Solitude Is Where Community Begins
Henri Nouwen
Solitude is where community begins. That’s where we listen to God. Sometimes I think of life as a big wagon wheel with many spokes. In the middle is the hub. Often in ministry, it lo...
We Are Weavers
Jon Madian
we are weavers woven into and from an ancient ever renewing fabric on an invisible loom more subtle than breath at one turn we pull to add to our own design to sing each life'...
The Broken Among Us Teach Us
Bryan Stevenson
What sustains me is this knowledge I have that it’s really the broken among us that can contribute a lot to our quest for full, equal justice. When you’re broken, you actually — you ...
Dark Skies Show Us Stars
Bear Guerra
One of my earliest childhood memories finds me waking from a deep sleep in the middle of the night, during a family road trip. Far from any city lights, I look out the window toward the sky above, and...
Four Stages Of Groundedness
John J. Prendergast
The ground is both a metaphor and a felt sense. As a metaphor, it means to be in touch with reality. As a felt sense, it refers to feeling our center of gravity low in the belly and experiencing a dee...
An Unusual Gift From My Grandfather
Rachel Naomi Remen
Often, when he came to visit, my grandfather would bring me a present. These were never the sorts of things that other people brought, dolls and books and stuffed animals. My dolls and stuffed animals...
The Moment We Encounter True Happiness
Ilie Cioara
The moment we encounter true Happiness, we are in fact outside time and space. The “ego” – with its intrinsic duality – has completely disappeared. In that moment, the Sacre...
A 13-Year-Old In A Museum
Nancy Collier
On a recent visit to the Museum of Modern Art with a friend and her daughter, meandering through the museum’s exhibits, I was struck by how often my friend’s 13-year-old daughter asked us ...
Parliament Of Subconscious Minds
John Yates
You may object to the idea that your sense of being a self is a mere construct. After all, it feels very real. How can we reconcile this powerful sense of self with the idea that we're just a coll...
Time Confetti And The Broken Promise Of Leisure
Ashley Whillans
It’s true: we have more time for leisure than we did fifty years ago. But leisure has never been less relaxing, mostly because of the disintermediating effects of our screens. Technology saves u...
Half A Pomegranate
Brian Conroy
Early one morning, the Buddha and his disciples set off on an alms round. He announced that on that day all of the offerings they received would be given to the poor. The community sat beneat...
The Three Narratives
Joanna Macy
When we come together for this work, at the outset we discern three stories or versions of reality that are shaping our world so that we can see them more clearly and choose which one we want to get b...