2021 Newsletters

Just as one candle lights another and can light thousands of other candles, so one heart illuminates another heart and can illuminate thousands of other hearts. (Leo Tolstoy) Once in awhile a brief encounter impacts us and lingers for a long time. Three weeks ago I [...]

Two events in November come together as hope-filled bookends. The month opens with a favorite feast of mine: All Saints. It closes with another: the Thanksgiving holiday. This year these two events especially capture my attention due to the disturbing travails that continue to cloud clear-seeing and [...]

Hope is usually at the center of my heart. But that was not the case a few weeks ago. I felt disheartened and wondered if anything would ever change regarding the damaging issues burdening humanity and our planet. My discouragement began one morning with a woman sitting [...]

(My new book, Return to the Root, is due out in October. The following contains some excerpts from the “Introduction.”) If you pull up a plant in the garden, dig out a dandelion in the lawn, or find a shrub uprooted by a fierce wind, you will [...]

In his poem “Any Morning,” William Stafford describes himself as “Just lying on the couch and being happy.” He wryly comments that the troubles of the world can go on without him for awhile. He’s simply enjoying a time of contentment. […]

Last week I led the workshop for new Boundless Compassion facilitators who gathered for a week of growing in compassion. I marveled at the desire, determination, and dedication of people like themselves who are willing to tend to their own suffering and that of others with kindness [...]

“Joy is the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.”                            (Brother David Steindl-Rast) We stood before a thickly branched blue spruce that must be at least 70 feet tall. How different we were, [...]

Many thoughts surfaced in mid-April when I stood before a coffin and gazed upon the body of 93-year-old Sr. Rita Mary. In the past year she had designed and sewn over 1,000 masks to safeguard others from Covid-19. I wondered how many lives she may have saved [...]

The long span of being confined by Covid-19 has been like an entombment for many of us. I offer the following to provide encouragement as we experience the layered, spiraling cycle of life-death-rebirth, the ongoing process of inner transformation. […]

Here in Iowa the strong sunshine is melting our mountains of snow. Eventually, thoseenormous mounds will become little hills, then tufts, and finally disappear altogether. Ihave enjoyed this process every year and never cease to marvel at how a zillion iceparticles are converted into flowing streams [...]

Lent formally begins February 17th with ashes placed on the foreheads of those attendingchurch services. A somber message of “Repent and believe the good news,” or “Dust you areand to dust you shall return” usually accompanies those ashes. A completely new view ofashes arrived when I [...]

Dear Spirit of 2021,   Are you overjoyed with everyone’s eagerness to step into a new year? We are definitelyready to walk with you, anticipating joy and being relieved to think that better days mightbe ahead of us. […]