“Separation is an Illusion” All the Christian spiritual masters say this: in God’s world, we’re all connected. Interestingly, Buddhists and quantum physicists say it, too, along with Hindu gurus and Muslim Sufis. Separation is an illusion. This statement still startles me. The fact is, I like to think that I’m separate. I like to hold […]
When the phone rang on a February morning in 1989, I thought I had an idea of who’d be calling me. I was the pastor of a small town Kentucky church and church members called me about almost anything at almost anytime. I received this particular call sitting in the pastor’s study while working on […]
Last week, I had to be out of town at a conference and couldn’t be present to talk about how Pastoral Care fits in with our new Integrative Medicine Clinic. This is the video I did so I could be there at least via technology. It’ll serve as this week’s blog post! Here it is!
I saw petroglyphs in New Mexico last week. “Petroglyph” means “rock writing” and refers to art carved in volcanic stones lying about the desert hills just west of Albuquerque. According to the scientists who’ve studied the petroglyphs, Native Americans from the Pueblo nation produced those markings during a few centuries before and after 800, c.e. […]
I’m in Albuquerque, New Mexico this week at the Center for Action and Contemplation focusing on going deeper with the tradition of Centering Prayer and Contemplation. So, in light of the fact that I’m away, I thought I’d share something different. Here’s a poem which I hope yields some inspiration. I’ve Never Felt the Deck […]
While waiting in Atlanta for his flight to San Francisco, a colleague of mine, Vic Dippenaar, sat down in the waiting lounge to nurture patience in the pages of a book. He raised in front of his eyes David Richo’s book, How to Be an Adult, and began reviewing the chapters. Vic, the director of […]
The lady who lives next door to us is voting for the wrong person. At least, that’s what I think. A couple of times, our conversations have moved toward political issues and the apparent qualities of the presidential candidates and judging by some of her statements, she doesn’t think the way I do . . […]
Locust Fork does it right. An incredible congregation. Here’s the story – Just this past September while rounding on one of his units, Chaplain Jeff Woods met a couple, the husband of which suffers from advancing dementia. The wife felt completely overwhelmed and that seized Jeff’s heart. He discerned that they could really use a […]
A geophysicist helped me understand better why the work we do with support teams is so crucial. I was listening to Krista Tippet’s podcast “On Being” a few days ago and her guest was the man who pioneered the science of plate tectonics, Xavier Le Pichon. In introducing the scientific world to plate tectonics, Le […]
I learned this morning from a reader that Johnny Barnes passed away this year, at the age of 93 (see the first reply beneath the post). I was so inspired when I first heard about Mr. Barnes, that I thought I’d repost this particular blog entry from over a year ago. Here it is. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ […]
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