Holding On by Letting Go There is an assumption back in the depths of our minds. For many of us it just stands to reason spiritual life exists to make our lives better. We tend to equate “better” with “easier.” Spiritual life, it seems to us, has this element of good things happening to good people. The more we strive to be good people the more blessings we ought to receive. It just seems fair. If people more attuned to... Read more
Monastic Leadership Creation I appreciate working with creative people, even when I might not be enjoying it. My style combines being creative and being practical, fairly down to earth. One person with whom I was working told me it was not fair to expect an artist to meet deadlines. He said it was not right to believe artists would do what they committed themselves to do. I decided he was right, so I stopped working with him. For me, creativity exists within a relationship. We... Read more
Spring Cleaning We tend to accumulate stuff. There are seasonally-specific things we only use once a year. Whenever we realize we want to use something we need to remember where we put it last year. Organized people tell us it is helpful to clear out everything at least once a year. They suggest we clear out all the stuff from all our cupboards and closets. Do we really want to keep this? Is this something we actually need or something we acquired... Read more
Workaholic I have an unhealthy relationship to work. For as long as I can remember, my connection to work had been all or nothing. There is nothing quite like the sense of working really well on something I think is important. It is like a drug, or alcohol, or sex, or food, or anything else that can be addictive. Part of my work addiction is that I wanted to be perfect. I expected to be the person who would do what it took... Read more
Past, Present, and Future Many people see monks as historical figures, people out of the past. There is something decidedly Medieval about monks and monasteries. Whether it is wearing habits or the sound of chanting, going to a monastery can feel like a step back in time. Part of it is monastic life stretching back in an unbroken line for hundreds of years. There is a timeless quality to life in a monastery which seems to defy change. People have been following... Read more
Complicated Lives We experience our lives as extremely complicated and getting more so every day. Connected to people and places around the globe, some of us are nostalgic for simpler times. We remember when truths were obvious and when we knew what we believed. Many of us long for someone to take us home, to lead us back and make us great again. The complexity of our lives makes us feel confused and afraid. We feel like we do not have time to really understand... Read more
Is Church Just for Old People? Churches often seem to be a lot like museums. Some people wear robes at church, apparently because people wore them a long time ago. We use music which was written a long time ago and repeat old words like they were magic. Even church buildings seem to be old, filled with dark corners and old stained glass. Questions about why things are the way they are usually are answered “We have always done it that... Read more
Are We Friends With Ourselves? We have people live in constrained cells and limit the time they can spend outside them. They have plenty of time to reflect on what they have done, their regrets and memories. We allow them to read and think, but limit how they interact with other people. People spend long periods of time in silence with limited physical exercise. We meet their basic physical needs and try to remove as many distractions as possible. Nothing in that paragraph indicates whether... Read more
We do not like to feel constrained. Straining against what holds us back, what stops us, we push as hard as we can. As much as we might fight and struggle, we often find ourselves feeling stuck. Where is the freedom we have been promised? We thought spiritual life was about being free, going beyond what constrains us. What holds us back? Looking for the Freedom of Spiritual Life Spiritual life draws us in, invites us to understand life in... Read more
The Spiritual Life of Earth Everything we, and everyone we know, has ever tasted or smelled came from the Earth. Every vehicle, every computer, and every phone ever made was made of part of the Earth. Our own bodies are made of the Earth, and to the Earth they shall return. We depend on the planet’s air, water, and other resources to stay alive. Everything we have ever discarded remains on the Earth. The Earth is our home planet. We were born... Read more
Strategic Monk
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In