s faith philosophy or tradition.
Do not adjust your screen, yes, you read the title correctly - I’m giving up God for Lent. I know this may sound strange since I am a member of the clergy. Why on earth would someone who’s JOB is God give up God for Lent? It would be like watching a doctor ask the [...]
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 [...]
I am almost always in awe at how the deepest and truest things in life are those things that are intangible. Things like love, fear, peace, faith and even God. We can’t really hold them in our hand, or really point definitively to them. And while we can’t see them with our eyes, we can [...]
A hero has died by his own hand. The news is making its way around the world at lightning speed. As quickly as his last breath left his body, the world grieves this brilliant, troubled and tender-hearted soul. And we grieve as though he was a close family member to each and every person. Suicide brings us [...]
Every year ministers, pastors, priests and the like spend time working on a talk for Easter Sunday, which seems like it wouldn’t be a big deal, right? I mean the story is already written, what’s to think about? Well for me, there is plenty to think about. Throughout my life Easter has evolved from the [...]
Far back into the unknowable past, even before the beginning, stretching out into the incomprehensible, unfathomable depths, dark and void of infinite eternity behind and beyond all history, the Christpower was alive. This was the living, pulsing, generating, creating, smoldering, exploding, fusing, multiplying, emerging, heating and cooling power of life itself: Christpower. And it was [...]
“We lost a great soul yesterday.” How often have I heard that? How many times each and every day do you think these words are spoken around the world? As I ponder this question a smile spreads across my face because I imagine the millions who have spoken these words have had the great joy [...]
Everywhere I look there are TV shows, articles, pictures, poems, reflections and pithy aphorisms about "oneness." If I didn't know better I would think we were hungry, or even starving, to know what "oneness" is, how to experience, capture it and celebrate it. We want everyone to know this "oneness" because I think we all [...]
The traditional story of Easter we pretty much know. Jesus is crucified, dies on a cross. He then is placed in a tomb only to resurrect three days later. There are four versions of the resurrection story, one in each of the canonical Gospels, and each a little bit different. The narratives are a combination [...]
Some of my favorite characters from the Christmas story are the wise men. Even though I know the stories aren’t historically true, I love that each character represents a part of me. As I have mentioned in the previous two articles, the narratives we have for the birth of Jesus are found in two of [...]
