Since this year marked the 25th commemoration of the 9/11 attacks, I was reminded of when our family visited the memorial in New York City in 2019. At the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero, a tree near the fountains is named the Survivor Tree. This tree is aptly named, as it…
As children, my brother and I pretended we were pirates looking for buried treasure. We would make a map and put a big “X” on the spot where the treasure was buried. We would then hunt for that treasure in the woods around our home in Oregon. Of course, we never found the chest of gold, but we enjoyed the hunt.
Nowadays, people still play this game with their…
The other day, I was watching a documentary on the tropical rainforests. Out of six million square miles of tropical rainforests that once existed worldwide, only 2.4 million square miles remain. But they are still there. As you can imagine, those rainforests are not only critical to our survival as a planet, but they can teach us something about living together…
When I became a mother, I was given the opportunity to be exposed to classic “baby” literature. You know, Goodnight Moon, Guess How Much I Love You, The Wheels on the Bus, and, of course, Runaway Bunny. Most parents know Runaway Bunny, and they always nod with a knowing smile when the title is mentioned. After I read it (which takes about two minutes), I understood why they smiled…
Our goddaughter, Lauren, recently got married. When these special occasions occur, if you’re like me, a flood of memories comes to mind of when they were little. Thinking back on Lauren’s life, I was reminded of the following story that not only spoke to her insight at such a young age but also to an important lesson we can all learn from…
“I can be free of suffering today”
For most of us, this is a joyous statement and one we want to embrace and experience. It would seem unthinkable that anyone would not want to be released from suffering. And yet, all we need to do is look around the world, see all the suffering and pain, and wonder whether this thought is realistic or even desirable…
Ram Dass was born Richard Alpert into a wealthy Boston family and received his PhD in psychology from Stanford. In the 1960s, while teaching at Harvard, he spent much of his time studying psychedelics with fellow psychologist Timothy Leary. Their goal was to understand the mind-body connection using these drugs. Harvard found their work too controversial, and both were fired.
Alpert and Leary parted ways. Leary became a well-known figure in the 1960s counterculture, popularizing catchphrases like…
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“Father, You stand before me and behind, beside me, in the place I see myself, and everywhere I go. You are in all the things I look upon, the sounds I hear, and every hand that reaches for my own. In You time disappears, and place becomes a meaningless belief. For what surrounds Your Son and keeps him safe is Love itself.”
These beautiful and reassuring thoughts begin Workbook Lesson 264 from A Course in Miracles. And, these are more than just thoughts; they are affirmations of faith…
I watched as the hummingbird, with decisive precision, grace, and speed, retrieved the nectar from one flower and then the next. He was an amazing example of accuracy. Not one movement was extraneous; each had a purpose, and that purpose was clear to see. My attention was then turned to a big, black, bumbling bug that appeared to be a bee of some sort. It looked as if his radar was a little off-kilter as he approached flower after flower in off-angled attempts to withdraw his morning breakfast. Bumping into a fence here and a leaf there, not quite landing on the flower in the perfect position and having to try it again, it seemed like he was the exact opposite of the magnificent hummingbird. But was he…