Celebrations

Celebrations

Growing up I struggled with celebrations
because days like birthdays made me sad
and reminded me of the parents I would never know
and who would never know me.
Then my mother and father passed away
and I led the celebration of their lives.
That is when I came to realize
celebrations are when we lift each other up,
in good times and in sad,
sharing and connecting with each other.
Celebrations are not just about
barbecues, picnics, or festive gatherings.
They are a chance to give thanks for
all who make a difference in our lives.
They are a chance to make our bond with other
visible, affirming and filled with love.
They are a chance to affirm more than the people,
but to make concrete the traditions.
They are a chance to give thanks
for all we are grateful for,
all we have been blessed with,
and all we have been spared.
Celebrations
are more than the laughter we share,
they are about the love,
the life,
and memories
we build, cement and hold in our hearts.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

No

No

No. it’s a complete sentence.
No, it like yes is a simple and powerful word
and has made me think about what, when, and to whom I say no.
No, is what I say when my intuition tells me to say no.
No, is what I say when I am asked to intentionally cause harm to myself or others.
No, is what I have said to myself when I hear lies about myself.
No, I will not believe them or internalize them.
No, I will not focus on being perfect, but just doing the best I can
and remembering that my best varies from moment to moment.
No, to procrastinating because as I always say eventually I will have to eat the frog, so let me eat the frog first.
No, to taking things that are not mine.  If I were meant to have it, I would.
No, to staying in relationships that are toxic in any way shape or form and at least limiting it if I cannot completely end.
No, to gossip because I know that one who brings me gossip, will also gossip about me, so don’t bring it to me.
No, to being jealous that I am not you because I am who I am and you are who you are and we are both who we were created to be
No, to trying to make sure people like me, because I have no control over that and neither do you,
No, to not taking the best care of me.  I didn’t always say no to bad habits, but I do now.
No to not getting enough sleep or eating foods that are healthy for me.
No, to clutter in my life, whether it is physical, emotional or mental.  I am learning to say no.
No, to meetings I do not need to be in.
No, to tasks I do not need to do.
No, to constantly checking messages and emails. There are set times for everything.
No, to anything that violates my core principles and values.
No, to anything that leads me away from my ever growing relationship with the Ultimate.
No, to saying yes to everything because I am not meant to do it all.
No.
No is what I say when I know at the core of who I am I am supposed to say.
No, when do you say that simple word – no.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Dancing with Death

Dancing with Death

Each week, I dance with death.
I am not saying it to sound morbid,
rather I am saying it because my life
is filled with moments of transformation.
There are these moments when something within me dies
and as it does,
it makes room for the new moves, twists and turns my life is about to take.
Death is constantly dancing with life.
The move of one part
brings about the movement of the other.
The death of a wound in my heart
gave birth to a voice of braveness and adventure.
The death of fear from my past
gave birth to courage in my future.
The death of abandonment
gave birth to security.
Our lives are filled with these moments
when we allow death to dance with us
and then thank it for the dance,
release it and began
that which has come to
take us further in the mystery
and adventure within our soul.
Thank you death
for all the dances in my life
and all the mysteries you have led me to.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Saying Grace

Saying Grace

Do you say grace
before your meals?
I can’t speak for others,
but I take a moment before I eat
to give thanks.
The other day it hit me,
why do I just say grace before meals.
If I say grace to give thanks,
am I only grateful for my food?
What about all the other things I do?
What if I stopped and gave thanks
before every thing I did?
What if I said grace for just being alive?
What if I said grace for those who have blessed me
or to ask for grace who are in need
or to give thanks for everything
which sustains me emotionally,
mentally,
physically,
and spiritually?
Today I said grace before grading,
reading,
cooking,
and talking with friends.
Of course I said grace
before I started working on my thank you notes.
Saying grace before everything
makes me realize just how much
I have to be grateful for.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

My Inheritance

My Inheritance

As I have been thinking about
the inheritance I will leave behind
I realized how blessed I have been
to inherit all that I have.
I am not talking about what others have left me
in their wills,
but what I have inherited
by all that have come before me.
I am grateful to all those who have allowed me to inherit
their gifts and wisdom.
I give thanks for the inheritance
I have received from
all the people who have been in my life,
whose books I have learned from,
who have shared their wins, losses, and lives.
My inheritance has come from times of joy and sorrow,
from people and places
and from animals, plants, and
all other sources of wisdom.
To all those from whom I have inherited,
I am grateful.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Getting Accustomed

