The battle between hope and despair seems fiercer than ever this year. A few promising signs of hope have appeared and still, there are many that can make me feel hopeless. How do we renew our aspirations for good and resilience?
Spirituality & Love
Spirituality & Love — what we offer to readers on this topic...
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Encouragement and Understanding as a path to Unconditional Love
Last week a neighbor of mine died of Covid. I didn’t know him all that well, but his death has both shaken me and deepened my sense of how people can truly change the world.
Anne Smith: A Midwest Champion for Women
Hundreds of wives of men with drinking problems from all over the nation came to call her Anne S. or Annie.
The sunset surprise – more about love
Until recently, I thought sunsets were something to pay attention to when on vacation at the beach. After all, being on the east or west coast of the ocean makes the morning rising and evening falling of the sun more spectacular than anywhere else. Thankfully, I recently shattered that limiting belief.
Squirrels, contemplation and love
At first, I wondered where the squirrel was heading in such a hurry. Then I gasped as she was nearing the top of the fifty-foot-tall oak and leaped to what looked like a very thin branch. My interest heightened when another squirrel came racing up the tree, making it...
Room for All – Black History and Valentine’s
Our family has begun having intergenerational zoom discussions about justice and equity. We cross-pollinate with in-laws and cousins from our partners’ families which makes the conversations particularly rich. My wife’s niece talked about the struggles a mid-west art...
More on Hope
And we thought 2021 might be different than 2020? Now we all have two never-would-have-imagined experiences – a pandemic and an armed insurrection. It is a good thing we are hopeful people! This week we continue our focus on hope. I am delighted to share reflections...
Hope for 2021: Wishful thinking?
I imagine we all are hoping for a better 2021! In my town of Greenbelt, Maryland, we marked the ending of the tumultuous 2020 by all going outside at midnight on New Year’s Eve to bang pots and pans. Not a new idea, yet very therapeutic and symbolic of the feeling of...
Out of chaos: lessons on faith from Twelve Step pioneers
We need to believe in something other than our own intellect and abilities. This awareness led the pioneers of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) to the liberating and empowering notion of a “power greater than ourselves – a Higher Power.” Today we explore this second key...
Order out of chaos: Lessons from Twelve Step pioneers
We need each other. We need to believe in something other than our own intellect and ability. These are two of the fundamental beliefs that allowed Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon Family Groups and other Twelve Step programs to grow and flourish. These two concepts...