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Finding Deeper Streams
Several years ago, I attended a talk by author Reza Aslan where he described his personal spiritual journey from Islam to Christianity, and back again. To illustrate, he used the saying, “You can dig six holes one foot deep or one hole six feet deep.” The effort is the same, but by remaining in one…
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We’re Here Too
Among the gifts of this moment are the new rituals and patterns that are emerging. Not all of them will remain when we’ve moved through the current crisis. But some of them will, and we will be the better for it. In our church we have a weekly discussion group called “Stone Soup” where we…
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Shelter In Place
So many times I have said to Tripp, “I wish we could just stay home today!” And so many times our little dog, Violet, has looked at us with sad eyes, the ones that said, “Please don’t go to work!” Well . . . all of those wishes have come true! Yesterday we received a…
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For All The Guests
In our spiritual community we have a consistent practice, each time we gather, of expressing our gratitude out loud. It creates a ground of positive energy from which we can be nourished, and from which we can draw when it comes time to express our deepest, most profound concerns. Prayers that are long on asking…
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The Growing Light of Joy
In the decades of my life I have seen the seasons come and go more times than I care to admit. This time around, winter is quite different from the last five which were spent in the Bay Area of California. Being back in the northeast in what I once would have called the “dead”…
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Good Morning!
When I think of the life I have led, I sense the powerful flow of all that has brought me to the NOW moment. In my sermon this past week, I made reference to the very first New Year in my memory. Early one morning my mother told me it was now 1961, and with…
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Take a Moment . . .
At the turning of this new year, the only celebration I require is the one that happens on this bench just off the Tiburon rail trail. I know a ball will drop in Times Square later tonight, but all I really need is a bit more time to stare at this view of Mount Tamalpais,…
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All In Good Time
I’m not great at waiting. It doesn’t matter whether it’s on the freeway, in line at Target, or sitting in a doctor’s office. I am programmed to get on with it, no matter what “it” is. When people and situations get in the way, I feel impatient, inconvenienced, and maybe even put upon. So, when…
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Blessed Subtraction
The single most important shift in the second half of my life is that I have become a person of subtraction. The earlier years were all about addition, the having of children, the gaining of education, the gathering of possessions. In terms of religion and spirituality, my focus was on learning more stuff, building a…
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Something In the Water
Something happens to me when I am near the water, something really good–emotionally, energetically, spiritually. I recently read that my heart and brain tissues are 73 percent water, so I suppose it should come as no surprise that walking on the beach, floating in the swimming pool, or gazing at the bay vistas off our…