Getting Accustomed

I remember when we moved in together.
As much as we loved each other,
it took time for us to get accustomed to living together.
Life is filled with seasons
of getting accustomed to
people,
places, and
situations.
Like those moments
you walk into a dark room
and your eyes get accustomed to
the darkness and then you begin to see
the beauty and surroundings
you could not see before.
It is in these moments that I see
God in the darkness and the treasures
I have not yet begun to see.
Sometimes we have to get accustomed
just so we can survive.
I grieve as I watch my son
get accustomed to being in jail.
In this darkness,
I find myself becoming accustomed
to being the mother of a child
I no longer know or recognize.
I am becoming accustomed to
the arms of the Ultimate
who comforts me as I grieve and
seek how to keep us all able to see
the light in the darkness of
the jail system.
The one who encourages me to
get accustomed to modeling love and beauty
in the midst of my son’s darkness
and never becoming it,
but getting accustomed to being,
to always being,
the light in the darkness
and at the same time giving thanks
for all the harsh realities
I have never had to
get accustomed to myself.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Changing

Changing

Don’t you get bored?
I get asked that all the time
by people who do not understand
how I cannot get bored
when I am in the same place all the time.
I know it looks like the same,
but nothing is ever the same.
We can sit in the same place
and look at the same space
and never see the same thing twice.
We and the world are ever
changing.
The air we breathe is not the same,
it is every changing
with every movement
and gust of wind.
The land is not the same.
I see the leaves change,
they fall,
they are blown from one space to another.
Their pattern,
their dance,
the way they speak to me
is ever changing.
The view we see is ever changing,
like a kaleidoscope.
It may seem like the same view
but each moment
is a transformation,
it is us seeing the ever changing
nature of the world.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope

I have long been fascinated with kaleidoscopes.
I talk about them when I am teaching,
imagine them when I am writing,
and looking through them for inspiration.
Kaleidoscopes remind me of life.
there is always something beautiful,
something new to see.
There is always something to look forward to,
no matter what I am going through.
In the midst of the lows,
there is a beauty that strengthens me
and pulls me to the light.
With each turn,
I can see things falling apart,
but also coming together.
What I see is like life,
a piece of art that is
ever changing,
ever evolving,
ever being asked to be held,
transformed
and allowed to be
the simplicity and complexity
which is a kaleidoscope.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Look for the Blessings

Look for the Blessings

Look for the blessings,
my Bubby would say.
No matter what you are going through,
look for the blessings.
Life is filled with challenges,
always will be.
In the midst of them,
look for the blessings
and know you will be okay.
Things can look difficult and dangerous,
but when I look for the blessings,
I see them as gemstones,
as diamonds
not shards of glass.
Things will happen
which may seem unpleasant
but they are blessings in disguise.
I can only see them,
when I look for them.
I am looking for my blessings
Are you looking for yours? 

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Moist Heart

Moist Heart

You have a moist heart,
this woman at the First Nations center said.
It has been years
since she told me my tears
watered my heart and soul.
She said your moist heart
keeps you humble and fertile
so you may keep birthing.
I have not always understood what she meant
but on those days when the pain I witness
or even hear about makes me cry
I remember all this is to keep me with
a moist heart.
What moistens your heart?
Do you even allow yourself to have
a moist heart?
Do you allow yourself to feel the pain and suffering
in this world and
and have a good cry?
What if we moistened our hearts
and used this moistness
to fertilize the world?

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to I those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Bless Them

Bless Them

Every morning I write in my gratitude journal
and I give thanks for at least 5 things in my life
I am grateful for/
However, this morning, it dawned on me,
that I never ask for those people, places and things
to be blessed.
There are so many ways and situations,
that my life has taught me wisdom.
My wisdom has come through the good times and the bad,
my wins and my losses,
my illnesses,
that which has bought me joy
and that which has reduced me to tears.
Everything and everyone
I have met on my journey
has helped me to understand myself
and life.
I have been blessed with the opportunity
to sit at the table of the included and the excluded,
the friend and the adversary,
and with my parents and those who call me mom.
So now I begin a new habit of not only giving thanks each day,
but asking the Ultimate
to bless them
for their part in my journey.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Soulprints

Soulprints

We talk about so many kinds of footprints;
human
animal, and
carbon, but how about
soulprints.
Everyday,
every moment,
every place,
every person,
we leave our soulprint
on the world.
It is a spiritual trace
of who we are
and the legacy we are leaving behind.
Even though I have not left my computer today,
other then to cook a meal
and go to the bathroom,
I am still leaving a soulprint virtually
on every person I have written to
or engaged with.
What is my soulprint saying about me?
What is yours saying about you?

