About a week ago, one of my Facebook (FB) friends posted this comment as a status up-date: “Everybody sins & God loves everybody. No exceptions. How come people like to separate the clauses?” I may not have given the comment much notice, but this FB friend is known to be… Read More »Sin: Can We Talk About It?
The year was 1971. We sat in a classroom with desks in straight rows. The high school guidance counselor walked in as a hush fell upon the room. After dumping books and papers on the desk, he went to the chalk board and wrote, “Know Thyself.” The “guidance” class required… Read More »Exercise and Self-Knowledge: Dimensions of the Spiritual Path
In the mid 1980’s, I read a novel by May Sarton: Anger. Because her autobiographic work, The Journal of a Solitude, touched me deeply, I hoped her novel exploring expressions of anger would help me sort out my own experience of anger. Anger is an emotion which has complicated my… Read More »Anger: A Signal for Change
Over the last month, I’ve made weekly trips beyond the suburbs along a bumpy road far from the busy city. While it’s a drive out of my way, it’s a trip I look forward to. I always find something I didn’t expect – something good to bring home. My destination:… Read More »Gratitude for Being Sustained
It’s a statement I’ve heard in various forms. It goes something like this. “I respect all spiritual paths.” Another version of this same perspective is, “Everyone has a right to her own beliefs.” Or another similar perspective is this: “All paths lead to the same source.” All of these statements… Read More »Respecting All Spiritual Paths: Isn’t that Naïve?
It happened again this morning. As I sat at my computer, I watched gentle breeze make black plastic shopping bag dance across my front lawn. In time, it was snagged by the growth around a cherry tree. In any given week, I’ll pick up plastic bags, water bottles, candy wrappers,… Read More »Spirituality and the Environment: A Spirited Understanding of Sustainability
It was something of a surreal moment. My sister and her family moved from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. I think the year was 1979. My nephew, no more than 8 years old at the time, when visiting my parent’s home for Christmas reported what he learned in school. He said… Read More »Re-Writing History: The Confederate Flag and Southern Culture
Until a few weeks ago, I had no idea who the Duggar family was. To my surprise, it appears that many people in North America have been following this conservative Christian family. Further, the Duggar’s seem to be very influenctial among various Evangelical Christian lobbying groups. It seems that they… Read More »The Duggar’s: Abuse and Conservative Religion
