Our lives as we live them seem like lives that anticipate questions that never will be asked. It seems as if we are getting ourselves ready for the question “How much did you earn during your lifetime?” or “How many friends did you make?” or “How much progress did you make in your career?” or “How […]

So the other night some of us in the Shirey family were talking about the various imperfections of our bodies. It was a fun/funny conversation. In the midst of it, we talked a bit about trees, and how imperfect almost every tree is, and yet how we pay such little attention to their imperfections; we […]

I believe one of the biggest hindrances in life is self-hatred. So much time wasted berating ourselves for being human, fallen, fallible, flawed ... As if we're the only ones ... Maybe it is my age, or perhaps I am just done picking on myself, but I am finding peace with who I am these […]

Dear loud breather next to me in yoga class, Thank you … Really, I mean it …  thank you. For reminding me how much I still need to die to myself … For reminding me life is not about MY comfort, MY preferences, MY desires … For reminding me that loving my enemies can happen […]

Something I find myself pondering these days: Self-righteousness, in a group of people who claim to believe that the Scripture is correct when it says  "There is no one righteous; not one ..." is an especially  ugly trait. Particularly to a watching world ... It was actually one of the few sins Jesus seemed to […]

Jesus always stood on the side of the marginalized, the left out, the ones the religious elite labeled as "unclean," even outside of God's love. At what point in history  did Christians start to believe that we should do otherwise? (Alice Shirey)