Discerning Our Story in the Stillness There is power in our stories; the stories we live, the stories which shape us, the stories we are discovering. It takes us all our lives to discern our stories. There are pieces of our stories we were told when we were small children and pieces we learned in school. Some parts of our stories are hidden, buried under layers of distractions and debris. Parts of our story may be beyond our wildest imaginings.... Read more
After a Week Like That We Need a Sabbath Its feels like our last week was at least a month long. Each day was filled with significant things to attract our attention. The Super Bowl, with its commercials and halftime show, was less than a week ago. Then there were the Iowa Caucuses, at least the beginnings, and the State of the Union Address. The vote on impeachment and the National Prayer Breakfast, and Kirk Douglas died. It has been... Read more
The Stillness When Our Shouting Ends We live in a time filled with shouting. Some of us shout in person while others of us do our shouting online. Our passions inflate our calm, reasonable discussions into shouting matches. We shout because we are trying to get so many words in as quickly as we can and because we are afraid we will be interrupted. Some of us shout when we are not convinced other people are listening. If we can... Read more
Stepping Into Our Own Shadow Groundhog Day is one of my favorite traditions. My understanding is it is all about when a groundhog wakes up from hibernating early in February. If the groundhog sees its shadow it will retreat back into its burrow and winter will persist for another six weeks. When a groundhog cannot see its shadow it is a sign spring will arrive in only another month and a half. The weather is usually colder when the sky... Read more
Uninspired and Waiting for Inspiration Some days are like a balloon which is losing its air. We feel tired or discouraged, frustrated or sad, or simply uninspired. It is too much effort to take our next step forward. Why would we continue? What is the point? Is there a reason for us to get out of bed in the morning, or to write another word? We feel like we are dragging ourselves along. It is too much work to open... Read more
Stillness Full of Frozen Words I was born and raised in a place where January was invariably a frozen time. The air was so cold our breath would condense and freeze as we exhaled. It was difficult to breathe in because of the air temperature. Now I live in a place where people do not believe the stories I tell of the frozen words in January when I was a child. I remember the last time I visited the place... Read more
Fitting All Our Pieces Together It is easy for specific details to entangle us. Many of us enjoy the feeling of learning everything we can about one or two things in particular. We like to examine each individual aspect of a subject or every part of a single question. Some of us are working to develop a new practice. We started trying to make a discreet change in our lives this month. If we choose our goals wisely we believe... Read more
“Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.” Carl Sandburg Peeling One Layer at a Time We sit, listening to sacred stillness, sometime with other people and sometimes on our own. People describe what happens when we listen to sacred stillness in different ways. Some of us talk about the calm and peace we find in stillness. We know people who... Read more
What is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day All About? It is easy for us to confuse what Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and this weekend are about. Some of us think this weekend is about football playoff games or college basketball. Many of us are just grateful for an extra day off from work this weekend. I know people who seem to think the name Martin Luther King, Jr. is too long for a holiday. People talk about MLK Day.... Read more
Reflecting in the Stillness Between Words “The white spaces between words are more important that the text because they give you time to think about what you’ve read.” — Fred Rogers Some of us have resolved to read more this year. I read several different kinds of books. Some books I read as quickly as I can, while others I read slowly. Some books are for breaking open and reading while they are still warm, like freshly baked bread. I... Read more
Strategic Monk
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