If you’re like me, a lapsed church-goer who still considers themselves spiritual in nature, you may have come to the same conclusion I have: It’s hard to find many insights of real value in the Bible. I’ve written before how many of the lessons Jesus teaches leave me scratching my head, for instance the parable of the fig tree. That’s why I was thrilled when Care of the Soul author Thomas Moore began putting out a series of books on the... Read more
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. ~Dr. Seuss There’s a fascinating story behind Theodor Geisel, who later became known as Dr. Seuss. (And who hasn’t read the great doctor?) I can recall reading Dr. Seuss books in my youth, rediscovering him when my daughter began reading the same strange and whimsical books I enjoyed in my childhood. While most of us are familiar with classics... Read more
Every few years there’s a spirituality book that captures the imagination of the public and becomes a big bestseller. Think The Secret by Rhonda Byrne or A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, or before that, you may remember The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield from the early-90’s or even Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach from the early-70’s. Well, once upon a time there was a spirituality book that was even bigger than those classics. It came out all the... Read more
Are you in a rut? Are you going through life limiting your contacts to the same narrow group of people each day? Are you restricting your activities to the same routine you followed yesterday and all the yesterdays before that? Maybe it’s time to try a different approach. The definition of being in a rut is getting stuck in “a habit or a pattern of behavior that has become dull and unproductive.” And while changing that habit or behavior can... Read more
During his storied life, the religious scholar Huston Smith studied and then practiced virtually all of the world’s religions. But in a tale he tells in his autobiography Tales of Wonder, Zen may have been the most difficult to grasp. Smith studied for a grueling week at a Zen Buddhist monastery in Japan, where during day-and-night meditation sessions, he had to try and decipher koans like “Does a dog have Buddha-nature.” Koans are meant to demonstrate how our normal ways... Read more
In the March, 2017, edition of the AARP Bulletin (yes, I’m a proud card-carrying member of the AARP), there’s an article titled “50 Great Ways to Live Longer”. The list includes obvious activities like getting 6 to 8 hours of sleep a night, staying hydrated and eating your veggies, as well as more surprising actions like taking vitamin D regularly and drinking three to five cups of coffee a day. What interested me most though were 5 activities that... Read more
Have you heard the new podcast “Missing Richard Simmons”? It’s the most popular podcast in the U.S. and my family and I are hooked. It tells the story of how the legendary fitness guru mysteriously dropped out of sight three years ago and investigates what might have happened to him. The podcast also tells the story of Simmons’ life—and when you hear it, you can’t help but admire him. For over 40 years, Simmons was single-handedly responsible for bringing fitness... Read more
Why struggle to open a door between us when the whole wall is an illusion. – Rumi I recently published Thaddeus Squirrel, a Spiritual Fable, and within the book is a story within the story. It’s about a wall. Walls are powerful symbols, sometimes in a literal sense. Years ago, U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously asked that the wall that separated two countries be torn down. Our current president wants to build a big wall to separate us from our... Read more
What are we supposed to accomplish during this lifetime? It goes without saying that we need to love and support our families in every way possible, but that’s just the baseline. Once we have that box checked, what’s next? I would argue that the next most important thing we can do has nothing to do with getting ahead in business or achieving a self-centered personal goal. It has to do with spreading love to those around us, outside of our... Read more
Kabbalah is the ancient Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Bible. It has been said it can take decades to study and truly comprehend Kabbalah’s lessons. Fortunately, I found a short cut. The author and religious scholar Daniel C. Matt studied Kabbalah for decades and condensed his knowledge into an easy-to-read book titled The Essential Kabbalah. Matt points out that the word kabbalah means “receiving” or “that which has been received.” And while it refers to knowledge being received through... Read more
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