The Value of Stepping Away I have come to appreciate the idea that sometimes the most productive thing a person can do is stop working for a moment and think. That sounds almost backwards in a culture that rewards movement, speed, and constant availability. We are taught to answer the email, return the call, finish
Sometimes the Most Productive Thing We Can Do Is Stop and Think Read More »
The Idea That Stopped Me Every now and then I hear an idea that makes me stop and think about something I thought I already understood. One of those ideas is the claim that time does not move in a straight line at the quantum level. The popular version says the past, present, and future
Are We Moving Toward the Future, or Creating It? Read More »
A Question Humanity Has Always Asked I have often wondered what happens in those first few moments after we die. I am not talking about what might happen fifty years later or where some final spiritual destination may be. I mean that immediate moment when the heart stops, the body becomes still, and whatever comes
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Learning to Care for the Body I Have The older I get, the more I understand that my body deserves care rather than constant criticism. This body has carried me through every season of my life, including times when I asked more of it than I realized. It has allowed me to walk, work, travel,
Listening to the Hunger Beneath the Hunger Read More »
A Word That Made Me Stop and Think Not long ago, I heard a young Black brother talking about his years of training in an old Southern Chinese martial arts tradition, and something he said stayed with me. He explained that when he began training as a child, his teachers did more than show him
The Word We Never Learned Read More »
When Something Inside Us Knows Most of us have had moments when something inside us seemed to know something before we could explain it. We may suddenly feel the need to call somebody, take another road, accept an opportunity, or simply leave something alone. Sometimes that feeling shows up as tightness in the stomach or
The Familiar Voice Within: Learning to Trust What We Know Read More »
Looking for Something Deeper I have come to understand mysticism as the search for something deeper than what we can see with our eyes or touch with our hands. Human beings have been asking the same big questions for thousands of years. Who are we, why are we here, and what are we supposed to
Mysticism and the Wisdom We Carry Within Read More »
The Question That Has Always Bothered Me The story of Adam and Eve leaves me with a question that is hard to brush aside. If God knows everything, then God already knew Adam and Eve would disobey before he created them. He knew the serpent would tempt them and knew what choice they would make.
If God Knew We Would Fall, Why Create Us Anyway? Read More »
When Modern Words Are Missing From Scripture The words boyfriend and girlfriend do not appear in the Bible, but that fact needs some historical context. The Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek long before modern dating language existed. People in biblical times did not organize romantic relationships the same way we do today.
Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Marriage, and the Building of Strong Families Read More »
The Question of Who We Really Are Most of us go through life believing there is one continuous person inside us who has remained basically the same since childhood. We say, “I was ten years old,” “I made that mistake,” and “I will do better tomorrow,” as though one permanent self has traveled through every
You Are Connected to Your Past, but You Are Not Imprisoned by It Read More »