The soul is a mysterious, hidden, innate part of ourselves that persists in quietly promoting an alternative way of living to us, one that focuses on congruency, integrity, purposefulness and meaning. It calls us to live out our deepest longings and creativity. For us to listen to the yearnings of the soul is like […]

This weekend in the country the quiet outside echoed the quiet inside me where it didn’t matter at all if I was reading or semi-napping or playing solitaire on my phone or cleaning up after myself and our retreat this weekend. I was really at peace with myself, with time, with undone things, knowing deep […]

Just imagine that we are born wearing a clear set of glasses, that at birth we could see clearly ourselves in this whole new world and among the people in it. As we gain experience of the world and the people close to us, as we begin to trust that our needs will be met, […]

       It takes time to live into a God-centered life, in my case many years.  I started with some pretty good raw material—being tied to God no matter what I did, but much of my attachment to God was from the Hell-Fire-and-Damnation church of my childhood. There was so much to learn and even more […]

       I probably missed the lessons on generosity in my family. As a child and a younger adult I was too concerned about my own needs to see those of another, or to give more than the minimum. My father and mother certainly gave a lot to our churches. In my early years I can […]

Extend your hospitality to all people, all kinds. Welcome them as if they were your best friend, a beloved member of your family. Think of the Parable of the Prodigal Son[1] and the sayings of Jesus about how God sends his sun to shine on the evil and the good and his rain to fall […]

How do you get into the water? Dive in? Wade in until you’re ready to get all wet and then plunge? Stand at the edge and let the water lap up to your ankles? There are many different ways to test the waters. The issue with water is do you actually get in and swim? […]

“This life therefore, is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it;  the process is not finished but is going on; this is not the end but it is the road. All does not gleam […]

An iceberg calves from the great glaciers of Greenland. That chunk breaks off from the glacier, and plops into the North Atlantic Ocean where it may last for over a year depending on whether the currents take it north or west or south. The iceberg brings with its frozen self some 5,000 years of debris […]

Inside my house I can only hear the train whistle(from across town) or the church bells(from a ½ mile away) in the wee or early hours of the morning. I live pretty close to uptown Charlotte NC, but unless the traffic noise is nonexistent, I can’t hear these signals. The train whistle calls me to […]