Aligning with Grace

Sometimes, all we need to do in our lives is to change the narrative... It sounds very simple, yet this is incredibly hard to do... There are moments when things are not quite working in our lives. Our thought patterns hold us captive and our future possibilities lie scattered all around us, truncated at best... Sometimes, we just have to entertain a different way of looking at things, and recently I was reminded of this not once, not twice, but three times... I reflect on the journey of Pope Francis to a land sacred to three faiths, always in strife, gripped in endless drama and bloodshed, where its inhabitants were all recognized at various junctures by this Pope - to the dismay of the others, each one jockeying for sole attention. All of Israel and Palestine's factions were each encouraged to find solutions for peace by making hard choices and sacrifices. Not one group was praised or faulted over the other, because they all must change their perspectives if the...

The afternoon begins its measured descent into the waning light of day, as it deliberately chases the coming evening and its blanketing darkness. The golden light and the length of summer days reverses its trajectory and yields its gains without fanfare towards the advancing Autumn. In this sacred time between light of day, and dark of night, I take a moment to re-visit where I am, embraced by my eternal yearning, for greater solitude... I am not drawn to write, or to be with others, at this time, and I even refrain from the pull of social networking sites - choosing instead, to journey more deeply inward into a place of no words and greater silence... Memories of ushering in this summer in the company of friends at Wolf Trap, where we dutifully worshipped at the quirky altar of the guru-like Garrison Keillor, arise momentarily, before becoming scattered like the first leaves falling in the dryness of this late summer. This glorious event and yearly ritual, spent in the company of the ...