It is dark outside and I am awake ... too early. This is happening more and more and I have decided to relax into it rather than wishing it were different. There is a sacred hush at 4:30 in the morn, the only sound the shuddery breath of our old chocolate lab, Stella. I re-heat […]
I can't close the cover on Ronald Rolheiser's The Shattered Lantern without sharing one last idea. I remember reading this almost 20 years ago when I was in my late 30s and desperately trying to find a sense of myself in this world. I felt responsible to prove myself, to show the world that my […]
It is enough to be, in an ordinary human mode, with one's hunger and sleep, one's cold and warmth, rising and going to bed. Putting on one's blankets and taking them off, making coffee and then drinking it. Defrosting the refrigerator, reading, meditating, working, praying. I live as my fathers have lived on this earth, […]
The third factor that keeps us from living a centered life, according to Ronald Rolheiser, is our unbridled restlessness. All I can say to this one is ... gulp. The concept appears relatively simple: But ... Today, nothing seems enough for us. The simple and primal joys of living ... are mostly lost as we […]
Ronald Rolheiser, in his book The Shattered Lantern, reveals a second factor that keeps most Westerners "busy and bored." The first was narcissism. The second is pragmatism. Initially, I read that word and thought, What on earth is wrong with a little pragmatism? As Rolheiser explains, the word pragmatism stems from the Greek word pragma, […]
"We need not get frantic. God is at the helm. And when our little day is done we lie down quietly in peace, for all is well." (Thomas Kelly)
