Being smitten by a path, a direction, an intuited possibility, no matter the territory it crosses, we can feel as if life has found us at last... Following this path through increasing levels of seriousness, we reach a certain threshold where our freedom to choose seems to disappear and is replaced by an understanding that we were made for the world in a very particular way and that this way of being is at bottom nonnegotiable. Like the mountain or the sky, it just is. It is

"These days, we do not have a very good relationship with Creation, do we?" Pope Francis Reading these words was a challenge to my very core. My first thought focused on the concept of ‘relationship’. The Christian book of Genesis gives man dominion over all of creation. I have been in many discussions about this scripture. Most gave rise to the notion that as mankind, we have authority or control of this resource called creation. That concept has never rested well

Yes! Emphatically! I agree it is hard to sell the concept of less in our culture. I find it even more difficult to buy this concept in my personal culture. I would much rather discuss the culture at large, thus refusing to look inside and determine how to live my life with less. This is especially true at this specific time in my life. You see I recently retired. So I am hearing from many people tell me that it is now time to lay back, enjoy the good life. After all, I

Faith gets a bad Rap. Most people talk about faith as the absence offear, but I disagree. I have faith, and I get scared. It’s just that I know fear is not life-giving, and faith is. I move in spite of fear these days, and it’s made all the difference in the quality of my life. This is what faith delivered this week, to let me know life was giving to me. And really, that’s all I need to know anyway. Life sustains me. And I pay attention to it. Most people talk about faith

Grover: "There's a Monster at the end of this book." Yup! Loveable, furry little Grover the muppet has challenged my recovery. I hope you have read this little thesis on strength and courage. It is about my friend Grover who is afraid of the monster at the end of the book. He takes great pains to tie up, board up, and brick up the pages so that the reader cannot turn the page. Each turn of the page takes us closer to the monster at the end of the book. Obviously, the

I’ve followed Heather King’s writing for years, because she’s real, and brilliant. She’s also devoted to the mystery, and my heart swells when she speaks. She’s in love with God, and it shows. In her book trailer for STRIPPED, Cancer, Culture and the Cloud of Unknowing, she spoke of some deep questions that arose for her in the wake of a cancer diagnosis. She talks about the trouble she had with the war metaphor as a way to treat disease; I don’t like that either. Heathe

"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time." Mindy Schinnerer The woman who spoke these words is blind. she spoke them as she entered her room in the nursing home for the first time. Her husband had recently passed away and she needed care. She stated that her happiness had nothing to do with the arrangement of the furniture or the window treatments. She had made up her mind about her happiness long before her admission to the nursing home. She said that she

"In gratitude to the women I'm blessed to sponsor." My friend Ron Starbuck of Saint Julian Press posted this gorgeous photograph on my Facebook timeline this morning. Transformation, in all of its mystery and magnificence. Several women I love have had losses recently, and I’ve been witness to their pain and turning. They too, are held in some mysterious form, fragile in their shedding, but strong in their becoming. That’s how I see them anyway, because I know what to loo

"If you want to end darkness, you cannot beat it with a baseball bat. You have to turn on the light." Maianne Williamson: A Return to Love My first reading of this statement made me strike my head with the palm of my hand and say "DUH!" Why do I make life so complicated? My addictive nature drives me to rationalize, blame, over think, compare an overwise easy decision. However, I am reminded of a Y!2SR premise that 'easy does not mean simple'. Our yoga postures off

“I wish all the world worshipped silence……” MaryAnn Fry When I read these words from MaryAnn a couple weeks back, I wanted to shout it to the world. Not exactly a quiet response to such a statement, but very much my response. Now, I’ll take a deep breath and contemplate this thought. I have spent most of my life in fear of silence, primarily because I was unable to achieve silence. The world of addiction does not lend itself to a silent mind. As addicts, we commonly