JOYFUL WANDERING -- 61

+ Updated on Tuesday, March 8 at 7:49am

+ Spiritual & Practice offers A Thought to Carry with You :

Way back in 1971, humorist Erma Bombeck wrote that it seems "rather incongruous that in a society of supersophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners." She was not only perceptive but prophetic. 

This week, help reverse the trend. Look for a way each day to listen to someone, letting go of any other agenda. Remember all the tools at your disposal: concentrated silence, a nod, simple words of support like "um hmm" or "oh?" or "wow!" Reflect back what you hear the other person saying, so that they can hear themselves more clearly. Ask follow-up questions like "How come?" or "What happened then?" Offer gentle encouragement to someone by your unconditionally accepting presence. It's okay if that someone is yourself.

+ Spiritual & Practice offers "Unleashing America's Shadow" by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Excerpt: "'With media complicity, Trump has unleashed the beast that has long resided not far from the American hearth, from those who started a Civil War to preserve the right to enslave a fellow human to the Know-Nothing mobs who burned Irish-Catholic churches out of fear of immigrants.' This observation is from Timothy Egan's excellent article "The Beast Is Us" in The New York Times."

+ Patheos offers "The Making of Donald Trump and the Unmaking of a Nation" by Frederic Schmidt. Excerpt: "But Donald Trump is also the media’s creation. Together, since Richard Nixon’s appearance on 'Laugh In,' Presidents and the media have been erasing the boundary between entertainment and national leadership. Presidents make the rounds on talk shows and fawn over the hosts, treating them as the high priests of public opinion. They try their hand at stand-up comedy and they reduce policy debates into punch lines."

+ Dharma Wisdom offers "The Heart's Intention" by Phillip Moffitt. Excerpt: "Setting intention, at least according to Buddhist teachings, is quite different than goal making. It is not oriented toward a future outcome. Instead, it is a path or practice that is focused on how you are 'being' in the present moment. Your attention is on the ever present 'now' in the constantly changing flow of life. You set your intentions based on understanding what matters most to you and make a commitment to align your worldly actions with your inner values."

+ Weaving Home offers "Wilderness Places" by Naomi Kelly. Excerpt: "So we can come face to face with ourselves in the wilderness, with our fears, with what gets under our skin and makes us act in certain ways,. When we are on a Lenten journey, we take the time to see, to let our inner nature see the false self that so often holds us hostage. Seeng with the eyes of the heart can reveal all the pettiness and fear that tends to drive us into habitual directions of non-functionality."

+ Patheos offers "On Making America Great Again" by Erin Wathen. 

+ So, would a Bernie Sanders presidency be good for the economy?  An independent analysis suggests that it would be a dream come true for millions of hard working Americans who deserve much better than what the plutocracy has offered us in recent years. Common Dreams offers "Enacting Sanders Agenda Would Catapult Economy, Shatter Inequality" by Lauren McCauley.

+ Joyful Wandering posts 1 to 58 are found on The Abundancetrek Blog. You can find them all here.

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+ updated at 2:26pm ESDT on Saturday, April 19, 2014

+ What Teachers Make > http://thesocialcrat.com/?p=511

+ Today's Daily Zen:

Know the essence of mind.

Its intrinsic essence is

Pure clarity.

It is essentially the same as a Buddha.

- Tao-hsin (580-651)

+ Gratefulness Word for the Day today: “Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity.” -- Michael J. Gelb

+ Inner Frontier Inner Work > Energy Breathing (Deepening Our Inner Life: Part 2) > excerpt > “As we work on becoming aware of and breathing this energy, we discover an unmistakable and wonderful flow of energy in our breath, strengthening our energy body. But this energy flow is never automatic; it requires intention and attention to separate the energy from the ordinary air. Spending time every day on this energy breathing practice proves invaluable in filling us with sensation and establishing our energy body, giving us a sturdy vessel for presence and for deepening our path.”

