Beth Allen Slevcove is a spiritual director who lives with her family in San Diego, California. We became friends several years ago when we both helped facilitate a retreat for urban leaders in Los Angeles. Beth’s book, Broken Hallelujahs, is a powerful and personal reflection on the losses in our lives. She describes the life journey that […]
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We strive to build organizations that will last longer than we do. We try to understand our values, find a vision that expresses them, and put it into practice. We do our best to enlist other people and find healthy ways to work together. We celebrate when we maintain our efforts for five, or ten, or
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There are people who are passionate about politics. These people connect strongly to candidates and policies that appeal to their own deepest feelings. They might express their political ideals in strong language and memes on social media. These people are not trying to persuade other people to agree with them. Their political ideas and involvement express their strongest,
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Obedience is not generally one of my greatest strengths. I do not expect other people to obey what I say until we understand each other. I do not appreciate being told what to do without a supporting relationship of trust and communication. It is not a challenge for me to work within a structure, when
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We tend to forget. Things happen we think we will remember for the rest of our lives, but new experiences crowd them out. Moments we struggle for years to achieve fade into the forgotten past. People who teach us things that change our lives get lost in the crowds that surround us. We become intrigued and
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We like to think we can plan our way through difficulties. We believe we can assess challenges and, if we are realistic, set goals to overcome them. We are confident we can grow in ways we want to grow if only we clarify our intentions. Our plans and goals are often primarily focused on what
Monastic Goals and Planning Read More »
We live in a time when there is nearly always someone or something shouting at us. We are immersed in noise from the time we get out of bed to when we try to go to sleep. People, advertising, websites, podcasts, social networks, music all compete for our attention. It is true. We cannot hear ourselves think. Which does
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Many of us struggle with questions of livelihood. What are we drawn to do? Where is the place where our passion meets the world’s need? Can we both make a living and make a meaningful difference? Is it possible for us to do good and do well? For more and more of us, work is where
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We see ourselves as the masters of our own schedules. We can adjust our time commitments on all our devices with the touch of a fingertip. Whether working or taking a trip, we try to make our time as productive as we can. We try to squeeze more things into our schedules in an effort to squeeze more out of
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We believe in the power of holding on tight. We surround ourselves with things we have accumulated, grasping them poignantly. We hold onto artifacts of our lives, treating them like memories. We believe life is the sum total of what we have acquired. We measure ourselves by the friends, lovers, information, experiences, property we have amassed. We
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