Sitting in Darkness Remembering Our Mistakes Some nights I get out of bed to sit in darkness. What was it like before we learned about electricity, when our only light was from the sun or from a flame? Now we are surrounded by bright light, light which overwhelms the light of the stars in the night sky. We obliterate the dark with lamps, headlights, flashlights, and the glow of so many screens. It is hard for us to even imagine... Read more
Cinema Divina One of the first contemplative practices I learned from monastic life is lectio divina, or sacred reading. Lectio divina is an approach to reading with different priorities than the ways we usually read. When we read a news story or a textbook, or even a blog post, we usually read seeking information. We often read sacred texts seeking to be formed more than to be informed. Many monks believe we read sacred texts to find meaning beneath the... Read more
Stillness on a January Morning There is nothing quite like the stillness first thing on a January morning. People, and cities, are just beginning to wake up and wipe the sleep from their eyes. Our first cup of coffee tastes the best and the air is fresher. There is not as much traffic on the streets or on the sidewalks. Walking is easier. Aromas of breakfast begins to fill the air. Our second cup is almost as good. Each morning... Read more
Why Do We Practice Prayer? Practicing prayer is coming across my screen a lot this year. People ask for us to pray for them or someone they know on social media. We pray for people who are ill or injured, people who experience tragedy or loss. Some of us pray for relief from the fires in Australia or for people affected by violence. Many of us are praying for peace in the Middle East and the rest of the world.... Read more
Are We Ready to Become Beginners Again? There are no tricks and no short cuts. . . . One cannot begin to face the real difficulties of . . . life . . . unless one is first perfectly content to be a beginner and really experience oneself as one who knows little or nothing, and has a desperate need to learn the bare rudiments. Those who think they “know” from the beginning never, in fact, come to know anything.... Read more
On the Fourth Day of Christmas I know people who are happy and relieved because Christmas is finally over. They no longer need to struggle to survive all that advertising. The weeks of stress and pressure are in the past. It is no longer a challenge to try to remember everything and everyone. All the extra organizing and effort is behind them for another year. These people are surprised, and not pleasantly, when I tell them Christmas has just begun... Read more
Stillness on the Night Before Christmas “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through through house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse” Tonight is the night before Christmas, Christmas Eve. It is our opportunity to sit still before tomorrow after being inundated by advertising for month. Stillness is difficult to find for some of us today. We still have long lists of things we have... Read more
It Is Better to Light One Candle Than to Curse the Darkness We, where I live, are now in the darkest weekend of our year. These two days have the shortest period of daylight since the same dates last year. Some of us struggle against this natural gathering of darkness. We fill our lives with as much artificial light as we can find. If we refuse to accept the darkening days, we tell ourselves, everything will be fine. It is... Read more
As we enter more deeply into this season which inspires us to love well, I am excited to share with you a new TED talk I recently watched. Although we may think about love only in the context of our personal lives, in this talk Matt Tenney talks about why great leaders make love their top priority. Matt’s talk is only 9 minutes long, and this such an important topic, so I asked Matt a few questions to help us... Read more
The Stillness of a Silent Night We sit still, breathing deeply, calming down, listening to the stillness of a silent night. It is easy for us to forget stillness is at the heart of our holidays. We glance at our calendars and see we have only eight more days to get everything ready. Shopping and parties and expectations already fill our days. Some of us stay up late into the night preparing for “the best Christmas ever.” We are busy... Read more
Strategic Monk
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