inspired to be ourselves
My sister Laura and I were wandering around the streets of Chicago in summer – hot, sweaty and red-faced. We sought refuge in the cafe in the basement of the State building downtown, the one that looks like a giant silver beehive. An obviously mentally ill woman came up and began talking to Laura. She […]
We’ve all seen it so many times that it seems trite, a cliché. It is a mantra in recovery groups. But it is bigger than that. Stop, look, listen: God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the […]
One of my hobbies is protesting. My involvement started when I lived in a small town that was a lively vortex of political activity. It had begun when residents banded together with tens of thousands of people to protest the construction of a nuclear power plant in the area. When the plant was built, the people’s energy and […]
Humans are not only complicated creatures. We are also complicating creatures. There is nothing we do that we can’t make more difficult and complex. Just doing the basic thing is never good enough. We have to plumb the depths and reach the heights, to stretch things as far as they will go. I asked my […]
One of my spiritual practices used to be to walk while singing a Navajo song: Now I walk in beauty Beauty is before me Beauty is behind me Beauty is above me Beauty is below me Beauty all around me Now I walk in beauty It helped me to slow down and see, really see. […]
When I look back on my early 20’s, I do so with a sense of embarrassment so profound that my skin crawls. I was so self-centered, so smug, so intolerably all-knowing that I want to go back and punch that girl in the face. I remember being at a party with friends and disagreeing with […]
Sometimes all you can think to do is pray. And sometimes you don’t want to do it alone. Silent Unity is a 24-hour, free prayer line. If you call, someone will pray for your concerns in a respectful, non-denominational way. I remember sitting on the floor of the airport while I was heading back to […]
