Sheila-na-Gig and Discernment
(I woke up at 2 am, needing to write this post. My apologies for typos, etc.) So I’ve been thinking about The Days of Discernment and why I care so much about discernment—the art of making wise decisions. I’ve been thinking about how I’ve spent the last few years working on ways to make decisions, […]
How to Grow a Soul
**from summer 2016** “Life is just a chance to grow a soul.” So said Rev. A. Powell Davies. If our souls can grow, then they aren’t static things or conditions to be simply ignored, lost, or saved. What is the growing piece, then? What is the soul? Hell, what is life? Davies’ quotation seems to […]
Crazy Wicca? No.
Today I go to see a new psychiatrist, and I’m really nervous. What does it mean to see a new brain doctor, especially for someone with my spirituality? For those of you who don’t know, I thought I’d share. If you’ve read my last couple of posts, you know by now that part of my […]
Vulnerability and the Deeper Well
I’m listening to the Wailin’ Jennys sing “Deeper Well” and thinking more and more about the needs for clean, accessible water around the world. “I need water from a deeper well,” they sing over and over again. Even those of us who have clean water to drink and bathe in need the water from a […]
The Gifts of Practice: Presence
Welcome to 2016, my friends, welcome! In this installment of my Gifts of Practice series, I offer some words about Presence. Presence is the quality of being awake to each moment, aware of our essence, and feeling unerringly connected to Source. What is Presence? Presence is a characteristic, but more deeply, it is a quality […]
The Gifts of Practice: Compassion
This is the second of my posts on the benefits of spiritual practice. First, let me be clear: These are the benefits in my life. They will be different for you. They will include different virtues in different measures. Second, another point of clarification: By “virtue” I do not mean something that you strive and […]
Christmas Thoughts on Spiritual Practice
It is Christmas Day. My wife and I are having a simple, quiet day together before the fire. Reading to one another from new books, wearing newly gifted clothing, spending time with our sweet animal companions…it’s a nice day. For us, Christmas is a quiet moment between our observance of Solstice and the celebration […]
Spiritual Practice and Tradition
Welcome to the return of the light! The Wheel turns and we turn with it! I have celebrated the Solstice, as have many of you, and now await with my Christian friends, the birth of the Human One, the one my friend Theresa Soto always simply calls Teacher. And then the days of Kwanzaa, up […]
Discernment for Hope
In the Soul Matters UU congregational curriculum, December’s theme is Expectation. When I think of expectation in December, I think of the phrase I heard over and over and over at every Mass I ever attended as a child: We wait in joyful hope… Joyful hope. In the UU congregations I know, “expectation” is turning […]
Retreat Hopes
I’ve been writing quite a bit here and there about the season, the growing nights, the shrinking days, and the invitations of the darkness. I am also hosting a virtual retreat—a day of rest and renewal you take for yourself at home, supported by four calls, recordings, and handouts from me—on December 19th. For more […]