When somebody shames you, take a step back. Don’t make quick decisions. You have the right (and duty) to get a second opinion. Guard your choices. They are a sacred gift. Ultimately, it is from this luminous choosing part of ourselves that we reach toward all that is hopeful. It is from this place of freedom that all good and lasting growth comes.

“My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon.” ~Japanese Poet Masahide For the last seven years, my husband struggled to balance his job and a rigorous Ph.D. program. Several times a day, I would ask myself, “What if all the years we put into this are wasted. What if it [...]

For my friends at Ground Zero, cleaning was a cosmic act. In a place of chaos and despair, they were able to create a pocket of serenity and to witness to the reality of a divine pattern despite the brokenness all around them. By putting things back into their places, they witnessed to the tearless luminous world that is just beyond the edge of our own.

I recently took my 7-year-old daughter to see the movie “Earth.” It’s breathtaking, with vivid scenes of fungi growing, birds tumbling from their nest in their first flight attempts and luminous snowy shots of polar bears struggling to survive in the arctic. But it’s also heartbreaking. In one aching scene, a wolf chases a baby [...]

My cousin Joey always seemed to have an internal sleep switch he could flip at will. When we were kids, I envied him terribly for this. At night, we’d be in the middle of a Monopoly game and he would mention his sleepiness. Before we’d had a chance to roll the dice, he’d disappear into [...]