We seem to be deluged with never-ending newspaper and TV coverage about the Syrian/Iraqi refugee crisis and the threat of extremist violence. Each time it shows up in my newsfeed on Facebook, cuts into a TV show I am enjoying, or I hear people in a coffee shop talking about it frantically, I am bombarded [...]
Finally, here are Lessons 4 and 5. If you've read the other two articles which house Lessons 1, 2 and 3, just scroll down to #4. If you haven't read the first two installments of this little series, you may want to read the intro and first lesson. Lessons 2 and 3 can be found here. I'm [...]
This post is the second part of a series of some lessons surrounding my recent near death experience. If you haven't read the first lesson, you may want to pause here and read the intro - I'm guessing it will help you set the context for what you are about to read. Here's the lessons, [...]
Most of us have heard stories of near-death experiences, also known as NDE. Maybe you’ve listened to someone on Oprah, read it in a book, or witnessed a close friend or relative walk through it. Hell, maybe you’ve had one of your own. My point is that when you read or listen to these stories, [...]
Recently I was gravely ill… I heard my mom use that adjective with someone a few weeks ago when explaining what I had been through. Heavy, burdensome, hard to bear - these are all ways to define the root of the word, and all things I am experiencing. Mostly the “hard to bear” part lately. [...]
I just can’t take it anymore. I am soooo tired of this crap. And even those words fall short of the level of powerlessness alive in me. Millions of us who, like me, watch with horror, confusion, desperation and helplessness every time there is a mass shooting. This one in San Bernardino less than a [...]
I just arrived in Salt Lake City for the 2015 Parliament of World’s Religions. There is an expectation of at least 10,000 people from around the world converging on this very diverse city nestled in the Rocky Mountains. That’s a boat load of people speaking over 100 different languages, and sharing as many faith expressions! [...]
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.
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.
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 [...]
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 [...]
Yesterday a friend said to me, “Your scars won’t matter as he falls in love with the beauty that you are.” It took me by surprise, because it was a laser sharp message that instantaneously spoke to so much more than I could have ever imagined. It forced me to make peace with what I [...]
I am always amazed at how the most intangible things in life such as love, fear, joy, uncertainty, or peace shape our lives so intensely. They aren’t things I can hold in my hand or physically give to you, and there are no words to adequately define the experience of these intangibles. Yet they are [...]
The home I live in is situated in such a way that when the wind blows it catches every corner, every inlet, every overhang and uses the entire house to whistle loud and long. It is especially noticeable in my little sitting room, where I have my comfy chair, footrest and a little table for [...]