+ This is a very important read: Jerusalem is a sacred city for all 3 Abrahamic faiths and must be treated as such. Palestinians definitely regard Jerusalem as their capital and international law recognizes Palestinian rights. So, read this > http://www.kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/Easter%20Alert%202014.pdf

Here is more solid information about the plight of the citizens of East Jerusalem > The Ghettoization of East Jerusalem > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-farah/the-ghettoization-of-east_b_3387202.html

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+ updated at 4:14pm ESDT on Friday, March 28, 2014

+ Page 5 of The Amazing Journey is now posted on The Abundancetrek Blog.

+ Here is an excerpt from this week's Inner Work at Inner Frontier > Rising Above Our Plateaus > As our inner work deepens, joy, love, conscience, and equanimity suffuse our life. This is wonderful and, for many who come to it, good enough. So after reaching that grand plateau, one can practice just enough to maintain the necessary inner tone. If that meets a person’s goals and aspirations with regard to their inner life, then he or she has attained what they sought. This is completely honorable. The world certainly is a better place because of people who live in such a state. This is a groove, not a rut.

For others, however, the spiritual path has no upper bound. Their aspirations reach all the way to the Divine. For them, any spiritual plateau, no matter how sublime, is a rut, a temptation to be overcome.

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+ updated at 11:50am EST on Friday, March 14, 2014

+ Yesterday's Gratefulness Word for the Day:

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower, our whole life would change.”

-- The Buddha

+ Yesterday's Daily Zen: 

If you want to complete the unsurpassable Buddha Way, you must first vow to save each and every sentient being, whose numbers are infinite. If you want to save all sentient beings, you must arouse a spirit of dauntless courage and push yourself forward mercilessly until you can see your true nature as if you are looking at it in the palm of your hand. 

– Hakuin

+ Last week Joseph Naft began a new series at Inner Frontier on The Path of The Path. This week he offers his wonderful wisdom on Handling Peaks. Here is an excerpt: "The spiritual path, our inner work is rightly directed at changing our station, at a lasting transformation of our level of being. The methods of the path accomplish this by training us to enter into and extend our stay in a state corresponding to the next higher level beyond our current station. The intention is eventually to make that next higher state our new station, to enable us to live in that new way. This takes long-term persistence." | Read it all

+ The Gratefulness Word for the Day:

The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves.

 -- Terry Tempest Williams in Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer (anthology)

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+ Four pages of The Amazing Journey are now posted on The Abundancetrek Blog. 

There will be 46 or 47 more pages.  I wrote these pages last year with pen and paper and I am slowly putting them into the computer with my keyboard word for word. 

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 

It's the first draft of a book I hope to publish but it would be so much better if YOU contributed. It is the result of years of prayer, contemplation, meditation and study. I  got a lot of help from the Heavenly Council so it is already a joint project. I would like it to be the joint project of many fellow adventurers journeying in the Inner Frontier.  

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 

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+ At Inner Frontier, Joseph Naft begins a new series of Inner Work, The Path of the Path.  He began today with Peaks, Valleys and Plateaus.  

Excerpt 1: "The single most important act, in terms of our progress on the spiritual path, is to resolve and continually renew our resolution to keep with our practice come what may. The seasons of our path, with the rebirth of spring, the growth of summer, the inward turn of fall, and treadmill of winter, come and go of their own accord, without a schedule. As we have seen, the causes are complex and often indecipherable. It taxes our wisdom to do more than just muddle through."

Excerpt 2: "In serving the spirit, happiness often comes as a byproduct of leading a right life. In primarily seeking happiness, we tend not to find it. The extent to which we stay committed to our inner work in the sunny moments, reveals our motivations to us."

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+ updated at 4:13pm EST on Friday, February 21, 2014

+ Wildmind offers Ten Tips for Mindful Driving.

+ I love listening to the Sound of the Surf. Listen to a four hour recording of Pacific surf.

+ You can hear the sound of the surf as Ed Bastian leads you through the 7 steps of InterSpiritual Meditation which are:

1. May we be happy and healthy.
2. May we be grateful.
3. May we be transformed.
4. May we be loving and compassionate.
5. May we be mindful through our breathing.
6. May we become wise through meditation.
7. May we be in service to all.

Listen and watch.

You can start the surf video and then the Ed Bastian video. Your computer can probably handle both of the soundtracks.  

