Spirituality

Spirituality is best practiced with humility and playfulness, like kids in a sandbox exploring the boundaries of imagination and possibility. Fun is not just fun, although it IS that. Fun is a pathway to enLIGHTenment, by lightening your anxiety, loosening your attachments and letting go of the need to be right. Fun and laughter are powerful spiritual tools ... Continue Reading »

A couple goes for a meal at a Chinese restaurant and orders the Chicken Surprise. The waiter brings the meal, served in a lidded cast iron pot. Just as the wife is about to serve herself, the lid of the pot rises lightly and she briefly sees two beady little eyes looking around before the ... Continue Reading »

Who are you? It’s a strange question to answer. Usually we think of something we do, something we did, or a way we like to be seen. Anthony de Mello tells the story about a woman in a coma who has a near death experience. She hears a voice.  “Who are you?” the voice says ... Continue Reading »

One of my favorite scenes in the cult movie The Blues Brothers is when Jake and Elwood and the band impersonate The Good Ole Boys at an out of the way bar called Bob’s Country Bunker. They look around suspiciously and ask the owner what sort of music they usually offer. She says, “Oh, we ... Continue Reading »

Did Jesus have a wife? It’s become quite a meme in the last week, since a tiny scrap of ancient papyrus showed up with the words, “Jesus said, my wife…..” Let’s assume he did have a wife, and ask the question, “What would Jesus wife say?” Here are some of the funnier possibilities I’ve read ... Continue Reading »

How long does it take you to wake up in the morning? I’m not talking about opening your eyes. I’m talking about opening your mind and letting it be blown by the wonder of being alive. Often, we are still asleep when we get out of bed. We leave the house and amble through the ... Continue Reading »

In “The 2000 Year Old Man” Mel Brooks plays the 2000 year old man. He is interviewed while at Mayo Clinic for a checkup. At one point in the interview he is asked, “Did you always believe in God?” Brooks replied: “No. We had a guy in our village named Phil, and for a time ... Continue Reading »

One of the Hebrew names for God is 4 letters put together. Yud, hey, vav and hey, or Y, H, V and H, make up the name “Yahweh”. Is it just me or do the four letters Y, H, V and H look like yoga moves? Take another look! It brings alive the idea of ... Continue Reading »

The evolution of God is one of THE biggest ideas of all. The way people have experienced God has always changed. One of the biggest changes was the move from pagan (fancy word for “earth based”) deities to transcendent (fancy word for “beyond the earth”)  deity(ies). Think about the history of God using the analogy ... Continue Reading »

I once asked a group of people to point to God. Arms shot out all over the place. It was like Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, a sacred geometry of pointed arms. Some pointed up. Some out the window. Some pointed to people near them. Some swirled their hands around like flowing energy. Many pointed back ... Continue Reading »

Two men were sharing a hospital room. Both of them were very sick and confined to bed. One lay near the window and the other was away from the window. They struck up a friendship and talked for hours on end. The man near the window described the scene out of the window in great ... Continue Reading »

One of my favorite scenes in the cult movie The Blues Brothers is when Jake and Elwood and the band impersonate The Good Ole Boys at an out of the way bar called Bob’s Country Bunker. They look around suspiciously and ask the owner what sort of music they usually have. She says, “Oh, we ... Continue Reading »

This is the third article in a series on responsibility. First I looked at the personal and relational issues around responsibility, where each individual owns their choices, responses and feelings. It’s summarized well by the Fritz Perls statement, I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live ... Continue Reading »

Fun is important, and not just to kids and comedians. It’s important for all people and all species. Animals get this.  Magpies wrestle, foxes jump on trampolines and elk frolic in puddles. Bears charge rivers, monkeys somersault down hills, and elephants doodle with sticks in the earth. Fun even crosses species lines. Polar bears horse ... Continue Reading »

A physicist, biologist and a chemist visit the ocean for the first time in their lives. The physicist sees the ocean and is fascinated by the waves. He decides to do some research on the fluid dynamics of the waves and walks into the ocean, never to be seen again. The biologist decides to research ... Continue Reading »