All Together Now
It’s sunrise in Yosemite Valley. A family of mule deer is grazing just a few feet from my camp chair alongside the Merced River. Majestic cliffs rise in every direction, the granite still seeming to glow with last night’s full…
Tomayto Tomahto
God can be a controversial idea. Amongst many of my friends and family, people I respect and admire, any mention of “God” can prompt a prickly sensitivity or a dismissive eye-roll — like I’m a superstitious nut job utterly out…
Hootenanny
Singing together is good for us. Numerous studies have demonstrated the psychological, emotional, and physiological benefits of lifting our voices together in song. Singing stimulates our bodies to produce endorphins, which engender feelings of well-being, even euphoria, and help to…
Driver’s Seat
Last December, a small group of us decided to host a caroling event for Christmas Eve at Maple Street Dance Space. (This was the first glimmering of what was to blossom into Bosque Center for Spiritual Living). Man oh man,…
Baked Goods
Not long ago, my niece Mary introduced me to "The Great British Baking Show." There are four seasons on Netflix, so I guess it’s been around a while. I know I’d heard of it before, but I’d never been all…
It Had To Be Hafiz
14th-century Persian poet and mystic Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī, known today primarily by his pen-name “Hafiz,” wrote about Divine Love as a lusty, wine-soaked, personal ecstasy. He took aim at any religious hypocrisy that held human life as separate…
What a Piece of Work
Last week Travis and I visited the NM Natural History Museum to see the special Leonardo da Vinci exhibit. Before Leonardo, we popped in to the Planetarium to see a presentation — it was called “From Earth to the Universe,”…
Dare to Prosper
by Travis Chapman When I was asked if I would like to give the talk this week at Bosque Center for Spiritual Living, I knew immediately what I would talk about. Prosperity is one of my favorite topics because it…
Look Both Ways
I encountered a Rumi quote this week: "Every moment contains a hundred messages from God. For every cry of ‘Oh, God,’ He answers a hundred times, ‘I am here.’" At first I thought: how lovely, how reassuring — always, no…