Epiphany Opens Our Eyes Sometimes it seems like spiritual life is all about waiting and hoping for when an epiphany opens our eyes. We believe contemplative practices help us get out of our own way and hear the wisdom of spiritual life. As we take time to breathe deeply and listen to sacred stillness we allow ourselves to hear deep truths. Some of us are convinced spiritual life is all about thinking. We read and research and try to reason... Read more
The Week at the End of Another Year This is it. The week at the end of another year. A year shaped by climate change, war, inflation, and disease. Some of us are still stretching to try to reach goals we set for ourselves this year. We may be fooling ourselves or we may have just enough left in us to complete a few more tasks. In a few days we will reach the end of another year. Some of... Read more
Happy Contemplative Birthday to You Tomorrow is my birthday. Yes, three days before Christmas. The winter solstice has had special meaning for me my entire life, shaping me since the day I was born. My birthday is the first day of winter, the day with the longest night of the year. My perceptions and memories grow out of my own inner life more than they are the product of what happens to me. I do not remember the day I... Read more
Christmas Book Flood A few years ago I read about a Christmas practice in Iceland called Jolabokaflod, or Christmas book flood. Iceland separated from Denmark in 1918 and did not become a fully autonomous republic until 1944. During the Great Depression Iceland enacted an intricate system of import restrictions. Many of those policies continued even after the Second World War. High inflation and strict rationing made it challenging for people in Iceland to buy most imported goods. The one imported... Read more
Following the Example of Ebenezer Scrooge For some reason, Ebenezer Scrooge has been on my mind lately. It could be because we have been inundated with versions of A Christmas Carol this month. Whether in writing or on film, the story captures our attention and our emotions. A movie called The Man Who Invented Christmas describes how Charles Dickens sparked Victorian holiday celebrations. Many of the practices in his story have become our familiar holiday traditions. We feel nostalgia for... Read more
Desolation and Consolation It is easy for us to see ourselves living in a world swinging between desolation and consolation, between despair and comfort. Our dreams and expectations seem to have evaporated. We experience frustrations and disappointments and we remember the pain of each one. Everything we believed was dependable and certain slips through our fingers like dust. People we love are threatened by diseases we had never heard of a month or two ago. Entire countries disappear from the... Read more
Is Enjoying Life a Spiritual Practice? Many of us are convinced spiritual life is extremely serious. Could enjoying life be a spiritual practice? We push ourselves to work hard on spiritual life and we believe we are doing serious work. Some of us describe what we do with words which sound serious, like theology or hermeneutics. Our understanding of spiritual life involves challenging thought about complicated ideas and concepts. We give ourselves headaches trying to analyze and understand deep spiritual... Read more
Reading and Reflecting in 2024 A healthy practice of reading is more than simply loving to read. Today can be our first step into reading and reflecting in 2024. I have loved to read since I learned how to do it. It teaches me about the magic and power of words. Developing contemplative life strengthens our love for reading and reflection. It is ironic how appreciating contemplation and stillness feeds the ways we value words. Our practice of reading and... Read more
Listening on the Final Morning of November There were times this year when we were not sure we would make it to the final morning of November. This year has threatened to overwhelm many of us. We have pushed through, over, and around obstacles this year. Some of us have survived the loss of people we love. Many of us have persisted in the face of losing dreams we worked hard to try to fulfill. We may have lost jobs... Read more
Wrapping Ourselves in Darkness The daylight hours are growing shorter where I live. It is as if we spend October and November wrapping ourselves in darkness, preparing for the shorter days and longer nights which are coming. 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... Read more
Strategic Monk
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