Nature, and the great outdoors, lead us to experience raw beauty. These experiences are healing for our souls and support our well-being. Being in nature renews our spirit and helps us to rediscover what it means to be human. The following is a text version of this posting. According to… Read More »Nature, Beauty, and Nurturing Our Souls
Beauty: it’s in the eye of the beholder. At least according to the adage. Beauty inspires us, draws us out of our preoccupations, and invites us to experience wonder at life. We find beauty in nature, art, music and many other things around us. Beauty is deeply connected to spirituality… Read More »How to Experience (Your) Beauty
Sometimes I stand at the end of my driveway and focus on two wooden boxes perched in a corner of my yard. These boxes are home to honey bees. A few years ago, my partner began keeping hives to help sustain the bee population in our area. Watching the bees… Read More »It’s Our Nature
I talk to my friend every few weeks. We met over twenty years ago when we lived in the same city. Now we live at opposite ends of the country, so our contact is mostly by phone and email. Every few weeks, we have a long conversation in which we… Read More »Finding Hope
Each Sunday morning, a friend of mine goes hiking. It’s usually something he does alone. Taken while on his hike, he’ll post a picture on social media of something that caught his eye. The caption is always the same. It’s a one-word exclamation. Church. For decades, I’ve facilitated workshops on… Read More »Church
How has experiencing nature inspired you? How has nature shaped your spiritual experience? The Hebrew Psalmist captured it well: “The heavens tell of your glory, O God, and the earth proclaims your handiwork. One day after another tells the story and night after night reveals knowledge. There is no speech,… Read More »The Gospel of Nature
It was a lovely autumn day. I sat on the front porch swing and watched as squirrels continued their collection of items to store for winter. Birds from farther North arrived in the South, nesting in shrubs and on trees, or resting on the telephone wires overhead. Occasionally, a breeze… Read More »Autumn Reflections from the Porch Swing
I’m very proud of my association with the United Church of Christ. As a Christian denomination, we tend to be a bit different from other denominations. We are rooted in the Christian tradition. We strive to be radically inclusive of people and their life experience. While we don’t always get… Read More »The Arrogant Preacher