THANKS-GIVING I grew up in a household where “please” and “thank you” were mandates. I did not, however, grow up learning the importance of gratitude as a consistent practice. While it has become cliché to hear of “the attitude of gratitude” I believe it is far more a practice than an attitude. It is a cultivated state of being. It is, like joy, independent of circumstances. It is a lens and a perspective. The more we practice residing in a grateful state of being the more we see life in thankfulness and appreciation.  My life experience has taught me that I do not know enough to not be grateful. While my desires, preferences, and circumstances are often not to my liking it does not deter me from

WORDS FAIL Another mass shooting has occurred…”  “Twelve people were killed when a shooter opened fire…”  There is a deep ache in my heart today that defies description. It feels somehow exacerbated when I read headlines or hear reports that use the term “another.” That give a statistic that somehow categorizes and yet minimizes the individuals lost and the countless souls that are left to grieve. We try and somehow turn unspeakable tragedy into manageable soundbites.  It truly isn’t that twelve people were killed in another mass shooting. It is that one precious, irreplaceable, unique, and loved person was murdered twelve times.  And this a new kind of norm? Mass destruction and murder as the latest news cycle? More political fodder to feed a left or right

THOSE PEOPLE The road to hell is paved with the notion of those people.  Them.  They.  “What are we going to do with those people?”  It felt as if the words put a vice grip around my heart.  I do not know what you are going to do with those people. I am going to love them.  In the ultimate spiritual sense there truly are no “those.” There is no “they.” No “them.” There is One. There are multiple expressions of the One I Am. My experience of that One is known by how I treat the illusory “those.” In how I open to and welcome “them.” In how I feed those who are hungry. Clothe they who are naked. Shelter the ones who are in danger