Category: Meditations

A swan is an awkward creature in the air or on the land. Only on the water does it achieve the full, graceful elegance of a being in its native element.

Where do you feel most grace-filled and at home?

How do you build a wall? Brick by brick, small step by small step, with patience and perseverance.

What brick will you lay today toward the foundation of a dream?

Is Presidents Day a celebration of Washington’s birthday, both Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays, or a celebration of presidents in general? Does it really matter? Maybe what we really need is a Citizens Day, in which we all celebrate the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, honoring participatory democracy itself.

How do you honor your role as a citizen by participating in the democratic process?

Wouldn’t it be great if it were possible to build shelters that would protect us from the fallout of our unfortunate choices? In these little bunkers we wouldn’t have to deal with the unkind words we said to our spouse, our procrastination on an important work project, the effects of excessive drinking or the lie that was supposed to make things easier. Unfortunately, attempts to hide from the fallout of our choices rarely are successful, and often make things worse.

How have you chosen to step out from a protective bunker and face the results of your choices?

The athlete running around and around the track doesn’t actually get anywhere. All that effort to remain in essentially the same place. And yet, while the terrain never alters, the runner herself changes, growing stronger, faster, more determined.

How have you grown when it has looked like you were getting nowhere?