Presence. That’s the word that emerged when Sharon Salzberg, the well-known Buddhist meditation teacher and author, invited us to reflect on dharma. The Buddhist concept, which can be understood in a wide variety of ways, can mean that which sustains us or what we can...
You are worthy of rest. As I started to think about the long holiday weekend, it occurred to me that we tend to fill these days with one activity after another. Particularly since many of us spent a couple of years refraining from in-person social activities due...
There is no one right way to do anything, including yoga poses. For the past few weeks in my yoga class, I’ve been encouraging participants to really make their practice their own. I’ve taken some of the more intimidating yoga asanas (poses) and vary them for what...
I am having to work double-time at hope this year. Fall was busy for my business, so I hopefully embarked on building an online store (with the help of at least two other people). I promoted holiday gift ideas for weeks, and...
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...
I am not a crafty person. I’ve often envied people who can bring knitting or crochet into a meeting and absentmindedly work on a project while occasionally and appropriately interjecting into the conversation. I am in awe of the attention to detail people pay to bead...
I swear I had nothing to do with it ending this way. It just so happened that on the last Saturday of my August Birthday Month of Abundance, I completed a two-year rewatch of the 2004-2010 ABC series Lost. I joined up when I discovered The Storm Podcast was...
Late in July, I absentmindedly turned the wheel of my car, hit a curb and tore a hole in the tire. My car limped along while I struggled to find a parking place on the narrow streets in an older part of Columbus, Ohio. Now sweltering in my car, I used the AAA app to...
When I worked in a regional role within the United Church of Christ, I used to help local churches develop vision and plan for their futures. In these sessions, I would often sound like an annoyingly curious three-year-old or deranged parrot. I would ask variations on...
You’ve probably walked down the hall at the office and inwardly braced yourself when that person walked by. You may have avoided a project not because you don’t want to do it, but because the team working on it is so dysfunctional. You may choose the same one or two...
As more and more people get vaccinated for COVID-19, the rumblings (or directives from on high) about returning to office workplaces are in full swing. After a year of breakneck change, the tempting lure of comfort will be overwhelming. You will want to simply return...
I gathered my snacks, my Oscar ballot and my remote control then settled in to watch the telecast of the 93rd annual Academy Awards with more anticipation than usual. My effervescent reaction was not typical of this troubled time for movies — most people were not...
“We’re all storytellers.” The truth of the statement washed over my skin in tingly waves. I paused, drew a deep breath and continued our conversation about our recent Sparking Creativity Retreat. I had been incubating the idea for a retreat like this for years. Back...
I don’t remember much from sixth grade, but I have vivid memories of my teacher’s after-lunch reading ritual. The ritual was simple: We’d read our way through a book, a chapter at a time each day after lunch and recess. I’m terrible at remembering details, but somehow...
I had been combatting the habits of white supremacy for years, and I didn’t even know it. When I first started working as regional church denominational staff, I got called by churches to help them figure out what they needed to do to attract young people. I’d take a...