I bet you could identify several things going on in your life right now that you wish would end or change. Am I right? Everyone’s list would be different but yours could include things like a challenging situation between you and another person, a physical ailment, a difficult work project, boredom with a repetitive task, debt, a global issue or even loneliness ..read more

"It is the dab of grit that seeps into an oyster’s shell that makes the pearl, not pearl-making seminars with other oysters." - Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft When I read this quote by author Stephen King, I chuckled at the ironic truth of his wisdom! As we gather in spiritual community, we learn a whole lot about how to live a life of love and light, compassion and creativity. We study ancient sacred texts and modern spiritual teachings and everything in between, gathering information and nuggets of insight.  However, it is not until we face some real-life challenging si ..read more

Last week I was in Provincetown for my 60th birthday, and I was mesmerized by the colorfulness of humanity all around me. With June being Pride Month, I don’t know a better place on the planet to experience rainbows than Ptown!  Everywhere I looked I saw expressions of individuality and expressions of acceptance and oneness. Flags and banners were on many houses and businesses, waving a grand welcome to anyone passing by. The bright colors celebrate inclusivity and diversity, and there was plenty of that to salute! The inclusion was so deep, it almost felt unworldly. The coolest thin ..read more

Let’s talk about love! We all long for love. We want to experience that incredible feeling of being seen, appreciated, cherished and chosen. We want to know that others care for us, even when we are not in their presence. It is a universal longing. Our social conditioning told us that a certain “special one” would come and sweep us off our feet or carry us away on a white steed to a castle! We were also programmed to believe that a good relationship lasted until “death do us part”, and anything shorter than that is a failure. Maybe you were also trained to believe that there is a “be ..read more

The people who spend significant time with me may notice that I wear the same pieces of jewelry pretty consistently.  When asked about them, I am always willing to share the story behind each one. Most were gifts from people who have played major roles in my life, but some of them I purchased for myself to signify something important to me. One of my most cherished rings is one that I had designed for myself. Many years after my father passed away, my mother gave me the diamonds that were in her wedding rings from 1959. She gave me permission to use them any way I liked, so shortly t ..read more

I have a quote by the Sufi mystic poet, Rumi, displayed in my home.  It reads, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” – Rumi I keep that quote before me to constantly remind myself that I do not need to look for love. I am love. Love is my decision to make in all things. We are going to spend the entire Summer of Love exploring the topic of love from multiple angles in a 3-month quest to find and remove some barriers within ourselves that we may have built against it. This is a worthy endeavor becau ..read more

Recently we took a drive through the southernmost states of our country. Having spent most of my life well north of the Mason-Dixon Line, this was foreign territory for me. I had only ever known about it through books and news stories, so my knowledge was largely academic and probably somewhat skewed. As travel tends to do, this journey opened my eyes as we visited several civil rights museums, a few religious sites, and walked the downtowns of some of the state capitols where history has been formed. But it was the morning spent at the Vicksburg National Military Park that struck me most deep ..read more

Have you ever wondered why you can run into the same situation multiple times, but have a completely different experience each time? To give an example, imagine having a friend cancel a scheduled lunch date. This has probably happened multiple times in your life, as it has in mine.  One time when it happens you feel relieved and move on with other activities, but the next time your plans get cancelled you feel rejected and small. Yet, the next time you get angry and vow to never look forward to such a date again. And then, you may also have the reaction of compassion toward the frien ..read more

During the month of May, we are talking about aligning the values that guide our decisions to our highest values, or those that support our spiritual expansion. One of those values must be love, as God is love. If God is love, it is our soul’s calling to be the love in our lives. As we love ourselves and others, we support growth and transformation with our compassion and acceptance. We appreciate the good things being done, the positive efforts being made, the ways people are trying to do their best. We recognize those attributes and qualities that we would enjoy experiencing more. In other w ..read more

There is a certain way that I stand with my arms folded. When I catch myself standing that way, I am suddenly aware that I am standing exactly the way my mother stands. When I am excited, I find that I rub my face just like she does.  Those who know both of us well can probably point out many other ways that I have picked up my mother’s mannerisms. Genetics are astounding!  Sometimes I am amused when I show up like my mother, and of course, sometimes I am less than amused.  As we celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend, we have a fresh opportunity to look at the relat ..read more