In my late 20s, when I had my wonderful conversion experience (maybe I’ll write an article about that sometime!) I had to choose a church to join. Immediately, I found myself needing to balance ends of a ritual spectrum: the churches that had lots of sensual, spiritual abandon, but didn’t seem to me to be […]

Patterns. Some people in my line of work might say that patterns are what all change work comes down to: Patterns you have that you don’t want, and the new patterns you’d prefer. If something is a one-time event, even if it was terrible, if it doesn’t create an unwanted new pattern (or intensify an […]

Lots of people have animals as spirit guides, but what about flowers? Last week I went on retreat to Pt. Reyes for three days. Pt. Reyes is my local “holy place,” and I go there for a few days at least once or twice a year to unplug, hike, re-connect with nature, and do some […]

Do you ever get shut down? It can be in small ways, or it can be in big ways: You are writing your blog, and you get tempted to look at incoming email, and something triggers you and you just can’t finish anymore. You decide to eat a little better, and for a meal or […]

Everybody knows the need for basic positive self-regard. Generally this does not need to be a big deal. The people who have it don’t spend a lot of time looking in the mirror at themselves, saying affirmations. They just have a proper sense of who they are in the scheme of things, and that supports […]

How much money do you have? Do you have too much? Do you have too little? These may seem like rude questions (they kinda are), but lately the news has been highlighting an article by Sam Polk in the New York Times, “For the Love of Money.” In this article, he says that, as a […]

I was blessed this Christmas to preach at a little, tiny, seaside church this year. We numbered thirty-three, and the congregation, which usually sings with gusto, actually sang with real charm and beauty through the usual Christmas carols. Of many childhood holiday traditions, one that often goes most deeply is the singing of the songs […]