But this year, I wasn\u2019t in the mood. While i loved every minute of our neighborhood gathering and the en masse trick-or-treat brigade, I did not feel like going home to something dark and scary. Maybe it is because i had just tucked a sassy little cowgirl, and an adorable tiny cow, safe and warm into their beds. Maybe it\u2019s because I was tired. But more likely, I think it\u2019s because right now, the world feels scary enough without Pennywise (shudder), or\u00a0Dracula, or Lord Voldemort.<\/p>\n
Maybe it was the perfect \u2018storm\u2019 of Sandy; election week and all the toxic rhetoric that implies; the standard evening news in a major metro area; and the coyotes that sing\u00a0a\u00a0lonely song in my backyard, every night of the world. Whatever the reason, after i put my trick-or-treaters to bed last night, I hit the couch with my spouse and a glass of wine, and I watched Parenthood, <\/em> daggone it. It wasn\u2019t spooky, but I don\u2019t need to be any more spooked right now. I need sanctuary.<\/p>\n Based on the feedback of my readers, I get the impression that this blog is a sanctuary for many. For those who are tired of the political drama, and the tension it is causing in their homes and workplaces; for those whose churches are not places of love and inclusion; for those who do not claim a religious path, but still seek the sacred; and for those whose vocation involves daily service to others, and need a place to be refilled, refueled, and encouraged by like-minded people.<\/p>\n In our Bible study today, we were talking about \u2018thin places.\u2019\u00a0In celtic tradition, these are\u00a0places, experiences, people, words and actions that make us more open and receptive to the Spirit; those places where the distance between us and God seems so very, very small, and we know that we are in the presence of the Holy. In the midst of chaos, confusion, grief, change, uncertainty, and yes, even ugly campaign ads, we can seek a safe place in the presence of the living God.<\/p>\n I hope that this site can offer some of that respite. I also hope\u00a0that you\u00a0have many other\u00a0places, people, and practices that make you feel fully human, and a little bit divine. Stephen King would call it \u201ca thinny,\u201d that place where the boundary between two worlds melts away, and you can easily fall from one realm to the next. I call it just the every day sacred, and I\u2019m thankful for all y\u2019all who seek it with me. Says Thomas Merton:<\/p>\n
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