Aligning with Grace

I am marveling at things I recorded in a journal a year ago. Though I have journals going back to when I was 15 years old, I rarely revisit them. Why? Many reasons, but that's beyond what I want to share today... This year, I decided to go back and review what I wrote and plan to dive further back into the shelves housing my collection. I am deeply touched by the level of insight and prescience I experienced in the last year and look forward to revisiting other journal entries. "For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice." T.S. Eliot Maybe you already keep a journal. Maybe you think you can't do it. But here's the thing: It can be whatever you want, when you want.  Over a period of nearly 55 years, my journals have taken shape as poetry volumes, and evolved into various formats. They have been collections of favorite quotes or lists of books read, or pictures, or an assembly of practices I found help

What will you give birth to in this new year of 2024? Many people like to begin the new year with a word that exemplifies what they want to focus on, give birth to, and embody in the coming year. This year, the word "Hope" chose me. Perhaps it did, because it is so needed in our world right now. I certainly need it this year. You can always pick a word for yourself - one that you want to work on or experience more of. Or a word can come to you spontaneously. Mine came in so many ways - it was insistent - demanding my attention. I couldn't avoid it. It showed up in everything I seemed to read. It does not have to be one word. It can certainly be more than one, but I find that even with a couple of words, one of them tends to be the predominant one. If this speaks to, it is a simple yet wonderful practice to anchor in the coming year and refer to from time to time. You might want to journal on it periodically to see where you might currently be in your life and decide wheth

It is a difficult time to witness what is happening on our planet... The sorrow, the suffering, the violence the pain... This morning I woke up with this short, lovingkindness practice on my lips: "May our hearts overflow with compassion." The only solution possible to all that is happening is greater Love. Greater compassion. I believe it is the foundation for everything else: greater insight, understanding, and practical solutions. This is all I am going to leave you with today. Let us all practice it and embody it, to shift the energy on this planet. "May our hearts overflow with compassion." For more practices to support you on your journey, visit:  www.meditationsimple.com

I took this picture in Dachau last year. It was such a haunting experience and I have thought of my time there over and over again. It was profoundly moving. And while the focus of that trip was something totally different - this is what I think of the most and it is what haunts me. A friend of mine told me her father had been held there. I cannot imagine what that must have been like. Since then, I have read many books on the need for ancestral healing and how the wounds of one generation are passed on to the next and the next... I felt compelled to thank the guide I had for teaching countless others about what happened in that camp, so that we would never forget. I asked myself then, how could this have happened? But the truth is, I knew. And we all know. And yet it continues to happen. Like many, I am profoundly affected by what is going on in Israel and Gaza. I am also very concerned about all of this escalating into something much bigger. I have many friends who are Jewish. And I

There was a time I came to this river, about a mile from my home,  almost daily, but it has been a while. This morning, the river itself was very still. Quiet. At rest. Even if people walking around or sitting by it were not. The leaves have not quite taken on their autumn mantel of brilliant colors, and it was a warm morning and definitely not very fall like. Despite all the details and concerns that might be floating around in my head, or taking up real estate in my mind, there was something about the calmness and stillness of the river that spoke to me. It invited me to slow down and be present. It reminded me that there are times in our lives when we are called to be more active, but there are also periods where we are invited to slow down, and just simply be. And the thing is, neither one is better than the other. There are times for motion and activity and there are times for rest and stillness. What is your life calling you to right now? Greater activity? Or rest? We are beginni

This quote, from the poet May Sarton's writings, is one that is often repeated and illustrated. It is a favorite of many, and certainly of mine as well: "Help us to be always hopeful gardeners of spirit, who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth, as without light, nothing flowers." You and I, might not be actual gardeners in the traditional sense, but we are all called to be gardeners of spirit - tending our own inner, delicate, souls.  Another famous writer and spiritual figure, John Henry Newman, wrote: "Growth is the only evidence of life." And still another, Francis de Sales, noted in the 17th century, that true growth is often a slow and hidden process. What is to be learned from all this wisdom? We are told that true growth - within and without - is often slow, and perhaps not noticeable to many outside of us. There are difficult and challenging experiences to be dealt with along the way. There are days of both light and darkness, as well as da