We are in difficult times. No doubt about it. Passions and tempers run hot; angry words fly like arrows. Media lets loose with corporate and individual accusations. Hate mongering, demonizing... good grief, it’s exhausting. It’s enough to make one want to curl up into a little ball on the couch, and plug in the earphones. To a good song. Or a good audiobook. Anything to shut out the noise. But how do we rise above the noise? How do we learn our human harmonies once again?
Read More
For anyone who follows my blog, you may have noticed I’ve been rather silent. (At least I hope you’ve noticed!) It’s been two months since my last published blog entry, and although I tried to continue writing for a bit when the dry spell hit, it was sporadic and half-hearted at best. Read on to discover what my two-month sabbatical looked like, and what I learned during that most blessed of times.
Read More
When I tell someone I’m retired, the inevitable, never-fail question is, “So, what do you DO?” I’m not kidding. Every. Single. Time. And when I don’t have a rock-solid answer like “Oh! I do some consulting”; or “I volunteer at the food pantry”; or “I have a part-time job doing x”, their eyes widen with barely disguised shock. I’ve learned to expect it. I get that look of disbelief, a sense I get that somehow, I’ve failed to meet their expectations of what retirement should look like. But what should retirement look like? and why?
Read More
Each spring is sacred. Each spring brings a renewed hope for life and grace. Each spring promises another chance to make it right, to enter into God’s own nature and be witness to His creation. Each spring unfolds the gritty, raw truth that life is good, that life and creation are resilient, and that His creation will triumph - no matter how unwisely we’ve managed the planet —or our lives.
Read More
Tomorrow we celebrate, contemplate, consider… motherhood: moms, grandmothers, aunts, daughters-turned-moms — all part of our national obsession with celebrating categories of people, with their title, roles and characters firmly set into place by Hallmark, who has created an American pastime of sentimentalizing what can be beautiful - yes; but what can often be complex, difficult and sometimes tragic.
Read More
Today is Holy Saturday, a strange in-between time, a liminal space that sits between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. As a child, I always felt like Holy Saturday was empty, simply a place-holder between the torture and death of the crucifixion of Good Friday, and the triumph of resurrection on Easter Sunday. There are no grand ceremonies to mark the day; no feet washing, no Last Supper re-enactments, no Requiem performances by grand choirs. Nothing. For most, this particular Saturday is about the grand sigh (admit it - of relief!) that the Lenten season is over, and all about the preparations for the Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets, and grand feasts of Easter. Saturday sits neutral, a ‘middle-child’ forgotten between the two greater days of the Easter weekend.
Read More
What is faith - really? And do I have faith? Do I have enough faith? Is there even such a thing as enough faith? How much is too little? And probably the most important question: Does faith make a difference in my life? Often, the greatest challenges to our life’s beliefs, to our core values, arise in the simplest of questions: and in recent weeks, this has been my own struggle: at its core, what is faith?
Read More
Moments that are too deep for words: the lovers’ longing look, a baby’s first giggle, the fatal diagnosis first uttered - a sunrise, an ocean breeze, the sighting of an eagle soaring overhead. We’ve all had them. No words can describe our feelings, no phrase convey what resides in the depth of our hearts. And yet, our world is drowning in words and letters and signs; in phrases and text. We are being slowly choked off with words.
Read More
There’s been much written about gratitude; some are pithy quotes intended to spark a social media ‘like”; others are ancient and true, proven over the centuries to be wise in showing what heart-felt gratitude is and what it can be. But I don’t want to spend these precious moments to simply spout off a platitude to remind us to “give thanks”; I want to uncover what I sincerely believe happens in our hearts when we are truly grateful, when we practice an ongoing and daily pursuit of gratitude.
Read More
How does one maintain a spirit of hope in this present world? How can I possibly even think about being hopeful when terrorism strikes into the very heart of innocent citizens; when men seeking more and more power bomb hospitals and schools; when panicked people are struck down on the very path of their attempted escape? What does hope even mean in this world that seems intent on a path of self-destruction, surrounded on all sides by injustice, violence and destruction?
Read More
Discussing powerlessness during these modern times of violent struggle for power, dominance and control seems counterintuitive at best; ridiculous and naive at its worst. Regardless of our political views (and maybe in spite of them), this world, in these times, is a chaotic, toxic stew of loud and blustery leaders, with and without power, who aren’t afraid of taking violent action to disrupt, corrupt, usurp and conquer whatever obstacles are in their way, to fight to the top of whatever governmental heap exists so that they can declare themselves king of the mountain. It would be a comical reenactment of childhood bullying and foolish power-games if it weren’t so tragic in its consequences.
Read More
My husband and I recently spent two weeks in Kauai, also known as the “Garden Isle” of the Hawaiian Islands. Of the many places we’ve traveled in the past 50 years or so, it remains our very favorite place to be. Yes, the weather is spectacular, and the beauty is spellbinding (which I’ll address in another blog post soon), but it’s more than that. There’s a quality of spirit that abides in that place that is like no other I’ve ever known; a sweetness to its people, a slowed breath of life that hovers over the place in the sunshine and breeze, a quality of living that is hard to define, but intoxicating to both the mind and senses. It is a place and a people that live ‘pono’.
Read More
Times of transition are often not of our own doing; we don’t choose to have illness and death; we don’t choose to be laid off, or experience the pain of divorce or the ravages of a pandemic, or the disintegration of family and friendships. But sadly, many of us refuse to acknowledge the change before us, or perhaps even the need to change, and attempt - at all costs - to hang on to our present life, holding onto broken circumstances with tight fists. We get stuck, and in that “stuck-ness” lies inertia; there is no good thing in this space. We either move on, or wilt and die within.So what to do, then? How do we change our mind and heart attitudes regarding transitions? How do we embrace the change - and if we do - what will that mean?
Read More
Something Jesus uttered in his last minute before dying hasn’t left me for days; and when that happens, I know I’m onto something; something deep, personal, and wholly holy. If one can think on his words for just a few minutes - to deeply and consciously sink into those last words he uttered, to really understand what he was saying, it would change everything.
Read More
Centering prayer has turned my prayer time into a wild ride of unfolding joy and love. It is not always easy; it’s often a struggle to sit still for 20 minutes, mind intentionally not thinking, repeating a word in order to focus. But it does get easier; and the Spirit is often at work within, sometimes most especially in those difficult times, sifting through our hurts and sorrows, healing deeply buried wounds; convicting, soothing, loving. The Spirit clears away the rubble so that the love of God settles in anew, stronger, brighter and sweeter than before. It is the rhythm of that daily experience that matters, the turning of heart to Father, of soul to Spirit.
Read More
Silence is a powerful tool; there’s a very good reason that all major world religions embraced silence as a very real, very effective and compassionate spiritual discipline towards self-discovery and joy. Silence has proven itself invaluable in giving us the spiritual strength and resilience to face our shadows, to face our weaknesses and failings and the things we don’t like about ourselves, and provide us with the inner space, resources, and strength to overcome, to conquer; simply put - to become better, happier and peace-filled human beings.
Read More