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+ SUFI WISDOM > Excerpt from the Third Thought > "There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader …. To the eye of the seer every leaf of the tree is a page of the holy book that contains divine revelation, and he is inspired every moment of his life by constantly reading and understanding the holy script of nature." < http://sufiorder.org/Sufi_Thoughts.html

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+ Shambala Sun offers “Love & Relationships: What the Buddhists Teach“ > The Introduction states: “From the profound to the practical, from the basic split between self and other to dealing with your partner’s anger, four prominent teachers and psychologists talked about all the issues of relationships at this year’s annual Shambhala Sun/Omega Institute program, ‘What the Buddhists Teach.’ Here are four essays on the dharma of relationships, adapted from their presentations. Presenters were  The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Sylvia Boorstein, John Tarrant, and Polly Young-Eisendrath.

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+ updated at 1:00pm EST on Wednesday, January 22, 2014

+ Thanks to my friend Ralph Clingan I just discovered a fascinating website and Facebook site:  http://connectiontocreative.com/ | http://connectiontocreative.com/daily-affirmation/ | https://www.facebook.com/connectiontocreative

I suggest you go through the 167 photos on the Facebook site.

+ Democracy Now! offers an excerpt from a new documentary being featured at the Sundance Festival. Go to "Alive Inside: How the Magic of Music Proves Therapeutic for Patients With Alzheimer’s and Dementia." Here is a portion of the report:
Could a pair of headphones change the lives of millions of Americans suffering from Alzheimers and dementia? "Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory," a new documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, follows a social worker named Dan Cohen who has launched a campaign to bring iPods and music therapy to nursing homes. One of the central characters he works with is a 90-something Alzheimer’s patient named Henry Dryer, who was featured in a video posted online that went viral in 2012, with nearly 10 million views. The clip begins with video of Dryer looking largely unresponsive to the outside world. Then he was given a pair of headphones to listen to Cab Calloway, his favorite artist. The music energizes him, awakens him and helps bring back old memories. We play clips from the film and speak with Cohen about his project, "Music & Memory," which he hopes to expand around the world. We are also joined by Michael Rossato-Bennett, the film’s director and producer.

+ January is Poverty Awareness Month.  Spirituality and Practice offers information, inspiration and illumination with daily posts. It is not too late to get informed, inspired and illuminated. | See the list. 

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+ updated at 4:36pm EST on Monday, January 20, 2014

+ Daily Kos offers "Most of You Have No Idea of What Martin Luther King Actually Did" by Hamden Rice. Excerpt: 

He ended the terror of living as a black person, especially in the south.

I'm guessing that most of you, especially those having come fresh from seeing The Help, may not understand what this was all about. But living in the south (and in parts of the midwest and in many ghettos of the north) was living under terrorism.  

It wasn't that black people had to use a separate drinking fountain or couldn't sit at lunch counters, or had to sit in the back of the bus.  

You really must disabuse yourself of this idea. Lunch counters and buses were crucial symbolic planes of struggle that the civil rights movement used to dramatize the issue, but the main suffering in the south did not come from our inability to drink from the same fountain, ride in the front of the bus or eat lunch at Woolworth's.

It was that white people, mostly white men, occasionally went berserk, and grabbed random black people, usually men, and lynched them. You all know about lynching. But you may forget or not know that white people also randomly beat black people, and the black people could not fight back, for fear of even worse punishment.  

This constant low level dread of atavistic violence is what kept the system running. It made life miserable, stressful and terrifying for black people.  

White people also occasionally tried black people, esp 

+ The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor offers "Pregnant with God." Here it is:

I beheld the fullness of God in which I beheld and comprehended the whole of creation, that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else.  And in everything that I saw, I could perceive nothing except the presence of the power of God, and in a manner totally indescribable.  And my soul in an excess of wonder cried out: “This world is pregnant with God!”  Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation – that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else – but the power of God fills it all to overflowing.

-St. Angela of Foligno (1248-1309)

Passage retrieved from http://datinggod.org/2010/10/01/the-world-is-pregnant-with-god/

+ Here is today's Daily Zen:

During the moment of illumination,

When I see the original face of mind,

A limitless compassion arises.

The greater the illumination,

The greater is the compassion.

