WHAT WANTS TO GIVE? I have long loved the feeling of possibility that comes during the transition between two calendar years. I have shared before regarding the energetic trajectory that is accelerated when many people are focused on intentions, goals, and resolutions. The critical mass consciousness is amped up for around 21 days surrounding the new year. It is palpable to me. I sense it, I feel it, and I personally choose to join in it. The transition into the opening days of 2019 is no exception. While I am finding it to be a bit more chaotic than in years past, the sense of increasing potentiality is unmistakable. I find myself with equal parts of excitement and uncertainty. I am very clear about what I am

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

I DON'T KNOW As I continue to accumulate years upon this planet I truly feel like the only thing I know is that I know less and less. Maybe it’s really that I feel I need to know less and less. When I was growing up I came to believe that knowing meant surviving. Uncertainty left me feeling vulnerable and incapable of control. If I believed you knew something that I didn’t you had an edge. I gave you authority. Knowing meant dominion. Knowledge equaled power. So, I went in search of knowledge at any cost. It was currency. It was power. It was control. And it was a complete illusion. Today I absolutely love to learn new things and to explore new ideas. I savor knowledge

SUDDENLY ROGER “It was sudden. He never knew what happened.” Sudden death is such an intriguing term to me. Isn’t death always sudden? It certainly is immediate. I guess we term it that when someone passes without a journey through disease or as an effect or result of a prolonged process. It is sudden in that one moment a person is alive and responsive and the next they have left the human experience with no notice of an imminent departure. My friend Roger died suddenly. One moment he was here, and then suddenly he was not. He put on his shoes and he went outside to do we do not know what. He went outside by himself, and with no notice or fanfare he suddenly left the

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS So, I begin to type these words on the twenty-fifth annual Unity World Day of Prayer. Some of you who receive these blog posts are connected to Unity and some of you are not. It isn’t particularly germane to what I feel called to say. Most people familiar with Unity think of it as an international group of churches and centers. That is accurate at the level of form. Our headquarters is a beautiful campus just outside of Lee’s Summit, Missouri. The campus highlight is the several story high Unity Prayer Tower. It is the home of Silent Unity, which is for me the heart of what Unity is all about. And that brings me to what I feel called to say. Prayer has

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT Please remember that the scarecrow was the smartest of them all. Please remember that the tinman felt and cried the most. Please remember that when push came to shove it was the lion who exhibited the most courage. Please remember that Dorothy never left her bed. Please remember that the entire odyssey was a dream that was meant to awaken personal empowerment. The scarecrow already had a brain. The tinman already had a heart. The lion already had courage. Dorothy was already at home. She already had the power within herself to recognize that fact. The power wasn’t in the shoes. The power was in her heart. In her wisdom. In her courage to embody it. She went through that entire dream just to

THIS DAY I am beginning to type these words at exactly 3:01 p.m. EST on Saturday, August 25, 2018. I do so mindful that this is the only August 25, 2018 in all of human history. I am also mindful that many people that were upon this planet when those digits ticked into place have are no longer alive. For all those who loved them this is now a significant date in a way that can only be felt in the very depths of the heart. There have also been births this August 25th, and for them and those around them there will be celebrations of this event until said individuals meet their own day of departure. And then another date of significance will mark someone’s heart

QUIET ENOUGH TO HEAR One of my most favorite definitions of prayer I have adapted thus: Being quiet enough to hear God saying nice things about you. Being quiet enough to hear God saying nice things about me. Wow. So as I am willing to let go of all the theological language, the thee’s and the thou’s and the rote prayers of the ages…as I am willing to stop talking at some far off God…as I become still and quiet and receptive enough I begin to hear a faint affirming whisper right in my own heart. And again, I say wow. I do not think of prayer as something that I am doing. I experience prayer as something that is always happening inside of me and sometimes