MY PRIMARY PRACTICE: YOU

MY PRIMARY PRACTICE: YOU I have never been clearer about my purpose for being in this world. And that purpose coincides with my greatest challenge. You. Alright, that is a relative truth. But in practice, it points to what is my most difficult aspect of an authentic and an actualized spirituality. Loving you. I am here to love you exactly as you are. Now I know that I can only love you as much as I am able to love myself. I get that. And Divine Love is a continuum and a dynamic that is beyond linear or logical reason. Whether I frame it as loving myself or loving you the foundation is the same. It is a choice to tap, to sync, and to open into

MY PRIMARY PRACTICE: YOU2017-11-29T21:58:31-05:00

THE WAIL

THE WAIL I grew up with the “if you don’t stop crying I will give you something to cry about” style of parenting. I am beyond needing to judge that. I had parents who rarely allowed themselves to cry, and couldn’t abide by seeing their children cry either. I know that the cry-aversion was then amped up by being born male. “Big boys don’t cry.” Regardless. Trying to apply those directives was for years nothing less than excruciating. Male or not I was born with a sensitive heart that had direct access to my tear ducts. My natural response was to cry when I was happy, cry when I was sad, cry when I witnessed any type of heroism or transcendence. Though I tried myriad ways to

THE WAIL2017-06-14T18:51:04-04:00

HURTING PEOPLE HURT

HURTING PEOPLE HURT I have often heard it said that hurting people hurt people. I do suppose that it is true. What we do not transform we will indeed transmit. What I am not able to really be with internally will become an external target. It is unfortunate at a deep level, and yet there is a deeper truth to this that most often goes unacknowledged. While hurting people hurt other people in the process of becoming conscious it is also hurting people who help others at the deepest and most profound levels. A big part of my spiritual awakening has been about increasing the capacity to sit with and to stay with the pain surrounding my heart. I grieve the number of people that became targets

HURTING PEOPLE HURT2017-06-01T15:34:34-04:00

LESS IS MORE

LESS IS MORE It took me many painful years to learn the lesson that less is indeed more. I am not speaking in terms of interior decorating, accessories, or God knows my number of pairs of shoes. I am speaking of a much more painful pairing down. I have finally learned that less of me is more. Much less self-assessment, less self-evaluation, less approval seeking, and less caring about what others may think of me or the choices that I make. Less thinking about me, myself, and the separate I and more of focusing on and in my Source. Less trying to do something or express something that will win accolades or applause, and more of relishing expression for the simple sake of expression. For so long

LESS IS MORE2017-04-04T20:53:49-04:00

SERVICE: THE GREAT REFINEMENT

SERVICE: THE GREAT REFINEMENT There are so many things that they don’t dare tell you in seminary. I will soon celebrate twenty-one years as an ordained minister. I have been blessed to be ministering full time for all of these years, doing what I truly know I am meant to be doing. It is not a job or a career for me. It is my vocation. It is my life’s purpose that I happen to be paid to do. Though it was a circuitous route to the ministry I have never doubted the intuition that brought me here. I can clearly see that everything that I have been through in my life experience has helped prepare me for this form of service. Things that never made sense

SERVICE: THE GREAT REFINEMENT2017-02-24T21:16:58-05:00

MY EXPANDING WORLD

MY EXPANDING WORLD Though growing older is often associated with limitation and a shrinking sphere of experience I am not personally finding that to be the case at all. There are certainly things that I used to be able to do physically that I can no longer do. There were a number of years when I averaged seven to ten dance classes per week while also hoofing it in eight performances of a musical. That seems a long time ago now for sure. My pace may have slowed but I am gratefully more present to what I am choosing to do, and the decreased speed has heightened my attention to the wonders I am sure I used to race right by. I have found that rather than

MY EXPANDING WORLD2017-02-09T18:07:42-05:00

THE PAIN THRESHOLD

THE PAIN THRESHOLD It is only in retrospect that I recognize the incredible threshold for pain I seem to have been born with. Or at least so it seems. From this perspective in consciousness I marvel at the decades I spent living in a self-inflicted and agonizing story of diminishment and unworthiness. I literally lived inside of a just out of awareness container of self-reproach and self-loathing. Oddly enough it was so pervasive that it has given me a firm and deep knowing of the power of Grace. The fact that I still managed to have some level of happiness and success is only a God-thing. Of course there is also the issue of heavy self-medicating which is beyond the scope of this reflection. The ability to

THE PAIN THRESHOLD2017-02-02T21:37:48-05:00

My Words

MY WORDS I have long taught that people should always move with the flow of that which they love. It is only in retrospect I see that until I began being true to the song within my heart, really giving myself permission to sing that song out loud, that I began to come alive. I didn’t know that what I love could also invoke fear in terms of giving it expression. I let the fear stop me, assuming that it was a sign that I shouldn’t pursue what seemed to be seeking expression. When I began to realize that the fear was simply an energy related to my own expansion I began to use the fear as power, and the fear no longer used me. It was

My Words2017-01-05T16:57:30-05:00

ADVENT IN ME

Advent in Me   I did not grow up in a religious tradition in which Advent was observed. Christmas was certainly a major holiday, though in retrospect the lead up to the holiday was mostly obscured by the commercial and material chaos of the season. It was a whole lot more about Santa and Madison Avenue than it was about the birth of Jesus. I hold no judgment around that. And I am grateful to have been introduced to the full Advent season as a result of coming to the Unity teachings. Advent literally means “coming to.” Advent is an invitation to not only acknowledge the birth of the historical Jesus but also to create a personal opening in which the Christ Presence may be born in

ADVENT IN ME2016-12-15T22:04:31-05:00

IN ALL THINGS

IN ALL THINGS “Be grateful in all things.” So the scriptures say. “Be grateful in all things." Grateful in all things? Really? What about that pesky physical symptom? What about the annoying neighbor with the blasting music? And what about the inability to locate a human being to which you can speak to resolve the reoccurring banking issue? How about those sugar ants? The person who has fourteen items in the ten or less? You say I should be grateful in all things? ALL? Are you kidding? I know from deep and personal experience that this is one of the most profound practices that we humans can ever engage in. While the surface mind and the personality self will go into a spasm of argument and contradiction

IN ALL THINGS2016-12-15T22:04:56-05:00
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