Did the spiritual beliefs of nine Indonesian fishermen influence their decision to abandon ship during a violent storm? In Save Our Souls: The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder, Matthew Pearl details the true story of a family shipwrecked with their crew in the Midway Atoll, also known as the Midway Islands. An intriguing part of the tale is that over the centuries hundreds of ships have wrecked or vanished in the Midways’ treacherous waters. Pearl mentions... Read more
My mother-in-law resides in an assisted living facility. While her body is in relatively good shape, her brain has begun to fade. By 7pm, she cannot remember what she had for dinner at 5. Common words like porch, TV remote, and even her constant companion, walker, have begun to elude her. Still, she is better shape than many of her fellow residents. Some are confined to wheelchairs. Others have lost the ability, or the desire, to speak altogether. As I’m... Read more
What if there were a few simple daily actions you could take to improve your life—activities that got your mornings off to a fresh start, kept you focused and centered during the day, and helped you go to bed each night on a positive note? While I’ve written about daily rituals before, it’s a topic worth revisiting because too often we get stuck in a rut. Our lives can sometimes become mechanized to the point we’re just going through the... Read more
The anecdote below appeared in the introduction to my book Wake Up Call: Daily Insights for the Spiritually Curious. It’s now on sale at Amazon. I first heard the voice of God in 1993. Or at least, I believe it was God. I was living in Houston and had just completed a six-mile run in Memorial Park. The weather was overcast and misty and as I walked slowly to cool off, everything around me went quiet. A voice came into... Read more
Our culture doesn’t think storytelling is sacred; we don’t set aside a time of year for it. We don’t hold anything sacred except what organized religion declares to be so. ~Ursula K. Le Guin Have you ever told someone your personal story? Storytelling is important because it’s a fundamental way we connect with our fellow human beings. When we share our human experience with others, or someone shares their experience with us, it helps us recognize our shared humanity. Stories... Read more
Have I lived my life as I should have? When I am close to death, will I have regrets, looking back on the life I lived? What can I do with the rest of my life? These are just a few of the questions posed by Ron Pevny in his book Conscious Living Conscious Aging: Embrace & Savor Your Next Chapter. And if you’re in your mid-50s or older, the time to start answering these questions is now. Pevny, the... Read more
What if death itself is not the end we have thought and assumed? What if who we are—our very consciousness and selfhood—is not annihilated with death? Those are two of the thought-provoking questions posed by Sam Parnia, MD, in the book Lucid Dying: The New Science Revolutionizing How We Understand Life and Death. Parnia, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, is not just spitballing here. His observations are based on the largest research study ever conducted... Read more
“He who is afraid of a thing gives it power over him.” ~Ancient proverb Are you a little freaked out by the news these days? Me too. It’s hard not to be fearful during these scary political and economic times. A quick glimpse of the headlines at any major news site, or a peek at the stock market on any given day, is enough to get your head spinning and your heart sinking. But there’s something you can do about it,... Read more
Let us not spend this holy week brooding on the crucifixion of God’s Son, but happily in the celebration of his release. For Easter is the sign of peace, not pain. ~Helen Schucman, A Course in Miracles While the stories of the resurrection vary from gospel to gospel, one thing’s for certain: The days leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus were a dark time. But as we get closer to Easter, things begin to change. We move beyond the... Read more
If you’ve been spiritually active over the past few decades, you’ve probably heard the word “mindfulness” once or twice—or a few hundred times. But what exactly is mindfulness? As it turns out, it depends on who you ask. Heather Hurlock, the former editor-in-chief of Mindful magazine writing on the website Super Age, points out there are a several definitions out there. Mindfulness is: “The awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” ~Zen practitioner and best-selling... Read more
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