The universe has a sense of humor. Recently I had read that Albert Einstein, when asked to identify the most important question in life, said, "Is the universe a friendly place or not?" Shortly, after reading the question on which I was going to reflect, my computer began dinging, the equivalent of you’ve got mail. It is the beginning of the semester where I teach part time and as with every semester, students are stressed because something has not come in yet. This normally means that either their financial aid has not come in or the books they ordered online have not come in yet.
Read moreLessons from the Desert Dweller
One of my favorite places to go for nourishment and inspiration is the Spiritual Literacy library on YouTube. This week I was pulled in by a one-minute story about the hospitality of a person known as nothing more than the Desert Dweller. According to the story, this person has lived in the desert most, if not all, of his life. At the end of each day, the Desert Dweller leaves a lit lantern by the side of the road and a now worn out note in a plastic sheet protector letting people know how to find his cottage should they be in need. This story comes from a book by Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart.
For me this story is about the attitude we have about our willingness to open our hearts and homes to others. It is not about whether or not people accept our invitation. Rather, it is about our willingness to extend the invitation in the first place.
Read moreHospitality and Hostility
It is interesting how hospitality and hostility sound so much alike but are practiced so differently. Other than the first three letters, these practices have nothing in common. Hospitality is about building bridges and welcoming all of humanity. Hostility is about building divides that separate us from one another. Hospitality thrives on peace and healing and hostility thrives on conflicts and confusion. Practicing hospitality helps us to increase our tolerance of those whose lives are different from ours. Practicing hostility helps us to become more distrustful and suspicious of others.
Read moreThe tie that binds
One of the things I so appreciate about our love and inspiration group is that I always leave with some sort of inspiration. This weekend we spoke about being mindful about what makes us feel welcomed. What is it that hosts do that makes us feel welcomed? What do we do to make our guests feel welcomed?
A while back I heard a story about a pastor who would stand outside her church and greet the migrant workers as they came in from the fields. She spoke to them in Spanish and they responded. And soon a bridge was forged. This rural community embraced the migrant farm workers and welcomed them. They offered them radical hospitality and in doing do they discovered that it is the recognition of our common humanity which binds us together
Read moreThe Tightrope Walker
I have been struggling this month to find the words to write about hope. Each week I would hope for the words or inspiration about hope to come, but then I would fail and I had to be okay with that. It was when I found this video about the tightrope walker that I began to understand that this past month for me has been like the process of being a tightrope walker. Every time I sit down to blog, it is about climbing up to the tightrope. The climb up can seem secure, at least in contrast to being on the tightrope, but even in the climb, one can fall. Acknowledging that one can fall and climbing anyway is part of the practice of hope. You acknowledge what can happen and you move forward in faith on the hope that it won’t.
Read moreThis Little Light of Mine
My friend Kelleigh says “Hope is something you don’t know you have until you don’t have it.” It seems that this is when we look at those who have hope and it is like a lighthouse, it seems to provide a path to safety. This is what Kert Nerburn writes about in his book Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace. He said,
We are not saints, we are not heroes. Our lives are lived in the quiet corners of the ordinary. We build tiny hearth fires, sometimes barely strong enough to give off warmth. But to the person lost in the darkness, our tiny flame may be the road to safety, the path to salvation. It is not given us to know who is lost in the darkness that surrounds us or even if our light is seen. We can only know that against even the smallest of lights, darkness cannot stand. A sailor lost at sea can be guided home by a single candle. A person lost in a wood can be led to safety by a flickering flame. It is not an issue of quality or intensity or purity. It is simply an issue of the presence of light.
Read moreI Can See Clearly Now!
Someone asked me what I do when I feel like giving up. I do a few things. I pray, I light candles to remind me to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel and I listen to some rock music. Rock music, in its own way always inspires me and reminds me the best is yet to come. Amongst my favorites are Jonny Nash’s song “I Can See Clearly Nos, Sly and the Family Stone’s “You Can Make It If You Try, Bob Dylan’s, “I Shall Be Released”, and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” They all have a common theme. No matter what is going on in my life, the best is yet to come. As the song says all of the bad feelings will wash away and I will see clearly now because the rain has come.
