Faith & Life Inspirational Message

I like to read in monastic spirituality because the monks and nuns are so clearly focused on the spiritual life.   It is their central concern in life.   Monastics set aside the usual normal things that occupy most of us in order to be singularly occupied with the search and life with God.   That does not make them more than human or even more spiritual than any of the rest of us.   But it does give them a singular advantage.   One of the things I am most sure of is the fact that much of the spiritual life is actually simple.   I do not know any monk who would not confirm the fact that much spiritual life is simple.   Of course, there can be some complexity at times.   But by and large, the spiritual journey is simple.   We probably are too self-serving to say that spirituality has to be complex.   If that were true, then it takes us off the hook from even trying.      In addition to being simple, I also am confident...

For a fairly long time in my professional life I have been interested in contemplation.   As I so often comment, “contemplation” is not a word I heard while growing up as a young Quaker in Indiana.   I am confident I was not paying attention.   I don’t think Quakers I knew were using that word, “contemplation.”   So if I had been asked about it, I would have offered a blank stare.             I am sure I heard about the word, “contemplation,” while I was in school.   I may have heard of it in college, but more likely I first heard about it in graduate school.   I can guess I encountered it first in some kind of history of Christianity class.   Because Quakerism dates from the 17 th century, we have a bad habit of skipping from Jesus to the 17 th century.   I knew almost nothing about the sixteen hundred years between Jesus and the origins of my tradition.   Quite a bit happened durin...

There is an idiomatic phrase in English that I have heard since I was a little boy.   The phrase is “throw a bucket of cold water on it.”   The phrase means, “to criticize or stop something that some people are enthusiastic about.”   Sometimes I have heard that phrase being used when the act has already been done.   For example, someone might quip, “I would have succeeded but someone threw a bucket of cold water on it.”   Sometimes the phrase is used as a kind of warning or cautionary note.   Someone might say, “Go ahead and try it, but you’ll find someone will come along and throw a bucket of cold water on it.”             I have heard the phrase describe the kind of “Debbie Downer” person who always takes a negative view of things.   I associate the phrase with a kind of negativity.   Because of the work I have done in innovation, it is a dreaded phrase.   It usually means someone th...

I had tried to resist imposing pictures and stories of my grandkids on people.   I understand that no one cares about my grandkid in the same way as I and the other grandparents do.   I have looked at countless pictures of others’ grandchildren and sat passively as they showed me pictures and all I could do was feign some interest and say something like, “That’s nice!”             These days of cell phones and instant pictures only make the assault worse.   Instead of the hesitation we used to feel when we took pictures, had to develop and pay for them, the cell phone makes multiple, instant pictures seem totally free.   Grandparents figure if one picture of the cute little bugger is good, ten pictures should be absolutely astonishing!             It was easy to feel smugly superior to all grandparents---that is, before I had any grandkids.   I...