One of many reasons I am not a good musician is that I really do not enjoy practicing. The word “practicing” brings to mind repeating something over and over. Practicing is something to be endured. Practice is something that I have to do, not that I want to do. Some people say that practice makes perfect, […]
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I belong to a liturgical church. Each time we get together, we remember part of our story and we share a meal. One of the things that make us “liturgical” is that we follow an annual pattern of the parts of our story we remember called the “liturgical year.” Each year has something in common
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Our lives are tapestries that include a nearly-infinite variety of strands. People and places, events and sensations, memories and dreams are woven together across space and time. Our perspective colors our experiences. Some remain vibrant, some are natural dyes, some fade over time. Each book we read, each place we visit, each vision we explore,
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Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks by August Turak will transform your appreciation of transformation. I became the Strategic Monk as I seek balance that includes both being effective and being true to my deepest self. My own story includes practicing law, teaching, and getting things done as I do the inner work to explore and
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The people I know tend to be much more adept at recognizing divisions than at healing them. We study division and conflict, analyzing tensions and disagreement. We set out to tell the story of how divisions develop, specifying the reasons they happen. We tell ourselves we are being objective, that we are trying to understand.
People have told me that I am a self-starter, but I am more motivated to finish than to start. I put off starting as long as I can. Even when I am excited about the possibilities of something, I need the spark of inspiration to get started. Starting takes effort. But I will make sacrifices I do not
Focus on Starting & Finishing Read More »
All around us the world is telling us it is time to rest. Daylight is shorter each day, and the nights grow longer. Temperatures are cooler, even here in southern California. It is as if all of life were encouraging us to slow down, take some time, rest and reflect. Wrap ourselves up, start a
We live the way we read a book, or watch a movie. There are times when we go back to check on something we might have missed; a word someone said, some object hiding in the background. There are times when we want to skip forward, either to find out the result or to check
Focused on Where We Are in the Story Read More »
I spent time with Nadia Bolz-Weber in person last week. We were not exactly alone. Nadia came to Pasadena to read from Pastrix: the Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint. We did, though, have the opportunity to compare tattoos. Nadia is the founding pastor of the House for All Sinners and Saints, a
Book Review: Pastrix Read More »
My friend Fran Held wants to make very sure that you pay more attention to her work on the Mitzvah Circle Foundation than to her. I know that she was born in New Jersey and raised there by a single mother, and that she now lives in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Though I do not
StrategicMonk Interview: Fran Held & Mitzvah Circle Foundation Read More »
