Living Consciously February 13, 2009
Here comes another Valentine’s Day.  Predictably there will be the so-called news stories about the health benefits of chocolate, advice on what to give your sweetie and Oprah might do a segment on how to stay married.  But the one that always makes me laugh is How to be Happy Single; as if that were unnatural; as if it were difficult to be alone; as if there were special talents involved or a learning curve. More 

Living Consciously February 12, 2009
What we think of today as negative thinking, is the residue of survival consciousness.  There was a time when we had to be ultra vigilant and hyperaware of possible danger.  Our very lives depended on our ability to identify the breaking of a twig in the forest or the footprints on the path before us.  Is it friend or foe? More

Living Consciously February 11, 2009
If you were asked to describe your health regime, surely it would include exercise, nutritious food and clean water.  That would seem satisfactory to most people but it is only the beginning. Health is more than the absence of disease, just as peace is more than a cessation of war. More

Living Consciously February 10, 2009
The old saying ,  dance the night away  might mean more than not noticing the passage of time, as when suddenly the sun is rising and we realize we were not aware that the night had flown. More  

Living Consciously February 9, 2009
The reason we may have trouble meditating is that for the first time we see the content of our mind.  In our waking, thinking state we do not notice the thousands of fleeting, often negative and condemning thoughts that pass through us every day. It can be quite uncomfortable to discover this field of useless activity which pollutes our inner environment. More 

Living Consciously February 6, 2009
Henry David Thoreau wrote that he would sit all day in the sunny doorway of his little house on Walden Pond bathed in the perfection of the natural world. It was a spiritual practice for him and he said I grew like corn in the night.  Our personal awakening to the great cosmic presence which is so beautifully revealed in nature,  is more like a dawning than a lightning bolt.  Slowly, with time and practice, our mind settles down and our hearts are enlivened. More 

Living Consciously February 5, 2009
The old saying easy come, easy go is often used to describe a person devoid of ambition. But actually, it is a pretty good way of speaking about how the universe works. It reminds me of the biblical reference to how the lilies of the field neither toil nor spin but manage to flourish and to be beautiful anyway. More 

Living Consciously February 4, 2009
When we were 11 years old, my friend Beth and I decided to bake a cake.  Some of the ingredients were unavailable so we threw in whatever we thought might be good. The result was a large, flat, foul tasting and rubbery pancake. We laughed our heads off but her mother had some advice.  I so remember her shaking her head and saying, girls, you can’t change a recipe unless you understand how things work together. Some things have to be included or you won’t get the right result. More

Living Consciously February 3, 2009
The beloved Indian Poet, Kabir, asked: Why put on the robe of the monk, and live aloof from the world in lonely pride?

Too many live in an either/or mentality. They think that spirituality is separate from everyday life, that if we are having fun we cannot be spiritual. Laughter is one of the great indications of the presence of spirit.  When it wells up from deep within a baby, we are awed at how quickly humor reveals itself.  The joy of children running free comes from their delight in being, not because they have no responsibilities.  Even abused children will giggle with their friends, as if they haven’t a care in the world. More

Living Consciously February 2, 2009
Whether we know it or not, we are constantly creating heaven, hell or purgatory right here on earth.  We know what heaven and hell are. Hell is thinking that there is no choice, that other forces besides our own awareness govern our lives.  Hell is hopelessness and despair.  Hell is settling for the lowest possibility and giving up on life.  Heaven is happiness, deep satisfaction, nothing missing, peace in our hearts.  It is feeling that we are seen and heard for who we really are. More 

Living Consciously January 30, 2009
Some things we do for the long term benefits and others for immediate gratification.  Spiritual practice, however, serves us in both of those ways.  Regular meditation gives us the life long benefits of reduced stress and clearer thinking, increased sense of well being and enhanced intuition.  The short term results are simple. We feel happy for no particular reason.  We are calmer and more cheerful, less reactive and more responsive. More

Living Consciously January 29, 2009
As a seven year old learning to swim, I was fine as long as I stayed in the shallow end of the pool.  If my feet suddenly felt the downward slope that led to the “deep end” I would back pedal as fast as I could to avoid the great unknown which seemed so dangerous.  Then one day my instructor said to me, “dear, you will never know how well you can do this if your feet always touch the bottom. Let go and move forward.” More

Living Consciously January 28, 2009
Would you rather be comfortable or powerful?  Old time religion brought comfort to many, even as they endured poverty and pestilence.  As long as people believed that God had a plan, they plodded through life dutifully saying their prayers.  There are times when a faith in a loving Father God keeps people from giving up.  But how much more is possible when we know that God is within us, that we have been made in the image and likeness of what we thought was far way, that God is a principle, not a person and that what we are longing for must come through us, not to us. More

Living Consciously January 27, 2009
Right now the word economy is newsworthy. We tend to think of it as the state of our collective wealth and the marketplace.  But those are the effects.  Economize means to expend with care and prudence.  We are now witnessing what happens when greed and carelessness are managing money. Underneath that behavior is a fear of lack.  The need to hoard and steal is based on a deep belief in scarcity; never enough of anything so one must grab everything. More

Living Consciously January 26, 2009
Every once in a while I get those blank checks from a credit card company.  They tell me that I ought to take off for the South Pacific, redo my kitchen or buy that home theatre system.  The implication is twofold:  that this is a gift from them to reward myself for my willingness to live such a boring life, and that the Good Life is just my signature away. More