Advent: the season of waiting has begun. Over the four weeks leading to Christmas, the tradition for Christians is to wait, to prepare, and to anticipate the coming of Christ. Even amid the commercialization of Christmas, our spiritual practice is to pause, be still, and experience quiet as we wait.… Read More »Advent: The Waiting Begins
Giving thanks. In North America, we ritualize our gratitude with a Thanksgiving holiday. In Canada, the holiday occurs in early October. In the US, it’s late November. Of course, expressing gratitude is more than just a day. Many spiritual writers understand that gratitude is a basic foundation for living life… Read More »Thanksgiving and Giving
We’re told to set goals for ourselves, to dream big, and strive to achieve those goals. While I don’t question that advice, per se, my experience is that day-to-day my life isn’t about achieving big goals. Instead, I find that each day I’m taking a few steps, sometimes I’m not… Read More »Hiking Trails, Achieving Goals, and Spiritual Practice
Freedom and Liberty. We hear the words used a great deal today. In many ways, they are key values in Western culture. For the French, liberty is understood in the context of equality and fraternity. In the United States, the phrase “liberty and justice for all” is a similar bedrock… Read More »Freedom and Liberty: The Spiritual Dimension of Cultural Values
We’re told to eat this but not that to be healthy. If we want to be happy, we should do that but not that. We grew up being taught that success in life is important and looks a certain way. We receive all kinds of instructions about ourselves and our… Read More »The Integrated Self
I wasn’t prepared for it. But as I thought about it, I remembered other people mentioning it. It’s the experience of growing older and watching longtime friends die. It’s a unique loss. When friends we’ve known for 20, 30, 40, or more years pass from our lives, it’s as if… Read More »When A Good Friend Dies
Sometimes we intentionally learn about spirituality and spiritual practices. Other times, we discover something in our lives that draws us to a deeper experience of spirituality. But we also stumble into lessons about life and spirituality. We may stumble into a deeper understanding of something we knew but not fully. … Read More »Stumbling Into Life’s Lessons: The Journey Along a Spiritual Path
Coming of age in the Vietnam War Era, I learned slogans like, “Give peace a chance.” Fifty years later, we’ve not given peace a chance. Instead, the world remains conflicted by violence. Because of political divisions, people are less civil toward each other than they were before. With the pandemic,… Read More »Peace in a Violent World