The greater my compassion,

The deeper is the wisdom I feel.

- Garmaba

+ Here is today's Gratefulness Word for the Day: "If you have a strong mind and plant in it a firm resolve, you can change your destiny." -- Paramahansa Yogananda

+ Spirituality and Practice offers resources for MARTIN LUTHER KING jr DAY.

+ Today's S&P poverty month resource is an excerpt from Meal by Meal: 365 Daily Meditations for Finding Balance through Mindful Eating by Donald Altman > The excerpt begins: “"For some, leftovers are associated with poverty. For others, they signify a treasure that is not to be wasted. It seems that people either love leftovers or hate them.” Read the entire excerpt

+ Today's S&P spiritual reading is an excerpt from What You Will See Inside a Hindu Temple by Dr. Mahendra Jani and Dr. Vandana Jani > Dr. Mahendra Jani and Dr. Vendana Jani provide a succinct overview of what goes on in a Hindu temple. | Read an excerpt on devotion in Hindu homes.

+ Inner Frontier is beginning a new Inner Work series on MIND AND THOUGHT. Here is an excerpt from the introduction: “Because of their range and flexibility, our thoughts give us the illusion of freedom. But the truth is that our thoughts are bound by their patterns and by memory. Their central pattern is that they refer to a non-existent self, our ego, that we believe we are. Our thoughts create our ego in the same way that a novelist creates a character.” | Read the Introduction

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+ Updated at 5:22pm EST on Friday, January 10, 2014

+ This afternoon, I worked on the Abundancetrek Stillness Page which has not been updated for a while. There are many new quotes and other resources. Some links are broken and there is some duplication.

+  I added THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE LISTS to my website, Abundancetrek.com, this morning. It now includes J. Barrett Lee’s Five Categories of Prayer.  He told me that he borrowed a lot but I like the way he put it together in an original way.

 

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+ updated at 11:11am EST on Monday, January 6, 2014

+ Hey, friends, remember the book we are working on? I NEED you. Let's begin again. Here is Page 1 > http://abundancetrekblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-amazing-journey-page-1.html 

What are your thoughts about these ideas? You can post in Comments here or at https://www.facebook.com/abundancetrek/posts/10202086005284056

Today being Epiphany and the beginning of a new liturgical season ... please share what's happening in your spiritual journey, or your life adventure or whatever you want to call your quest for joy and meaning and purpose.

 

Breathe Deeply. Breathe fully. Be still. Be silent. Be centered. Be grounded. ighten up. Loosen up. Let go. Let God. Celebrate. Enjoy. Be glad all over!

 

I like to exhale on "Breathe Deeply" and inhale on "Breathe Fully." Same with "Be Still" and "Be Silent" and all the other pairs. Sometimes I use beads and sometimes just my fingers to keep track. Then I will go into my sacred word as taught by Thomas Keating in his Centering Prayer method. 

 

My sacred word hasn't changed for about a decade but you can change it from one Meditation Session or Prayer Session or Contemplation Session to the next if you want to.

+ Today is Epiphany when we celebrate the revelation (appearance, manifestation) of Jesus as the Son of God come into the world.  It is the wise men who first proclaim this truth to the world. Other events in the life of Jesus marking this wondrous revelation are celebrated during this season of the Church Year including the Baptism of Jesus and his first miracle, turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana.  Churches in Cana, near Nazareth, are often included in Holy Land pilgrimages.

Here are some Epiphany resources:

