When I was about six years old, at Christmas time a very large, rectangular-shaped object covered with a blanket appeared in our living room near where the gifts were kept. My brother and I were intrigued, wondering who could be getting such a large gift. I...
When you think of love, what immediately pops into your mind? I’m a little ashamed to admit that my mind most immediately jumps to my favorite rom-coms — When Harry Met Sally, Keeping the Faith or the 1980s TV show Moonlighting (Remember that?) I can’t get enough of...
Leading up to the third Sunday of Advent this year, I kept thinking about the 2006 movie “The Pursuit of Happyness.” The movie stars Will Smith as Chris Gardner, an aspiring entrepreneur and sales person who gets an opportunity to do an unpaid stockbroker internship...
“Peace can be difficult to feel because of the chaos that surrounds us.” I wrote that line more than a year ago for my 2019 Mindful Advent series, but is really true now. Everything in this year feels like chaos — the disruption of a pandemic, the helplessness created...
I’ve written before about how I slept with a bedside lamp on (not just a nightlight) until I was 11 years old. As a child, I was prone to having nightmares about things I had read about or watched on TV. I saw shadowed ghosts in the hallway outside my bedroom. I saw...
https://youtu.be/BqdBo1dH6AQ “It’s Not About You.” If Dr. Haldeman was giving you a “talk” that included this phrase, you were not being your best self. Seminary classmates and I grew accustomed to hearing these words from my worship professor and advisor, Dr. Scott...
Many of our routines and rituals have been upended this year. Give yourself a gift this fall by registering for my next online retreat, Reinventing Ritual. We'll discuss what about our past rituals and celebrations have given us purpose or joy, how is the current...
Last year, my family attended a Christmas Eve Catholic mass, as we usually do. Though I grew up as a Roman Catholic, I left that church for the United Church of Christ many years ago. Over the years, I have learned to appreciate the richness of the Catholic tradition,...
Each Christmas season, I make a ritual of watching the Frank Capra Christmas Classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Though I know there is a strong cult following for the movie starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, there is an equally large group of those who furrow their...
I remember one time many years ago I was talking to my mother on my cell phone while driving somewhere through Iowa. (Don’t worry. Hands free.) The conversation resulted, as it often did, in conflict. I was skating along the edge of my last nerve with her — a sadly...
I wonder if part of my annoyance with Christmas lights going up earlier and earlier in the season is because they obscure the darkness we actually need to rest and grow. Glaring lights that we put in our porches, trees and balconies may bring temporary holiday cheer,...
Changing the words to the Metta meditation practice wasn’t even on my radar. I had started the month of practicing loving kindness meditation, specifically the Buddhist Metta practice, as part of my Meditation Teacher Training by following the script and recorded...
Because I love the Christian season of Advent that leads up to Christmas, I will again be writing each week of Advent a piece around the week’s theme and inviting you into a spiritual practice with me. I felt almost everything but peaceful this week. Scattered....
Because I love the Christian season of Advent that leads up to Christmas, I will again be writing each week of Advent a piece around the week’s theme and inviting you into a spiritual practice with me. Early morning darkness comforts and relaxes me. In the pre-dawn...
Five or six years ago, I began to notice it. That tingly tightening of anxiety across my chest as I thought about the many favorite cookies I wanted to make for the Christmas season — a feeling that that emerges far too soon after engaging in the simple delight of...