We Follow Leaders Who Inspire Us Leadership is not a skill we can learn by reading about it or studying it. Our leadership is a practice we develop by following the example of leaders who inspire us. We may be fortunate enough to actually know the leaders who inspire us. Some of us have the opportunity to meet and have conversations with them. There are leaders who inspire us by what they write, even when they lived long before we... Read more
When Stillness Seems Reluctant to Talk Listening to sacred stillness is not always the most comfortable way to spend our time. There are days when sacred stillness just seems reluctant to talk. We can feel like we are looking out the window on a foggy, overcast day. Even familiar landmarks are difficult to see in the gloom. It is like those mornings when we wake up before the sun and cannot get back to sleep. We may toss and turn... Read more
Independence, Codependency, Interdependence? We value independence. It is something we demonstrate, fight to defend, and are proud to express. When we say something or someone is independent we mean they support themselves. There is a sense in which being independent means we can take care of ourselves. We often think of being independent as an aspect of becoming an adult. The country where I was born sets aside an entire day to celebrate independence. We began with a declaration of... Read more
What Do Real Leaders Actually Do? I have worked in places where we began to wonder what real leaders actually do. In our experience, leaders said a few words to get people started, then disappear into meetings all day. Sometimes leaders disappear into offices, which can be even worse than meetings. We had a vague, general idea leaders are concerned with budgets and productivity. They did not, though, seem to want to hear our ideas about either of them. Leaders... Read more
How We Recognize What is Sacred We live in a world where there is a clear distinction between what is sacred and what is not. What is sacred is separate from the everyday. We have a harder and harder time finding anything which people still recognize as sacred. It is more and more challenging for us to spend time experiencing what is sacred. How do we even recognize what is sacred? Some of us say we regularly practice listening to... Read more
When Spiritual Life Feels Broken I believe spiritual practices can be windows into spiritual life. We practice disciplines which help open us to deeper truths within ourselves and in the world around us. People ask me for help when they feel disciplines they practice may not be not working. They want to know if they are doing something wrong. Spiritual life feels broken. It is as if we want to turn a practice in for a newer model, or update... Read more
My Summer Vocation Today is the first day of summer in my hemisphere, the day with the longest sunlight this year. Three months from today we will look back and tell the story of what we did on our summer vocation. For many people, our vocation is what we do for a living, our job. We think of vocational schools or vocational assessments. People who see vocation this way might set summer goals and review in a few months to... Read more
We Leave Our Distractions Behind Can we leave our distractions behind? Our lives are filled with bright, shiny objects diverting us from where we say we want to go. We set out to explore and discover our true selves but then change course along the way. All our good intentions do not seem to help us stay on the path we have chosen. Just when we commit ourselves to living heathy lives we notice a new place which offers great... Read more
What are Our Metaphors for Spiritual Life? Do you have any chosen metaphors for spiritual life? Spiritual life is, by its very nature, beyond our ability to understand it. Does anyone truly grasp and appreciate all the complexities and concepts of spiritual life? Each of us relies on our own metaphors to help us recognize the spiritual life within us. Some of us see spiritual life as a crutch or a thermometer for taking our spiritual temperature. Other people approach... Read more
Discover Lights in the Darkness We sit in the dark, unable to sleep, early in the morning or late at night, listening to sacred stillness. Even during the longest days of summer, we close our eyes and darkness surrounds us. Listening, we discover lights in the darkness. Around us the world is asleep. The darkness makes us nervous. We may not be afraid of monsters under the bed, the way we did when we were children. Still, we feel vulnerable... Read more
Strategic Monk
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