Aligning with Grace

"Everything has its wonders, even the darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state  I may be in, therein to be content." ~ Helen Keller It rained a veritable deluge this week, and I thought of it as Mother Nature cleansing everything to usher in the month of May and the season of spring in a much more emphatic way. For a couple of days it was dark, and I took a day of total silence during one of them - not speaking or listening to music, or the TV - just to the falling rain as it landed softly and more deliberately at times, on a number of different surfaces, occasionally punctuated by a bird chirping, here or there. For most of that silent day, the rain was of the deep, soaking variety. I also chose to turn off the computer and phone, so that I could enter deeply into the day, without anything pulling me out of it. It is amazing how much of your day you reclaim when you are simply not "online" or "available." Instead, I moved slowly a...

Sometimes, messages come to you in the most unexpected ways... Sometimes, you ignore the message the first time, and it keeps coming back to you again and again - a second, and a third, and maybe a fourth time... Yesterday was one of those days filled with unacknowledged or partially understood messages, and this morning seemed merely a continuation and extension of those lessons... Yesterday, as I waited in the doctor's office for a routine check up, I read a sermon written by Barbara Brown Taylor , from her book, Home by Another Way . Since we are partly into Holy Week , nearing the conclusion of Lent , I am choosing to read material that is relevant to the liturgical season, or is, at very least, spiritual in nature. The section I read in Taylor's book was based on a passage from St Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians , where he described a particularly challenging experience in his life, without actually identifying what it was. He describes it as "a thorn in t...

To offer a blessing, is a spiritual practice. It is perhaps, one of the highest... The Talmud says, "It is forbidden to taste of the pleasures of this world without a blessing." While some traditions teach that only certain persons can offer blessings, the truth is, everyone can offer one. And when we do, everything becomes a blessing... I thought of this, as I drove around, and saw a man suspended up high, doing pole utility maintenance. This work is dangerous - and it is a service this man renders to us to make our lives more comfortable. I spontaneously offered him a blessing, and asked that he be kept safe - that he be returned to his loved ones. I also thought of this, when my breath was taken away as a driver cut me off on the beltway this afternoon, as I was returning home from the most delicious class in restorative yoga. I restrained my first reaction, and offered a blessing instead, thus choosing to remain in the beautiful energy of my class, where my teacher invi...

How does one practice the presence of God? In everything one does, thinks, and says... I have been knee deep in spring cleaning the last couple of days - currently in between yoga sessions - so I have taken this time to launder the winter bedding and put it away, and break out all the spring sheets, quilts, and clothes. I've also taken the opportunity to gather up clothes and household items for donation as well... Yesterday afternoon, after a full day of cleaning, washing, and organizing, I met a dear friend to walk the labyrinth. It's kind of "our thing" - something we've done over the years - and it gave us the opportunity to walk it and meditate together, and reflect on the Stations of the Cross, which were featured through an number of beautiful displays along the way as well. Later in the evening, when I went to pick up dinner, on the warmest day we've had in so many months (85 degrees!), I stepped out of my car and into the night and thought to myself, ...

Last night, I curled in bed with the book I am currently reading - An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith , by Barbara Brown Taylor , a former parish priest, who currently teaches spirituality. This book is delicious in every way - not one to be raced through - but one to be savored, and so I "tasted" the chapter "The Practice of Saying No." It begins by explaining the historical, cultural, and religious differences between keeping the Sabbath and the Christian practice of observing Sunday - and then explores the value of having one day a week where we say no to doing, and simply enjoy being. Taylor begins the chapter with this quote from Meister Eckhart: "God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by subtracting." A couple of pages into the chapter, she quotes the Swiss theologian Karl Barth : "A being is free only when it can determine and limit its activity." Later, she refers to Abraham Heschel : "The first holy thing in ...

Love is why we are here... Love is the rhyme, and it is the reason - behind every season... Love is what makes a difference, and every spiritual tradition at its essence, teaches love... A Course in Miracles divinely exhorts us, to: "Teach only love, for that is what you are..." We are the very embodiment of love... A dear soul, who is an internationally known Anusara yoga teacher wrote to me yesterday, saying to me: "You are the embodiment of love..." But I, could only think to myself, that no - it is not me - but it she who is the embodiment of love, for she selflessly and humbly shines her light, all over the planet! St. Francis de Sales taught: "All through love, and nothing through constraint." Paramahansa Yogananda wrote of devotion, as the manifestation of love, and reminded his devotees, to love God: "Love Him, talk to Him every second of your life, in activity and in silence, with deep prayer..." I sit in meditation, under the gaze of ...