All Saints’ Day (or All Hallows’ Day on November 1st) and All Souls’ Day (also called Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos on November 2nd) combine to form a special time each year to remember those who have gone before us. These church holidays are celebrations of gratitude, the continuity of life and a reminder of our place in the cycle.

Ancient wisdom from all traditions teaches that the key to aging gracefully is facing and accepting our own mortality.

Where would we be without reflection? Pondering the past, imagining a new future, integrating our experiences into our sense of self… reflection, and the course corrections we make as a result, allows space for the Spirit to show up in our lives.

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of all true art and science.

The Earth needs our help, and what better place to tell that story than in our worship liturgies?

Autumn… harvest… Indian summer… waiting for the rains… So many images of this time of year

“Our table is open to everyone because Jesus’ table fellowship was open to everyone.”

Where would we be without metaphors in our spiritual conversations?

To be on a spiritual journey is to be constantly evolving our “mental models” about how the world works, how we fit into it, who or what God is (or isn’t) and how God works in the world. Scientists use mental models all the time.

All wisdom traditions understand the need for letting go.  And all wisdom traditions understand how difficult it is for humans to do this.

If you want to understand how we could live in a world where every religion speaks of peace and yet every nation is eventually involved in war, look no farther than what we teach our children.

So many ways to experience the Spirit… and yet if one believes that the universe comprises an objective reality that exists whether or not the human species is present

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” (Lao Tzu)

When I wake up in the middle of the night
and my mind relentlessly gnaws on some bone of contention,
I try to remember Snoopy’s observation:

The world continues to be rocked by racist hate crimes, some carried out churches and synagogues, of all places.

“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” and since the outward manifestation of joy can be deep laughter just as easily as deep tears, then laughter must be a most beloved emotion.

Creativity, imagination, intuition… they are all related. We find them when we’re willing to let go of our left-brain, analytical, see-it-to-believe-it mentality.

Resurrection opportunities abound. Whenever we have faced a fear, a challenge, a death of some sort, and walked through the metaphorical fire to emerge re-born on the other side

Spring and Summer bring Gay Pride days to many cities, and an opportunity for those supporting the LGBT community to acknowledge our solidarity.  As with every area of discrimination, much progress has been made and there is …

Favorite metaphors for the manifestation of Spirit include fire, white doves, and wind. What they have in common is movement…

Our planet is the same size it’s always been, and yet it is shrinking at an astonishing rate.

We all have reasons why we don’t do the things we say we want to. Our minds and hearts know the person we want to be and the life we want to live, but it seems awesomely difficult sometimes to put that knowledge into practice.

Pentecost is often called “the birthday of the church.” With the institutional church going through a period of turmoil and change, it’s not obvious what kind of birthday will be celebrated generations from now.

It is often a huge insight to realize how much control we have over our own thoughts.

A memorial service is a curious creation. On the surface, we behave as if the service is for the person who has just died.

Celebrating the diversity of religious traditions. On the first Sunday in May- this year, May 5, 2013 (or other times during the year) – churches dedicate their worship to a celebration of our interfaith world.

Waiting… waiting… the images of waiting are everywhere just before Easter. Mary Magdalene at the tomb, the disciples wondering “what now?”, all of us in suspension after the events of Good Friday and before the release of Easter Sunday morning.

Thomas Berry, the Catholic priest and ecotheologian, wrote:
We must move beyond a spirituality focused simply on the divine and the human to a spirituality concerned with the survival of the natural world in its full splendor,

Who is my neighbor? We teach the Sunday School to sing Jan Wesson’s hymn:

The restless, curious, ever-questioning human mind… every new door we open leads to new explorations, new questions, new discoveries, and more doors.

Springtime is for planting, one of those everyday expressions of great faith. We plant seeds and water and weed them, and expect a harvest of zinnias or zucchini.

Are you perpetually preparing? Always looking ahead, getting ready for the next event, the next project, the next vacation, the next thing you think you need to do?

How astonished we are to discover how much of life is actually not under our control! We carefully maintain an illusion of control because it gives us comfort and security.

More music and more composers and lyricists! … Progressive Christian worship music is out there — but it does take a little searching. Singing together has its own rewards, and church is one of the few remaining venues where we do it regularly. So it’s worth the effort to find music that your particular congregation will find meaningful.

Solitude is becoming ever more precious in our overly-wired world. Lent is the perfect opportunity to give yourself the gift of time alone.

Progressive Christians are constantly challenged to claim the title of Christian — in the sense of being a follower of Jesus’ teachings — while letting go of most of the dogma that has been developed over the centuries by the human institution that is church.