As a child, my cousin Linda and I were close. But after her family moved to Florida, we lost touch for decades, until we reconnected a few years ago. Linda recently contacted me with some bad news. She’s dealing with Stage 4 cancer. And while all of our lives have an expiration date, hers may be approaching faster than anticipated. Like me, Linda’s religious beliefs have strayed from the Catholicism we both grew up with. She now identifies as a... Read more
What will you be doing this Thanksgiving? In my home, we’ll have a glorious turkey dinner with all the fixings, a football game on the TV, and the beer and wine will flow. My wife and I will be with our small extended family, the first time we’ve all been together this year. We’ll kick-off dinner with a short prayer. It’s a family tradition that was first introduced to me by my father who would say grace, or a short... Read more
How do you measure the passage of time? For most of us, the primary way is through the annual observance of birthdays. But birthdays aren’t always the best measuring sticks of how little or how far we’ve progressed in our lives. Age doesn’t measure our level of maturity or our growth as human beings. Some of us bloom late; I didn’t graduate from college until I was twenty-five. My first management position came at the age of thirty-nine. Others find... Read more
This is a version of a story I first published on Patheos several years ago. The 2024 election results have left many people and communities in a deep funk, so it seemed appropriate to repost it now. Now that we’re past the election, how do you feel? I must admit that on the morning of Wednesday, November 6th, I awoke with a case of the blues. (Ironic word, isn’t it?) I’m slowly getting past it, and preparing how to cope... Read more
Last week I wrote about witches. This week, I’m going to take a look at their second cousins, shamans. Witches and shamans share some similarities, like a belief in the power of nature and the ability to communicate with spirits. But there are also differences. In the book Shamans Through Time: 500 Years on the Path of Knowledge, editor Jeremy Narby features the first-hand accounts of over sixty anthropologists who have studied and lived with shamans from around the world.... Read more
Witches get a bad rap. Sure, everyone loves witches around Halloween but by Thanksgiving they’ve worn out their welcome—and are again seen by many as inherently evil. They are people (or more specifically, women) to be feared. It’s a stereotype that’s rooted in centuries of misinformation, superstition, and just plain stupidity. The truth: For centuries, “witches” were often viewed as healers within their communities. As Google Gemini explains, “Witches were often women who possessed knowledge of herbal remedies, midwifery, and... Read more
Do you ever find yourself disconnected from life, more concerned with your to-do list or personal issues than the people and environment around you? Or perhaps you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through your smartphone just a little too often, tuning out the real world in the process. There’s a spiritual practice for that or make that six. Think of them as ways to wake up your consciousness and stay better connected to the world around you. I stumbled upon them while reading... Read more
Willie Nelson turned 91 years of age earlier this year. And you might not be surprised to learn he’s on the road again, with three shows scheduled in Texas later this month. Willie was a member of one of my late father-in-law’s all-time favorite groups, The Highwaymen. With other group members Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and now Kris Kristofferson no longer with us, Willie is literally the last (Highway)man standing. Almost 20 years ago, when he was a young man... Read more
In her latest book Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground, Mirabai Starr seeks to demystify mysticism and invites us to make it a part of our everyday spiritual lives. Which may have you wondering: What is a mystic? Mirabai defines it in a number of tantalizing ways: A mystic is someone who skips over the intermediaries (ordained clergy, prescribed prayers, rigid belief systems) and goes straight to God. To be an ordinary mystic is to lead with love, to... Read more
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength. ~Corrie Ten Boom How often do you find yourself worrying about something? Daily? Well, if you just answered yes, know that you’re not alone. A recent Gallup Poll showed that 55% of Americans feel stressed or worried on any given day. And as the quote at the top of the page illustrates, worrying is not a good thing. It can keep us from being fully present... Read more
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