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Yom Kippur: Fast, Repent and Atone

Tonight at sundown is the beginning of Yom Kippur, which is part of the largest celebration of the Jewish calendar (like Christmas is to the Christians). The celebration of Rosh HaShana, or the welcoming in of the Jewish New Year. Yom Kippur closes out the old Year with a somber 24 hours of fasting, repentance and atonement. As you and I deepen into our spiritual journey, we come to realize that the stories which hold the different religions together are unique to the culture of the religion. However, the spirit underneath the story and the practices to connect with the spirit are similar. It is here where we can connect with each other. As Rumi says, “it is a field beyond the ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing.” In all faiths there are practices of fasting, repentance and atonement. I like to pay attention to what is going on within the religious and spiritual communities as fields are created and made more potent through collective agreement. This is not only something...

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Can You Become Such a King? (Poem)

  Can You Become Such a King? I want that kind of grace from God that when it hits I won’t get off the floor for days. And when I finally do stagger into a semblance of poise I will still need a cane and shoulder to help me walk, and I will need great patience from any who try to decipher my slurred speech. You should forget about knowing the Friend unless you are willing to kiss the world with great abandon. Locked like a pair of dogs, openly making love in the streets, impervious to shouts and pails of water being thrown and glares from eyes that pass. Can you become such an ego-less king? -Rumi Taken from Love Poems from God; Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West...

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The Field of Right and Wrong Making

A minister colleague saw me as being wrong within a situation. She wanted me to provide her with some marketing materials unique to her church and yet she refused to ask me for them. She felt I ought to “know.” I knew her perception had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her pattern of pushing people away, making them wrong in order to step in and be the right one who cleans up the mess saving the day. This pattern provided her with a false sense of superiority. I saw the pattern. And yet, this woman was so caught up in her story that she refused to have a conversation. I was committed to speak at her church and she refused to talk with me. At this point I knew I could do one of several things: see the pattern for what it is and bless her, or step into the energy field of right and wrong making myself an investigator. As I was pondering...

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Broken Heartedness

“We are pain and what cures pain, both.”  Rumi “What is real can never be fully taken away; its essence always remains.” Poet David Whyte Many years ago, my heart broke wide open and since then I have not been the same. It splintered after an operation and my body wasn’t recovering well. My heart broke for the vulnerability and fragility of my physical being. At the same time, my father died. The grief oozed through my body and I saw everything through the temporal lens of death. Listening to a song I would say to myself “this could be the last time I hear this song,” then I’d cry for its beauty. Watching sunrises and sunsets choked me up more. I couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful and I knew there would be a time when my eyes would behold its last. At the same time, a major relationship ended. I chose to leave my home town and relocate to a city far away from family and friends and...

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