Awe is the emotion you feel when you encounter vast mysteries you don’t understand. It is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world. Your individual self gives way to the sense of being part of something much larger. I cobbled together the definition above from the new book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. The author is Dacher Keltner, the faculty... Read more
She’s an American icon. A beloved singer and actress, just the thought of Dolly Parton has the power bring a smile to your face. And if you’ve ever seen her interviewed, you can almost sense there’s a deeply spiritual side to Dolly. While Dolly goes to church, it’s not part of any organized religion, and she doesn’t consider herself religious. There’s a story behind that. As reported by Stephanie Harper on the website Distractify, Dolly “once thought of God as... Read more
She lived in the fourteenth century and spent most of her life cloistered in a small stone cell attached to a church. Her sole companion was a cat. So, what could Julian of Norwich have to teach us today? If you’re interested in mysticism, quite a bit. At the age of 30, while recovering from a serious illness that almost killed her, Julian had a series of visions. She called them “showings” and she believed they were direct communications from... Read more
Was humanity once more connected to God? As time has passed, has God become a lesser part of our collective lives? In the book Christian Meditation, James Finley tells a parable about how we first found God, and how, over time, we became disconnected from God. I’m going to paraphrase it here. A long time ago, a woman felt called to leave her village, the only place she had ever known. She walked along the village’s main road, until she... Read more
I once read a story that asked a singer/performer, I think it was Bonnie Raitt, “What was the best piece of advice you ever received?” Her response consisted of a single word: “Breathe.” The songstress had been given this tip from her father, who had pointed out that when we’re stressed or feeling a little bit tense, we tend to shorten our breath. And at those moments, there’s nothing better we can do to steady ourselves than to take a... Read more
We don’t know when we’re going to die. I’ve made that statement many times over the years, and I write it for myself as well as for you. I make it again after reading a book, and stumbling up an article on CNN.com, that talk not to death itself, but the days leading up to death. You might call them deathbed confessions. In the book Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life, Bill Perkins... Read more
She has given up the keys to her car and now uses a walker to get around—but at 102-years old, Gladys McGarey, MD, is still sharp as a whip. And the pioneering homeopathic doctor has just released a book titled The Well-Lived Life: A 102-year-od Doctor’s Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age. In it, she shares her hard-earned wisdom, and regardless of your age, there’s a lesson or two in it for you. While I won’t go... Read more
The title above is borrowed from a book by the same name, The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz. Though it sold three million copies, you’ve probably never heard of it and for good reason. It was published way back in 1959. The Magic of Thinking Big was part of a wave of self-help books that came out in the middle of the twentieth century with a similar message. Like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and... Read more
“Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” ~Luke 11:1-4 The request above came from one of the disciples of Jesus. They knew that John the Baptist had taught his followers how to pray and felt left out. They wanted some direction from their leader. Jesus responded by reciting the “Lord’s Prayer”: “Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give... Read more
Do you consider yourself “spiritual, but not religious? (Aka SBNR.) If you’re like the majority of Wake Up Call readers, you just answered yes. And if that’s the case, you may have a problem, the same one I encounter from time-to-time. Those of us who have left the world of organized religion, or were never a part of it in the first place, can often have a deep-seeded yearning to connect with something greater than ourselves. You might call it a spiritual itch.... Read more
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