100% of God our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Celebrate Yourself

Celebrate Yourself

When you look in the mirror
what do you see?
Perhaps more importantly
what do you say?
Do you speak
affirmations to yourself
and tell yourself you are amazing just as you are.
Do you give yourself a high five
for something amazing you have done
in your life.
Do we do as Walt Whitman did
and say “I celebrate myself.”
What if we celebrated the beauty
in which we were created?
What if we celebrated our achievements,
no matter how tiny?
What if we found a reason each day to celebrate
our life, our experiences, and our friends.
What if we took a moment,
like now,
to celebrate something
amazing in our lives.
Just stop for a moment
and say
I celebrate myself.

100% of God our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Storytelling

Storytelling

We are each storytellers,
whether we realize it or not.
Every day of our lives
is like a chapter in the book
we are writing for the world.
Our book, like our lives,
is filled with characters and themes.
We invite people to sit with us
around the fireplace of our heart,
as we share the love and wisdom
which lives within us.
We share cups of hot cocoa
and travel together in ways and to places
that only our imaginations can take us.
We are the writers of our own books
and the readers of the stories that others have
written us into.

100% our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

What a Ride

What a Ride

It was Gail Ricciuti
my favorite seminary professor,
who shared this Hunter S. Thompson quote
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow what a ride!”
Can you say that?
Life is like a roller coaster
it is filled with ups and downs.
it is not about the ride
but the journey.
It is about learning from the downs
as they are what helps us get to and appreciate the ups.
If we are living our spiritual life to its fullest,
we experience our share of bumps and bruises.
Often it is in the losses,
the trials,
the challenges, and
the obstacles
that we learn how to
become an overcomer.
It is through the times others have said,
I am not sure how you survived that,
that I give thanks for the chance to learn
just how strong I am.
It is through the losses,
that I have learned
just how wealthy and blessed I am.
My journey,
and I am sure most of yours,
has not been easy.
Yet I hope you can join me
in celebrating and shouting
WOW! What a ride!!!

100% our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

It's A New Day

t’s A New Day

It’s a new day.
I woke up this morning.
That is a blessing.
I know of at least one person
who is no longer with us,
but I still am.
So I celebrate their life and legacy
by finding the joy in all I do.
I keep coming back to that basic.
I woke up and it’s a new day.
It’s another opportunity
to be of service.
It’s another chance
to make a difference in the world.
Nobody promised me this day,
nobody promises me tomorrow,
or even that I will complete this day.
It’s a new day,
so let me fill it with love,
light,
positive energy,
and find joy in all that I do.
It’s a new day.
Let’s appreciate it
for what it is.

100% our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Learning from Death

There is not a day that goes by
that something in our lives does not die.
Sometimes it is people,
or our furbabies,
a situation,
a relationship,
or a belief.
We may like to believe
that life and death are separate,
but they are like partners
in a a dance.
Death touches our lives
sometimes it cuts us
like a knife.
Other times there is
a complexity of feelings
like a bottle of wine.
Sometimes, we are grateful to let go,
but at the same time,
we feel the pain
which comes with the death.
In all of it we know,
that what it was existed,
for a season,
a purpose,
and taught us
what we needed to learn
before it left us.
In the midst of it all,
it taught us about
the mysteries of life,
love,
learning,
and death.

Blessings

So many are complaining
about the events of our life,
but what if instead we gave thanks
and saw this as a blessing.
What if we were grateful
for the blessings
which we are gaining
from this event.

What if saw all wisdom
as a blessing.
What if we saw all of life
as a blessing.
What if we saw both
health and the virus
as a blessing.

This season has offered
us the blessing of coming to know
ourselves and each other.
This season has offered
us the blessing of
a deeper understanding of life.

All of life
offers us blessings
of wisdom,
of understanding
and of love.
May we find the blessings
in all of life and
give thanks for the blessings

Donate

Walking on Diamonds

There have been times
When the road was hard,
sometimes brutal, and
I just wanted to stop,
but I pressed on.

The road seemed hazardous.
The path constructed of
and covered in the
sharpest of rocks.

Then the blessing happened.
I saw this road,
which appeared hard and hazardous
was not what it seemed.
The road was not cloaked in hazards
but in blessings.
It was not paved in the sharpest of rocks
but the brightest of diamonds.

It is then that I hear my Bubby
when you can see the blessings
in the situation, then
you will be okay.

All this time I have been
walking on diamonds.

Donate

FEAR

False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

Fear can eat away
at who we are
and what we believe.
It can slowly eat away
at our heart and soul
as if we are dying inside

Face
Everything
And
Rise

Faith can set us free
from the fears
the world tries to feed us
so face them
and rise
instead of die.

Donate