It doesn’t really matter what you celebrate Season of light, illumine the night Fill our hearts full, keep our hope bright We will call on our common name For we know in our hearts we’re the same  Season of Light  Because many traditions have major celebrations during this time of year, it is often called the Season of Light. The opening lyrics of Season Of Light composed by Jill Rose touch me deeply. Perhaps deep down, we really do... Read more

Patheos bloggers are offered the opportunity to read and review news books form time to time. A Season of Mystery by Paula Huston caught my eye because its subject matter is spiritual practice for the second half of life. Since I teach spiritual practice and am in life’s second half, I was curious. The book is written from a decidedly traditional Christian perspective. This is evidenced by Huston’s introduction where she suggests that getting old is about preparing for the... Read more

Thanksgiving in the US is a time when people focus especially on gratitude. The subject and practice of gratitude is Brother David Steindl-Rast's message. In this post I talk about Br. David, who I admire very much, and finish with a gratitude practice you can use all the time. Read more

This week I’m working on the content of a January retreat day I’m doing for the Marin Interfaith Council. It’s my pleasure to be co-leading the retreat with Marilyn Mandela Schlitz, president of the Institute of Noetic Science. We’ll be talking about transformation, a subject IONS has studied for 35 years. Interestingly, I’ve been exploring the topic for about the same number of years and IONS has been a wonderful resource for that exploration. Key to the topic of transformation... Read more

In this chaotic world, how do stay hopeful about the future and more importantly, give our children hope? Read more

As a certified Spiritual Intelligence coach, I talk about the first of the 21 competencies, understanding one's own worldview. Read more

Why Practice is the topic of this post. In it I talk about how the practices that have long been a part of my life supported me during the last eight months. I write it in celebration that my brother, who was diagnosed with leukemia eight months ago. On Oct. 3 he comes home with new, healthy stem cells after a successful bone marrow transplant. Read more

Got Drama? introduces the Spiritual Intelligence Assessment created by Cindy Wigglesworth whose new book, SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence, is coming out in October. Barbara is certified to administer and interpret the assessment. Her upcoming virtual workshop, Discover Your Unique Spiritual Intelligence, is outlined as well. Read more

Reviewing Dr. Mary Neal's book To Heaven and Back, this post addresses the interpretative lenses through which her experience is described. A Hindu, and the writer of this post for that matter, would not describe the experience in the same way! Read more

Sam Harris' defense of the word spiritual prompts me to write about Ken Wilber's pre/trans fallacy. It's another look at how atheists' criticism of all things spiritual is really a shot at one particular level of development's theological perspective. Read more