Articles on Nature
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Interfaith Reflections on a Hurting World
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet”.-Frederick Buechner “When we seek what is truest in our own tradition, we discover that we are one with those who seek what is truest in their tradition.”-James Finley Frederick Buechner’s words deeply speak to me, and…
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Five Gathered: A Reflection on Group Spiritual Direction
I had the bountiful blessing of making four very close friends this past week. It was not your typical friendship. Five individuals gathered together in faith, in silence, in prayer, and in profound empathy. The gathering was not by chance. No, something else, rather someone else, was at work — One I will call the…
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There is a Crack in Everything
Ring the bells that still can ringForget your perfect offering.There is a crack, a crack in everything.That’s how the light gets in. -Leonard Cohen These words are the refrain from Leonard Cohen’s famous song Anthem, published in 1992. I may be one of few people in my age range who does not remember this song…
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Impermanent Leadership
I recently spent several days at the beach. As I watched the waves come in and go out, I was reminded of the impermanence of all things. Mighty waves crash against the shore and immediately lose their form and power. Sand castles, carefully constructed, disappear in one crash of a wave. At the same time…
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Learning to See
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1: 5 This year I’ve had to replace my Advent wreath candles one by one as they spent themselves illuminating the darkness. Lit not only for dinner or in the evening, they have burned for long stretches of time at all…
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Inside the Ramparts: A Journey Inwards
We speed past green, rolling hills, pastures full of cows and sheep, and the red roofs of brick towns on the way to the Spanish city of Avila. The three hours on the train pass as quickly as the scenery due to my 85-year-old grandma and my excited conversation about the upcoming pilgrimage: our expectations,…