One of my favorite ways to hold gratitude is by writing it down! I’ve kept a journal since I was a ten-year-old kid, but seven years ago I dedicated one whole journal to gratitude. This was my special “Gratitude Journal,” and I even wrote that intention on the cover page. It has been meaningful to…
Prophets, storytellers, sages, spiritual writers, poets and artists are calling us to the wild side! It is time to launch ourselves into the arms of the Beloved, to allow our full sensorium to embrace the numinous world (David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous, Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World, 1996). Spiritual author Cynthia Bourgeault has reminded us…
On this day after Thanksgiving, we pray with one of our favorite scripture scholars and Spirituality in the 21st Century speakers, Walter Brueggeman. In this evocative prayer, Walter risks naming the truth about us, about the world, and about the generous God within whom we pray. May this prayer pray us. The gratitude we intend…
Wagging dogs and insightful blogs. Loving mothers and significant others. Bumble bees and willow trees. Fine wine and reading time. Arts and crafts and emotional life rafts. This Thanksgiving, and every day, I am grateful for the big and little things that make up my life. This practice of gratitude was instilled in me at…
These trees have been my friends for years. Seeing them broken was difficult for me. I look for signs of hope and peace in the Creation around me, one day at a time, where life is adapting. STILL Within the limbs of the locust, the spire of the pine lies broken. Yet, the pine…
One of my favorite books of all time is Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue. He writes that “time as a rhythm of soul has an eternal dimension where everything is gathered and minded. Here nothing is lost. This is a great consolation: The happenings in your life do not disappear.…
A virus that attacks respiration has many of us focusing on our breath. In his recent essay on “The Meaning of Air,” Boyce Upholt takes us through a journey of the chemical composition of air, its place in natural and cultural evolution, and the disproportionate and deleterious effects of Industrial Era pollution on communities of…
In the weeks ahead as we move through the holiday season, “What really matters most?” may be one of the most critical questions we need to pose to ourselves. When we pause and remember what really matters most, we host the potential to re-vision and respond with connection, compassion and love. Sensing the choice and…
If you’re like me, you have that one friend or relative who doesn’t seem to be constrained by what others think, about looking cool or being perfect. They cultivate gratitude and joy and are compassionate with themselves and others. They are truly happy. Dr. Brené Brown calls them “the wholehearted.” She is a researcher, professor,…
“Attention is the beginning of devotion.” ―Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays When I first moved to Minneapolis in 2013, I knew three people in the metropolitan Twin Cities and knew very little of the city I suddenly called home. After a few weeks of feeling alone and overwhelmed, I decided to engage in a project…