We are a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence. —Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson has been on my mind because I’m going to visit his home in Concord in a couple of weeks. The quote above is one of my favorites from his writing. I'm looking forward to seeing where Emerson, Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott and others sat and had tea and talked about the great questions of life together. We will also see the cemetery whe

So when you get past your turnoff to all the televangelists, what do you see of value in the life of Jesus?” I asked a young person a few days before Easter several years ago. She said, “I’m not interested in all that back there 2000 years ago. I want to know if anyone is willing to take it seriously and live that way today.” She was expressing what so many of those dubbed “American nones” (for checking “none” on surveys about religious affiliation) say about their disaffect

This joke came to me courtesy of a friend: A couple showed up for counseling. The woman relayed her list of issues: feeling disconnected, lonely, unloved, taken for granted, and so on. After listening to her, the counselor jumped up, knelt down before her, took her hand, gazed deeply into her eyes, and said, “You are the love of my life!” He then turned to her husband and said, "Your wife needs this kind of affirmation regularly. Can you make it happen three times a week?" Th

"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies within you." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson This week, I’ll put the right brain (nested meditation) first and the left brain (prose) second. Here’s an attempt from Now is Where God Lives to address the tension between finite realities and infinite longings that lies within us all: I am at peace. I am at peace with not being at peace. I am at peace with not being at peace. I am content. I am at peace w