Read moreHope Begets Hope
One thing begets another. Fear begets fear. Love begets love. Hate begets hate. Hope begets hope. Sometimes we get so caught up in the process of begetting fear that we forget we have the power to beget hope. Then something will happen and we will be able to find our way back to being hopeful and being able to give hope to others. This is the lesson behind a story I read in a book by R. Wayne Willis called Hope Notes.
"There's an old Egyptian story about a little boy named Miobi who came to a village where the people were very strange
Read moreThe Gratitude of A Warrior
A few weeks ago, at our Living the Five Agreements group we were talking about gratitude from a Toltec Perspective. We read a paragraph from Sheri Rosenthal’s book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Toltec Wisdom. One of the points she made was that from a Toltec perspective Warriors do not see experiences as good or bad, but instead as learning experiences. Her writing reminded me of a piece of wisdom my Bubby shared with me that I was to seek the blessing in all situations and circumstances. There is a lesson in every moment of life she would tell me. See the lesson. Who knew that my Bubby, who had never heard of Toltec wisdom, knew that this is what she was teaching me.
Read moreMaking the Unconscious Conscious
I am not quite sure who said the last thing to discover water would be a fish is, but whoever it was, thank you. Sometimes we are like the fish, it is not until you take us out of our fish bowl that we become conscious of all the blessings in our life. Thich Nhat Hanh in his book Peace Is Every Breath, tells the story about how he remembered to be grateful for the water when the plumbing broke down. Sometimes I forget to give thanks for the electricity, until we have a power outage. I forget to give thanks for my dishwasher until it stops working. I had forgotten what a gift it is to go to the bathroom until I woke up one morning and was unable to urinate. How many things happen in our daily lives that we forget to give thanks for or do not even think of as blessings until we are suddenly and unexpectedly deprived of them
Read moreGive it to the King
Every faith tradition has a teaching about how gratitude balances out greed. One of my favorites can be found in Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche’s book The Way of the Buddha. In it he writes, "At the time of Buddha Sakyamuni, a monk found himself in possession of a marvelous jewel that granted any wish — all the gold, silver, and precious stones you could ask for. The lucky owner thought: 'I am a monk and have no need of all these riches. Better to give this jewel to a poor person. But there are so many of them, why favor one over another? Buddha is omniscient. He will tell me whom to give it to.' So, going to Buddha, he explained his difficulty and asked him to designate a fitting recipient. Buddha Sakyamuni recommended that he give it to the king of that area, a very wealthy and powerful monarch. The monk made the offering, and the king accepted it, inquiring about the reason for the gift. The monk explained, 'I thought I should give this gem to a poor person, but not knowing whom to choose, I asked Buddha Sakyamuni. He advised me to bring it to you.' "
Read moreGratitude is __________
On November 1st, our Love and inspiration gathering had a powerful discussion about gratitude. We talked about how gratitude, when practiced, has the potential to be the tapestry of our lives. Everything we give thanks for leads to something else. For example, we talked about giving thanks for indoor plumbing, which led to us giving thanks for our showers, our toilets, our dishwashers, all the appliances that use water. This led to us giving thanks for those that have given to ensure water flows into our homes, which led to a discussion of how often we take things for granted. It is not until our water is shut off for some reason, albeit temporarily that we realize how grateful we are for having it and when it is restored, we are immensely grateful. How rarely do we think about all the people in this world who cannot just get up and get a glass of water? Those who do not have access to clean water? Those who have to walk for miles to even bring water to their families. It is when we stop and follow the thread that we begin to have a deeper understanding not only of what we are grateful for, but why we appreciate it as much as we do.
Read moreBeing in Grace
There is a saying that a picture speaks a thousand words. It simply means that a picture tells a story just as well as a large amount of text. All month I have been writing about grace. So this week, I thought I would write little but post pictures I have found that capture people being in grace and let them speak to you as they do.
Read moreLet the Light in.
In my studies on grace, I have come across a number of analogies. One was that of floating as I discussed in the newsletter. Another was to think about grace like the rays of the sun. The sun is always there. Even when we cannot see it, the sun is present. Regardless of what time we get up, the sun is there. Sometimes, when we first wake up, we see the sun coming in through our window and we roll over and pull the covers over our head. Sometimes we wake up, but leave our doors and windows closed, blocking the sunlight from coming into our spaces. In each of these situations, we are keeping ourselves from experiencing the fullness of God’s grace.
