Blog
The Lenses We See Through
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are – Anais Nin Having just passed through an election, plus anticipating the Presidential Election a year from now – and also facing the current situation in the Middle East - I am once again reminded about...
Love and Despair for the Planet
The Peace of Wild Things When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I...
The Journey towards Healing
The Healing Time Finally on my way to yes I bump into all the places where I said no to my life all the untended wounds the red and purple scars those hieroglyphs of pain carved into my skin, my bones, those coded messages that send me down the wrong street...
What We Pay Attention To – and Avoid
As I was walking this morning, I began paying attention to where my attention was going…. Mostly, it was wandering. Looking at the trees, at other people on the path, planning the day, remembering what happened yesterday, contemplating the focus of my blog… We...
Alone in the Dark
If you ever found yourself as a child terrified and alone in an unfamiliar dark space… if you were ever lost outdoors on a dark night when the other kids had run off and left you far behind … if your mother died and left you or you were really sick and in quarantine...
Loneliness and Solitude
“Americans are facing an epidemic of loneliness, an “underappreciated public health crisis” that needs to be brought to light, said Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in a statement last week. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, about half of adults in the country reported...
Presence: a Practice and a Gift
What is Presence? If you look up a definition of “presence,” you will find something obvious along the lines of “the state or condition of being present.” And “being present” is “the state of existing or occurring now.” If we are content with that … end of...
What does Home mean to you?
“Home” is such a powerful and evocative word – in the realm of the psyche, and in spirituality and religion as well. Before you read any further, I invite you to sit with this word for a few moments: what memories, feelings, sensations, or images does it evoke...
Life Journeys, outward and inward
“Life is a journey.” A familiar metaphor. Whatever the external features, I see this as essentially a journey of meaning-making. The meanings that we find in life begin with our earliest experiences. Even before we have language, we might say there are implicit...
“Don’t worry – be happy”?
I Worried by Mary Oliver I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers flow in the right direction, will the earth turn as it was taught, and if not how shall I correct it? Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven, can I do better? Will I ever be able to...
Bridging Divides #2: conflicts in spiritual life
As I begin this reflection, I'm aware that I bring with me a basic assumption: our spiritual life is intimately connected with our psychosocial life. Yes, the spiritual dimension extends beyond/deeper than the psychological, but they are often intertwined. (Or as the...
Bridging the Divides: exploring our inner conflicts
Divisions make headlines. Conflicts draw attention. Every now and then bridge-building makes the news, but… not for long. I think many of us realize that whether or not something makes the headlines, we need bridges these days. I have been drawn to the metaphor of...