Spiritual Practices

There are people who see spiritual life as if they were geese standing on a lakeshore. It is a challenge for them to get anywhere walking around on land. They may paddle across the surface of the lake, though it takes a lot of hard work. They are not comfortable. They may sense they are not […]

Where I live, which is not a particularly traditional place, we are driving ourselves into a season of traditions. We have forgotten the time we took to relax over the summer. We have plunged into the traditions of back to school and football season. Many stores are already trying to sell us our own holiday traditions. We look

There are people who think spiritual life is about being passionately engaged. The more strongly they are committed to an idea or perspective, the healthier they see themselves. I know other people who believe it is essential to spiritual life to act in specific ways. They are convinced practicing certain disciplines or taking particular actions show our health.

There are people who think spiritual life is about holding on as tight as possible. Some people believe we need to hold onto truth as strongly as we can. For them, truth is elusive and likely to escape if we do not contain or control it. They need to know clearly and concretely which truths are

Each of us wishes we could do more. We see images of natural disasters or social challenges and wish we could do more to help. People we love are in need or in pain and we wish we could do more for them. There are so many needs and so many potential ways we could

People desire forgiveness. Whether we realize it or not, something deep in us hungers to be forgiven. Whatever it is we feel we need to be forgiven for, we did not mean to do it. We did not set out to break the rules, or fail to meet expectations, or upset anyone. We were not trying to

We believe in being objective, rational, analytical. We believe in being effective, efficient, practical, professional. We believe in making sense, understanding, explaining. We believe in planning, making progress, moving forward. It is easy for us to get caught up in doing whatever next thing needs to be done. While these can each be important, they are

Many of us approach spiritual life as if it were an option, something we can choose if we want. We feel we can add spiritual life to the mix when we are more in touch with our spiritual side. Certain holidays or seasons seem to be more conducive to spiritual life. Some people appear to be more

We are living in a fantasy world. Our lives are far beyond the greatest fantasies our grandparents could imagine. The wildest dreams of science fiction have become common, everyday appliances. Our careers may be limited only by our own imaginations. Many of us spend more time participating in fantasy sports than playing real sports. We have

There are times when spiritual life urges us beyond where we are comfortable. Spiritual life may take us to places where we are not sure we want to go. Spiritual life may put us in touch with people we are not sure we want to know. We may face our fears or question beliefs we