• Epiphany comes from the Greek, epiphaneia, which means appearance or manifestation. The feast commemorates the day when the three wise men found the Christ child. < http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/briefing-epiphany-1.129910
• The Epiphany, or revelation, of the baby Jesus as the Son of God come into the world, is traditionally celebrated on the 6 January. < http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/worship/festivals_and_dates
• Old St. Paul's Church: At High Mass on Sunday 5 January at 10.30am, the traditional gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh are carried in procession to be offered to the Child in the manger. Gold symbolises the Kingship of Christ, frankincense represents priestly service, and myrrh symbolises healing power. In the evening, Blessing of the Light precedes Solemn Evensong and Benediction at 6.30pm. On succeeding Sundays, we celebrate further revelations of the Christ: on 12 January, the Feast of the Baptism, a voice from heaven proclaims him the Beloved Son; on 19 January, the second Sunday after Epiphany, John the Baptist recognises him as Son of God, and on 2 February, the Feast of Candlemas, he is acclaimed by Simeon as the Light to lighten the Gentiles. < http://www.osp.org.uk/index.php/news/entry/epiphany_at_old_saint_pauls/
• Spirituality and Practice Naming the Days Resource > http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/days/features.php?id=16401 / Practices: Devotion, Gratitude, Wonder. A Suggested spiritual exercise for today is offered by Christopher Hays: Step outside this evening and look up at the over 200 billion stars that blaze in beauty in our galaxy alone. The splendor of it should cause you to pray as did the Magi in adoration of God." 
• Here is an Epiphany verse from the Revised Common Lectionary: Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. (Ephesians 3:8-9) < http://www.presbyterianmission.org/devotion/revised-common-lectionary/2014/1/6/
• A thought of my own! > There is stuff going on in your mind right now which is far more amazing than what you are thinking right now.
• The Presbyterian Church (USA) offers this at 
  

  http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/worship/epiphany/ > Epiphany is the celebration of God’s manifestation or self-revelation to the world in Jesus Christ. In particular, we celebrate the revelation of God’s promise and purpose to the nations of the world, as the magi came from the East to worship to the Christ child, and God’s covenant of grace is extended to all who believe the good news of Christ Jesus. The symbolism of light is important: not only because of the star that guided the magi, but as it relates to the bright dawning of God’s self-revelation in Christ. / An excerpt from the Companion to the Book of Common Worship (Geneva Press, 2003, 94-95): The word “epiphany” (from the Greek epiphaneia or theophaneia) means “appearance” or “manifestation” of God, and has roots in the word for sunrise or dawn. In ancient times, an epiphany meant either a visible manifestation of a god or the solemn visit of a ruler venerated as a god. / For Christians, Christmas marks the coming of God to us; Epiphany celebrates the appearance of the Lord in the midst of humanity. The Christmas stories of the birth of Immanuel declare the divine entry; Epiphany extols the revelation of God to the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. / In our celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany we rejoice in the dawning and the arising of Light in darkness. … Epiphany not only discloses the Savior to the world but also calls the world to show forth Christ, to be witnesses to God’s true Light. The timeless mystery of the incarnation, God in flesh, leads us forth to show and tell of Christ as God’s gift of grace and salvation for all persons. Some call this ongoing epiphany the work of Christmas.

  
   

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+ updated at 12:39pm EST on Saturday, January 4, 2014

+ On Facebook, Robert Reich shared: "Several of you thought yesterday's post arguing that Congess's first priority when it convenes next week should be to restore unemployment benefits for the record number of long-term unemployed was a weak palliative for what's really needed. "We don't need unemployment benefits," wrote Burr Hubbell, for example, "We need real jobs." Mr. Hubbell and others raise an important issue. In fighting for measures that alleviate symptoms of a failing system -- whether chronic joblessness, increasing poverty, widening inequality, or ever greater economic insecurity -- are we staving off more fundamental reform? Or are we taking the only humane approach available until such time as fundamental reform is politically feasible?"

+ On Facebook, J. Barrett Lee shared: (DISCLAIMER: This is in response to an anonymous commenter on my blog, not anyone I know in real-life or Facebook)
 
I think I'm going to start responding to the phrase
"Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out."
 
with:
 
"Don't be so close-minded that you blow other peoples' brains out."
History has many more concrete examples of the latter, I'm afraid.

+ Eleventh Day of Christmas
A verse from the Daily Lectionary:

May God grant your heart’s desire
and fulfill all your plans.”

Psalm 20:4 < http://www.presbyterianmission.org/devotion/daily/2014/1/4/

At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas we are informed that today is the feast day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint according to the Roman Catholic Church. In medieval times this was The feast of Saint Simon Stylites.

Here is the Spirituality and Practice Christmas quote for today by the great Sufi poet, Hafiz:

A Suspended Blue Ocean

There is only one rule
On this Wild Playground,

For every sign Hafiz has ever seen
Reads the same.

