The official day of “thanks” is now upon us and there’s no better time to add a prayer to your spiritual practice that can benefit you each and every day of the year. I call it the Prayer of Thanks and use it each morning to get my day off to the best possible start. For all its simplicity, the Prayer of Thanks is the most important and powerful prayer I know. There are a few variations of the prayer, but... Read more
I just returned from a vacation in Key West and as a friend of mine once remarked, I felt totally relaxed the moment my feet hit the tarmac at the airport. There’s just something in the air there. Whatever worries or concerns you had when you left your city of origin seem to dissipate like the morning fog upon your arrival. It got me wondering: Is it possible to enjoy the same type of tranquility in everyday life? How do... Read more
Are you serious about your spirituality? Would you belong to a church or religion if you could just find one that wasn’t tied to stale traditions and dogma or an out-of-touch holy book? It may be time to start your own spiritual practice. If you classify yourself as “spiritual but not religious”, you may have also found there’s a void in your life. You have a spiritual or religious yearning that goes unfulfilled. You may have even tried to satisfy... Read more
You’re invited to join a church that’s unlike any other. It doesn’t have a set of rituals, a holy book or even a physical address. It has no hierarchy either, because each congregation consists of only one member: You. I’m calling it the Church of Everyday Life. I got the idea from the late businessman and philosopher John Templeton who has guided much of my thinking (as has Thomas Moore) on what it means to be a spiritual but not religious... Read more
We all live day to day completely oblivious to the fact that we’re a part of a much larger and stranger reality than we can possibly imagine. ~Blake Crouch There’s a thin veil that separates us from the world beyond and sometimes there’s a tear in that veil that shows us…something strange. And nowhere is this truer than in the incident known as The Miracle of Fatima. In his book Dimensions, Jacques Vallee, the famed scientist featured in Steven Spielberg’s... Read more
Have you ever had a premonition? It’s the feeling that something good or bad is about to happen to you, often with specific details, that’s often so strong you just can’t shake it. In The Power of Premonitions by Larry Dossey, the author describes them this way: A premonition is literally a forewarning. It is a glimpse of the future, a feeling or sense that something is about to happen. They can warn us of something unpleasant, such as imminent danger... Read more
Each morning, I say the prayer of gratitude. Along with my early morning run, it’s one of the most important things I do all day. I give thanks for all the good things in my life—my family, my health, my home, the new day, and whatever new person or event that has come into my life. But there’s another prayer I’ve recently added to the mix and I think it’s equally important. In the title I’ve referred to it as... Read more
Earlier this year, Thomas Moore published The Book of Matthew: A New Translation with Commentary in which, as the title indicates, he reinterpreted one of the four Gospels. His aim was to make Matthew more accessible to the modern reader, improving “the flow” and using new words for a few key terms that he believed were misunderstood. Moore was more than up to the task. He has Masters degrees in both religion and philosophy. And while he may be best... Read more
There’s a regular column in the New York Times called “The Sunday Routine” which details how a variety of City dwellers spends their Sundays. It’s usually a pretty good read, especially a couple of weeks ago when it featured the routine of one Koshin Paley Ellison. Koshin is a monk and Zen teacher, and also the co-founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. It’s a nonprofit that offers training for people who provide end-of-life care and, in... Read more
It has been just over two years since the actor and comedian Robin Williams passed away and his death still haunts. How could someone with so much to offer his family, friends and the world at large take their own life? After his death, an autopsy report showed that he had Lewy body disease, a newly recognized disorder similar to Parkinson’s, which can cause dementia and, if not treated properly, bizarre hallucinations. It was also well known that Williams battled... Read more
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