One of the most challenging things in life is to stay engaged in a conversation when there are clearly very different ideologies at play. It doesn’t take long for someone to feel defensive or think they are being attacked. Especially when it comes to issues of dismantling racism, LGBTQ+ rights, spirituality, capitalism, God, patriarchy, and [...]
Another new year. So how are you feeling? Yay or nay? Another new year and I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. Although, as Dolly Parton says so eloquently in the movie “Steel Magnolias” after Shelby’s funeral, “Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.” I think that sums up my strategy this past year. [...]
There are a few words I have had “allergies" to over the years. Words like discipline, obedience, and accountability. Some have a more intense allergic reaction than others, such as difficulty breathing, maybe getting itchy or nauseous. Of course I jest, yet they are words that have produced some measure of tension in [...]
Charles Fillmore, cofounder of Unity, said that prayer is “communion between God and man ... it is the language of spirituality.” Just as our physical senses give us language and experience for our human world, prayer awakens our “spiritual senses,” giving us language for the ever-deepening felt presence and expression of the living Christ energy. [...]
A prayer without desire in it, a prayer without sincerity in it, a prayer without soul in it, a prayer without Spirit in it is a fruitless prayer. - Charles and Cora Fillmore, Teach Us to Pray I was raised with prayer. Prayer before meals, prayers in church, and prayers to give thanks. Prayers were [...]
Recently a friend and I were talking about what life was like when we first got into 12-step recovery, and what we needed in order to break the bonds of addiction. I rarely talk about the beginning because frankly most of it is a blur, and it was a few decades ago! All I wanted [...]
Yielding self means giving up the old concepts of the past; forgetting ourselves and our human desire to come forth, and just rejoicing that all God’s creation constantly springs forth in newness of life and light and joy and service. -Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, 1918 I am a “drama” addict - there I said [...]
As a guest speaker traveling around the country, I am often asked for a description and title for my message. People want to know what the heck they are going to hear! And I can’t blame them. Many times, those coming to listen to me don’t know me at all. The challenge I run into [...]
About 600 years before the writers of the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke penned Jesus’ Parable of the Mustard Seed, Buddha told a parable of a mustard seed. It revolves around a woman, Kisa Gotami, who lived during the time of Buddha. Kisa’s only child had died, and unwilling to accept his death, she [...]
Peace is one of those seemingly intangible, shape-shifting things in life, such as love, that molds our lives so intensely. It’s not necessarily something I can hold in my hand or perhaps physically give to you, and there are no words to adequately define the experience or even give a “correct” definition. Yet it is the [...]