Read moreJust a Cup
Years ago, when I was pastoring, we had a tradition we called Hugs and Love. We would always start off with a reminder about how God loves us just as we are. Then we would greet each other and tell each other that God loved us just as we were. I remember the first time I opened this tradition as if it were yesterday. I talked about how we were like coffee cups. When you first go to the store to purchase a cup, it is smooth and clean inside. However, over time and use, there are stains which build up and tiny little cracks that sometimes appear and yet we still go back to that cup time after time and accept it just as it is.
Read morePull a Weed, Plant a Seed
The spiritual practice for this month has been forgiveness. Our Sunday morning love and inspiration group has been having some amazing conversations about forgiveness. In the midst of it, I realized that I had not forgiven myself for not writing to anyone last week. I had taken an entire week off from blogging. My first time to do that in five years and I was angry at myself for not having done so. I had to stop and practice forgiveness with myself. I had to forgive myself for expecting that I would write without ceasing and never take a break when I needed one. I had to stop and forgive myself for not trusting those of you who read the meditations of my heart for understanding when I need a vacation or need to take a week off.
As I sat and thought through all this, this past week, I remembered a teaching from my Bubby (Yiddish for grandmother) who taught me to never go to bed angry.
Read morePoultice of Self-Love
As many of you who follow us on a regular basis know, the next few years we are focusing on a different spiritual practice each month. September is the month of forgiveness. While I have always known it to be a spiritual practice, I did not realize that there days that were set aside to calm together as global bodies and practice forgiveness. For example, I just found out that August 5th was International Forgiveness Day, Global Forgiveness Day was August 27th and Regular Forgiveness Day was June 26th. While all these days are important, it is also important to remember that each day has the potential to be forgiveness day in our lives.
After our Living the Five Agreements group tonight, I decided to see what Toltec Wisdom said about forgiveness. In the Everything Toltec Wisdom book, it is written,
Read moreUbuuntu
I recently read this quote from Desmond Tutu in Victor Chan’s book The Wisdom of Forgiveness. It was written,
In our country, we speak of something called ubuuntu. When I want to praise you, the highest praise I can give you is to say, you have ubuuntu — this person has what it takes to be a human being. This is a person who recognizes that he exists only because others exist: a person is a person through other persons. When we say you have ubuuntu, we mean that you are gentle, you are compassionate, you are hospitable, you want to share, and you care about the welfare of others. This is because my humanity is caught up in your humanity. So when I dehumanize others, whether I like it or not, inexorably, I dehumanize myself. For we can only by human, we can only be free, together. To forgive is actually the best form of self-interest.
Forgiveness, is not about what you do for others, it is the willingness to help yourself become the best person you can be.
Read moreFaith: Possession or Relationship?
For those of you who have never joined us on Sunday mornings for Love & Inspiration on Zoom, we invite you to consider joining us. I know some of you go to places of worship, but for those of you who do not, call in. Why? Because during these calls, we have deep and profound conversations and we would love to share them with you. This month, we have been talking about faith. Yesterday’s conversation kept coming back to what faith is. Is it a possession, as in something we have and possess? Or is faith a relationship with our Higher Power, however, we define that. It is this conversation that inspired me to make it the Sharing Time question for the week and the focus of my blog.
So often we hear people talk about how much faith they have as if faith is a possession, something one owns. So if faith is a possession, what is it you really possess?
Read moreTrust in __________
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin captures an important aspect of faith in these lines from a prayer.
Breathing in: Trust in . . .
Breathing out: the slow work of God.
How many of us remember to trust in the slow work of God? Last year, one of my students said to me, “It sure would be nice if God could answer your prayers in the same amount of time it takes to get a Happy Meal.” I had to stop and remind him that Happy Meals do not always make you happy, at least not in the long run, and that they are not always healthy. However his question got at an important point. How often do we expect God to hear and answer our prayers instantaneously? Do we only trust in God when they are answered quickly or do we trust in the slow work of God?
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