They all say,

"Have fun, my dear; my dear, have fun,
In the Beloved's Divine
Game,

"O, in the Beloved's
Wonderful
Game."

Hafiz in The Subject Tonight Is Love by Daniel Ladinsky

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+ Updated at 9:55am EST on January 3, 2013

+ Tenth Day of Christmas > I love lists.  I love the Sufi Wisdom Tradition.  And, so, on this tenth day of Christmas I invite you to check out one of my favorite lists, the Ten Principal Sufi Thoughts offered by the greatSufi teacher, Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Here is an excerpt worth pondering: "It is often for no other reason than clinging to the personality of their particular teacher, claiming for him superiority over other teachers, and degrading a teacher held in the same esteem by others, that people have separated themselves from one another, and caused most of the wars and factions and contentions which history records among the children of God."

Read it all > http://sufiorder.org/Sufi_Thoughts.html

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+ Second Sunday of Advent

Great wisdom here > http://teilhard.com/2013/12/07/second-sunday-of-advent-december-8-2013-burning-away-what-divides-us/

Excerpt 1: "The readings can be found here. The beautiful first reading is from Isiah and talks about the vision where the things that divide us are eliminated and all of Creation is brought together in Unity. The Gospel includes a speech from St. John the Baptist that talks about the need for God’s purifying fire to break down our divisions before this Unity can occur."


Excerpt 2: "This week’s reflection comes from Fr. Ron Rolheiser and St. Louis University reflections. I encourage you to read the entire reflection here but set forth below is an ...  excerpt:

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once suggested that peace and justice will come to us when we reach a high enough psychic temperature so as to burn away the things that still hold us apart. In saying this, he was drawing upon a principle in chemistry: Sometimes two elements will simply lie side by side inside a test-tube and not unite until sufficient heat is applied so as to bring them to a high enough temperature where unity can take place.That’s wonderful metaphor for advent. What is advent?Advent is about getting in touch with our longing. It’s about letting our yearnings raise our psychic temperatures so that we are pushed to eventually let down our guard, hope in new ways, and risk intimacy.

 

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+ My friend Barrett Lee offers some wonderful wisdom about praying in "Praying Toward Yes," a new post in his great blog, The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor.  Excerpt: "Wow.  The prayer of Adoration.  This is where prayer begins: with the felt sense of awestruck wonder at life, the universe, and everything.  I mean, have you seen this place?  It’s amazing.  We’ve got protons, nebulae, the Big Bang, quantum mechanics, evolution, trees, mountains, sunsets, sex, Van Gogh, Shakespeare, Mother Teresa, single malt scotch, and the Beatles.  If you’re not saying 'Wow' to life at some level, then you’re not really paying attention.  All of this stuff is really here and it’s connected."

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+ Parker Palmer has so much wisdom and compassion. This is worth your time and thoughts.

http://www.couragerenewal.org/blog/103/629#sthash.8e4iERoM.dpuf

Excerpt: "... one of the most important sources of social change, political-economic change in world history is social movements. It’s not taught much in higher education or in our schools. But half of the history of the world has been written not by institutional power but by people who had no power, no external forms of power. They didn’t have money. They didn’t have institutional access. They didn’t have leverage on financial or political institutions."

 

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+ What a blog! (PS - It's not mine.) > http://livingstonesweb.blogspot.com/. I love what David Norling wrote on February 1.  Here is an excerpt: "I'm currently seeking to find out what it means to feel called to a ministry that doesn't exist, that is, Pastor of Listening. I made up the title and wrote my own job description, at the encouragement of God's spirit, as far as I can tell. I've sought counsel from several pastors. And while most could see the legitimacy of my vision and even my capacity to fulfill it, there seems to be a consensus that the programmatic nature of modern American Christianity can't conceive of the role that I seek to fill." | Read it all 

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+ TRANSFORMATION is the theme of THE TWELVES for this month. Mary Ann and Fred say: "There is an inherent human quest for transformation. We seek wholeness for ourselves so that we can then be agents of change to help heal the world. We offer 12 quotes to help ignite your personal transformation." | See the 12