16 Dec, 2024
The scripture reading for the third Sunday in Advent finds us with Mary in the tiny agricultural village of Nazareth where an angel comes to her to announce her pregnancy by the Holy Spirit. Archeologists suggest that Nazareth was an out-of-the...
09 Dec, 2024
This Second Sunday in Advent we find ourselves at the temple in Jerusalem with Zechariah and Elizabeth who remind us quite a bit of Abraham and Sarah, the founding family of Judaism who also had a miraculous pregnancy (long past childbearing...
02 Dec, 2024
Let me begin our Advent journey with a question: What do you long for? I am not asking what you want for Christmas. I’m asking what you long for in the depths of your heart and soul? What is missing from your life? If you’re like the folks at...
25 Nov, 2024
Friends recently sent me a spiritual reflection that began with this story: A man was caught in an earthquake. Terrified, he tried to pray but couldn’t find any words. He’d heard and spoken countless prayers in his lifetime, but in his panic,...
11 Nov, 2024
American novelist Toni Morrison writes this: Christmas, the day after, in 2004, following the presidential re-election of George W. Bush. I am staring out of the window in an extremely dark mood, feeling helpless. Then a friend, a fellow artist...
04 Nov, 2024
We’ve jumped around a little this fall, but we’re back to our series on Becoming an Island of Sanity . I’ve never before felt like this was as important. With the election two days away, it feels like anxiety lives in the very air we breathe...
28 Oct, 2024
Allow me to begin by sharing something I wrote… I don’t even know when, only that it was at a time of great loss. In the midst of life we are in death. Who told the sun it could still shine? Or the birds they could still sing? Or the flowers...
21 Oct, 2024
The closer we get to the election on November 5, the more afraid people seem to be; afraid of losing their rights, afraid of increasing violence, and so much more. This only serves to reinforce for me the need at this crucial time for Islands...
07 Oct, 2024
We’ve been talking about Margaret Wheatley’s concept of being an Island of Sanity. She says, “An Island of Sanity is a gift of possibility and refuge. It is a true island because it sets itself apart from the destructive dynamics, policies, and...
30 Sep, 2024
We began these conversations this month with my desire to follow Margaret Wheatley’s advice to become an Island of Sanity in these chaotic, challenging, sometimes scary times. Within these communities, Wheatley says, we must create the...