Lifeletter #120: The Sacred Encounter
So at the end of the day we give thanks, for being betrothed to the unknown. John O’Donahue Do you have a longing to be more creative? Is there an impulse, or a whisper that keeps asking you to express your creative energy? I am meeting more and more people who have a deep desire to engage in some kind of creative activity. The way they speak to me about this longing is deeply moving; it’s not just a small thing. This creative impulse is something deep and strong-it is not...
Read MoreLifeletter #119: What About The Small Self?
To be human is to engage in a constant process of development and evolution. We don’t stop developing just because we are adult. We don’t get to lean back, put our feet up on the sofa and say, “Great, I’m done now.” Too bad for us—life is a lot more demanding than that. Our human design is encoded with the evolutionary impulse, which is not the same as the impulse to fix, to correct or to ‘be a better person.’ Evolution and transformation are forces that expand our identity, and allow us to embrace a lot more of life, of reality, of our own experience. We don’t become ‘better,’ we become more and more whole.
Read MoreLifeletter #118 – Taking The Courageous Step
“Why is it so difficult to take the first, necessary, close-in, courageous step to claiming our happiness in life?” (David Whyte) Fear has a thousand faces in our world right now. There is such a profound level of change going on. The world we know is unraveling, and it needs to. When we don’t know what is happening, when we lose control, we encounter a lot of fear. Our conditioned nature does not like this kind of change. Our old structures, both inner and outer, resist the depths of...
Read MoreLifeletter #117: A Crack of Light
“Ring the bells that you can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in.” (Leonard Cohen) This is a story about a moment of hard-won grace. Maybe it doesn’t make sense to say that grace is hard won. And sometimes it feels like grace arrives after a period of struggle or great difficulty. When we are not able to hold ourselves together. When life creates a little crack in our egoic structure, so that a bit of light gets in....
Read MoreLifeletter #116: A Profound Kindness
I keep noticing, these days, how easy it is to use our spiritual practices in a defensive way. To defend and protect ourselves from unresolved and difficult feelings. In a moment, I can escape, move away from, or ignore what is arising in the field of my experience, right now. I wish I wasn’t so aware of all this. I wish that I had found a spiritual practice that allowed me to feel everything I was feeling, to open to the depths of my humanity. I wish that my practice had allowed me to...
Read MoreLifeletter #115: Plant Again
Last spring it rained a lot, as it did in many parts of the world. Here in BC it was a cold rain, that went on and on. I met a friend at our local co-op after many weeks of that rain, who is a farmer, not just a hobby gardener like me. “We planted seeds this year,” I told him, “and they didn’t come up.” “Too cold and wet for a lot of the seeds,” he said. “Was it beans, and sunflowers–plants like that?” “Yes,” I said, “no sunflowers for me this year.” “Those...
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