in the Silence

It is quiet in my home,
or so it seems.
All but me are sleeping,
and I can hear the sound
of my fingers on the keyboard.
However, it is when I stop
and listen
that I hear the sounds
which allude me when I am
not listening.

I sit in silence and
I begin to hear
the symphony
which can only play
in the silence.
It is when I hear the vibrations
which come from the percussions
in my home.
it is when I hear the tones of the brass
brass
the sounds of the strings, and
the magic of the woodwinds.

it is when I hear the elements
of air as they wash over my home.
it is when I hear the
snow melting off my roof.
it is when I hear the sound
of the furnace sending heat
through my home.
it is in the silence that I hear
the plants and trees singing
a song of their own as they
dance with the environment.

it is in the silence
that I hear all things
the tones,
the chords,
the harmony
and the music of creation.

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Starting the Day

The message keeps coming
Start your day by
giving to God and then
God will give the day to you.

How do you start your day?
Do you start by having
time with God?
Time for your spiritual practice,
spiritual discipline,
devotion,
prayer, or
meditation.

Do you tithe your time to God
before spending the
rest of your time or
do you squeeze God
in at the end?

Start your day by
spending time with God
then know that the time
will be given to you
to accomplish all you
need that day.

I start my day by giving thanks
for my blessings,
for that which inspires me
and that which I intend to manifest.
How do you start your day?

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Finding the Sacred

The sacred is everywhere in our lives.
It is in the ordinary moments,
people,
places
and things.

The sacred can be found in
our daily life,
in the simple things we do like
brushing our teeth,
going to the bathroom,
eating an orange,
running water,
walking down the hallway,
or just breathing.

The sacred can be found in
our neighbors,
friends,
family,
colleagues,
team mates,
acquaintances, and
strangers.

The sacred can be found in
our backyard,
our neighborhood,
parks,
malls,
garbage cans,
and the cracks in the sidewalk.

The sacred can be found in
our thoughts,
our feelings,
our visions, and
our creations.

We can find the sacred
when we open our senses
and allow ourselves to see,
feel,
hear,
taste,
touch,
smell, and
experience it
in everyday life.

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Together

You know who you are.
You are the one who pesters me
and works to get on my last nerve.
You are the one who tries to get my attention
in the least positive of ways.
You are the one who works to
irritate me,
annoy me,
and grate on me.

I want you to know
I know you are hurting.
I know you are in need of
love and compassion.
I know you need me to
show you compassion and grace
because not only are you hurting,
but like me you are a child of the Creator.

So each time you try to get on my nerves,
I am going to wrap you in love.
I am going to be the
balm for your wounds.
I am going to show you
new ways of getting the

attention you need and deserve.

Together we will grow and heal.
Together we develop character.
Together we will make this world
a more loving place
for all in need of healing.

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How to get to Carnegie Hall

Getting to Carnegie Hall

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice, practice, practice.
This is how we should approach
our spiritual practices.
Practice, practice, practice.

Like anything one must practice at
an instrument,
a craft, or
a spiritual practice
the way to master it is easy.
Practice, practice, practice.

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Namaste

Namaste
I salute the God in you.
I bow before you
with my hands folded
as if in prayer.
I recognize that meeting you
is meeting the God in you.
I recognize that you meeting me
is meeting the God in me.
So we bow in prayer
and give thanks
for the opportunity
to meet God
in each other.
Namaste.

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Looking In, Not Out

I have long been taught
to look for the Divine
in the world.
I have looked for the Divine in
people,
places,
and things.

What if instead of looking
for the Divine in what is
outside, we looked for the
outside in us.
What if I looked for that person
in me,
that place
in me,
that thing
in me.

What if I looked for
the sky in me,
the sea in me,
the trash in me,
the homeless in me,
the flower in me,
the artwork in me?
What would I see
in me?

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Simple Things

Sometimes it is the simple things in life
that bring us joy.
like the smell of freshly mowed grass,
or waking up to a pot of freshly brewed coffee,
or when a friend surprises me with one of my favorite treats
or when I get a paratransit reservation

it is not just the big things that bring us joy;
it’s also the simple things.
It’s the smells, sounds, tastes, textures, and experiences
which put a smile in our hearts and souls.

It’s the little things which bring us joy.
So today focus on doing something simple for yourself
and others
and do something simple
to bring joy in to your life and theirs.

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Beyond Boring

Growing up there was one thing,
well several, I could not say.
One was that I was bored.
My parents taught me that
everything is interesting.
if I thought it was boring,
I just had not spent enough time with it.

Nothing is boring.
This is a lesson that has gotten me through
years of education,
books which did not initially speak to me,
professors whose style did not initially appeal to me.
Boredom was about me
not digging deep enough,
spending enough time with it
not having yet discovered its gifts
and all that it had to offer.

Today, when I feel something is boring,
I remember my early lessons and
spend more time with it,
continuing to get to know it,
explore it,
seeking out its gifts,
and that which, like us
makes us special.

Do I do this with everything,
sadly no
However, I am left wondering
what did I miss because
I was not willing to move
beyond boring

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Remembering

Oops, they did it again.
This person once again
did not live up to my expectations.
Once again I found myself frustrated
and not wanting to have anything
to do with them.
Then I remembered this is about me
and my expectations.
They never agreed to them,
I just expected them to do so.

Perhaps more importantly
I was allowing this one thing,
this one experience to make me
forget all the good they had done.
I had to work at remembering
the good things,
the times they were present,
the moments they were affirming, and
the moments they lived up to my expectations.

I am sure there are moments,
intentionally or not,
that I have not lived up to someone’s expectations.,
or that I have hurt their feelings,
and made someone forget
all the times I was loving,
nurturing,
and kind.
May we remember the goodness
in the wake of the pain.
May we remember for others
as we would like others to remember
about us.

