Aligning with Grace

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 beg...