Listening

Never speak with your mouth full,
my mother would say.
there is a time to speak and
a time to listen.
A time to hear and
a time to be heard
There is a time to eat and
a time to speak.

Learning to find balance
in our conversations with others
is about respect and honor.
It is about recognizing that
we each have something to say
and creating space for all to speak
and be heard.

It is more than just not speaking,
it is also about listening.
It is about hearing what is said and
not thinking about what we want to say next.
It is about learning to be okay
with moments of silence
as we process and reflect
before speaking

May we take the time to listen,
to think,
to speak,
and to create balance
in our conversations

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Blessed are the Strangers

I don’t know you.
I have never seen you.
We have never met.
However, today I saw you.
We may not have spoken
or interacted
in any way, shape, or form.
However, I do know we are
blessed.

I remember this day when
I saw a stranger and smiled.
Our eyes connected and
I said hello, and told her
have a great day.
I met her again
years later when she told me
you saved my life.
I hope you know
you are blessed.

We meet strangers
all the time
We do not know that
each opportunity is a
chance to bless and be blessed.
Blessed are we and
blessed are they as
we are strangers to each other.

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Ever-changing Landscape

When I think about traveling,
I think about planes, trains, and automobiles.
I think about leaving and arriving.
I think about new people, places and things.
I do not think about staying still.

Life, however, is an ever-changing landscape.
Nothing in our lives is exactly the same.
It is, as Alice Walker would say,
never the same river twice.
Our bodies,
our minds,
our souls,
the air we breathe,
nothing is ever the same,
we are and live in
an ever-changing landscape.

We travel through the seasons,
through the years of our life,
through the ups and downs,
through the losses and celebrations,
through changes in jobs,
relationships, and so much more.

We live in a constant state of travel,
earning frequent flyer miles of
experience and wisdom as we
travel through the
ever-changing landscape of life.

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Thank You

We tend to thank you
for so many things.
We thank you for
what we have,
our friends,
family,
and all we have been given.

Today may we also thank you
for what we do not have.
May we remember to thank you
for the illnesses we do not have,
for the challenges we do not face,
for the possessions we do not own,
for the poverty we do not experience.
For all we do not own,
we thank you.

We thank you
for our first world issues,
for the things we do not
even realize we have.
For all we have and
all we do not have
we thank you.
Amen.

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Attitude

Cleaning,
filing,
weeding,
grading,
the list of things
I want to say

I don’t like
can be ever growing.

Then I realized
it is about my attitude.
I can look at these things
as chores,
as things I dread doing,
or I can get
a new attitude.

I can see them
as an opportunity,
a time of decluttering,
a time of creating holy space,
a time of creating a sacred space

It is all about our attitude
and how we perceive things.
They can be opportunities or not.
May we be intentional about
approaching things with a new attitude
and give thanks instead of complaining.

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Practice Makes Perfect

Practice makes perfect,
I hear that all the time.
If you keep doing something,
you will eventually master it.

We all have habits we have mastered,
which are unhealthy,
dysfunctional,
and harmful.

What if we practiced habits,
which were spiritual
transformative,
uplifting,
and healing.

What if our spiritual habits
were not practiced
now and then,
but daily

What if we were as
devoted to practicing
our spiritual habits as
the negative ones

So today let’s begin
practicing those practices
which are spiritual,
transformative,
uplifting, and
healing.

Let’s practice them
until we have mastered them
and we feel the protection
which comes from within and
from above.

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Knowing God

If you want to know God,
then serve God.
I think that is what I read.
So how do you serve God?

What if we started by
seeing and serving the God
in others.
What if we begin by seeing
everyone we meet as God?

If I see the Divine in you,
then I see qualities in you
I could not see before.
I get to know you and in doing so
I see the Divine in you and get to know
new things about God

When we open our table
to the excluded,
we come to see how God shows up
and shows out
in the widest diversity of
humanity.

Do you want to know God?
Take the time to know others,
build relationships,
and see how God works in them and
through them.
By knowing others,
you will come to a deeper understanding of God

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Nothing

“Nothing lasts,
nothing is finished,
and nothing is perfect.”
These are three simple realities.
Yet there are things in my life
which have lasted
for decades.
There are things in my life
which move me spiritually.
There are things which
appear perfect, even in
their imperfections.

There is a sense of
everything,
in this nothing.
There is an authenticity
in this nothing.
There is a longing and melancholy
in this nothing.
There feels like something
in this nothing,
but that something is the
essence of nothing.

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Judge Not

Judge not,
lest ye be judged.
Yet we judge all the time.
We judge
people,
places,
things, and
everything else

We fail to see that
everyone and everything
has a purpose
and a place.
What if we sought
the goodness and value
in every person,
place,
and thing?

May we seek
to see the presence
and blessings of the
Ultimate in all.
May we remember
to not judge others
and may we pray that others
not judge us.

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Willing to Embrace

Forgiveness is a gift,
it is about setting us both free.
it is about reaching across
all the divides,
across all the barriers,
across everything that makes us not
want to be willing to embrace.

Being willing to embrace
is not physical,
its about allowing our love
to be unconditional
and transformative.
it’s about being able to
move through all barriers,
defy all the odds,
embracing in the
unconditional love
which lives within us.

Being willing to embrace
is about being resistant
in a world that teaches us to be
mean,
petty,
vindictive
and cruel.

Being willing to embrace
is about opening our hearts
removing all the scabs
all the hard spots we have
allowed to grow
and embracing others
with the same grace,
goodness,
and unconditional love
given to us.

This is not just about embracing others.
It is also about embracing
ourselves.
It is about loving ourselves
unconditionally.
it is about being
willing to embrace
ourselves as God
embraces us.

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