past July, I decided to leave the San Francisco summer fog, and head across the Golden Gate Bridge to a retreat center in warm Marin county. The Santa Sabina Retreat Center, tucked away in a corner of the Dominican College campus, feels likes a large home, with 40 single bedrooms surrounding a lovely courtyard with a center fountain.  I was first introduced to the Center over a decade ago when I was coordinating retreats for tenured public-school teachers here in San Francisco, and for half a decade, I held six week-long retreats a year there until the funding ended. Throughout those years, the Center began to feel like a second home to me and was a place that comforte... posted on Dec 7 2019 (6,661 reads)

the village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them. The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behaviour is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that would hurt another. A friend is someone who knows your song and sings it to you when you have forgotten it. Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused. You ma... posted on Dec 16 2019 (12,229 reads)

you listen, how you validate, and how you explore options. To go into listening more the way I visualize it, think of a box—think of a big box, maybe the size of a room. If you’`re standing on one side of that box, you can only see one, maybe two sides of that box. If you could visualize that what people are saying to you, they’`re talking to you from another side of the box. Let me go further and say imagine that this box, on each side of the box there are ever-changing images, completely changing constantly, so even if you go around and try to see that person’`s side, there’`s going to be other stuff on another side that you don’`t see. If we can r... posted on Feb 9 2020 (6,493 reads)

down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that bottle of pop. Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control. Open the door, then close it behind you. Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the earth gathering essences of plants to clean. Give it back with gratitude. If you sing it will give your spirit lift to fly to the stars’ ears and back. Acknowledge this earth who has cared for you since you were a dream planting itself precisely within your parents’ desire. Let your moccasin feet take you to the encampment of the guardians who have known you before time, who will be there after time. They sit before the fire that has bee... posted on Jan 3 2020 (35,768 reads)

right now to do whatever we can to help prevent or mitigate the horrific scenarios that we have set in motion. What could be a greater moral imperative? Only human beings can protect and defend the future of life on Earth from human beings. It will take conscious individuals making deliberate choices based on the best information available—people presuming responsibility to make a difference. Nothing could be more honorable and worthwhile. The word “activist” conjures images of sit- ins, people circulating petitions and raising money and marching and organizing and meeting and getting people to the polls. But it also means doing research, starting businesses, makin... posted on Feb 3 2020 (9,140 reads)

powerful need to feel your presence. I think you would be happy to know that I’m doing okay, I’m moving forward, “guarda avanti, non fermarti,” (look ahead, not back) an expression Rossano taught me some time ago, even if I am dragging that withered limb. For the most part only you and I and God can see it. By the way, I just looked up from the bed where I’m sitting writing and noticed that the mirror on the wall in this room, my room, has three little sunshine images with smiley faces, and they make me smile back at them! Another thing that makes me smile is the fact that Angelo, the dear owner of Il Campo dei Papaveri, my Mornese home, had on my bed waitin... posted on Feb 14 2020 (4,885 reads)

it through music, spoken word, photography and beyond. The more that our gratitude is experienced through many senses at once, the more deeply it resonates, and the more it persists. To sing our gratitude turns it into a melody we can carry inside later, which helps inspire our kindness and motivates us in our daily actions. To hear gratitude spoken by others in their own poetic terms deepens our perspective on our own experience. To see gratitude visually represented in photographic images, reminds us of the persistent beauty of the damaged world. It all coalesces.  Personally, I find that The Nature of Gratitude has inspired my grateful actions on a daily basis. I’... posted on Mar 5 2020 (6,241 reads)

is quiet as I write this. It is so quiet that I can imagine the cries of those who suffer: the pangs of hunger in Yemen, the hundreds of Rohingya who continue to flee Myanmar to the world's largest refugee camp, children pining for their parents at the U.S. border, and so many more. Our earth cries out for relief as its trees burn and its glaciers melt. News of yet another school shooting, this one in Santa Clarita, California, has just appeared on my newsfeed. When I read the news, I am filled with frustration at the endless cycles in which we appear to be caught, and humanity's seeming inability to grow and change. Many of the structures of society appear to be organized to m... posted on Mar 23 2020 (7,127 reads)

Waves" -- Three Sisters Pioneer A New Kind Of Lemonade Stand In Orinda, California Warm greetings of peace, hope, and healing to you and yours.  As we navigate these perilous waters of our common life – with all the grace and gratefulness we can muster – you might find support in exploring these thoughts on “Caring for Self and Others in Times of Trouble: Some Spiritual Tools and Tips.” Please share these wherever you wish, taking what you need and leaving the rest. If you would like to share your own best practices, please do so in the reflection area below. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe some more. Take time in your day, at any moment, to ... posted on Mar 27 2020 (13,842 reads)

if this virus had a hidden agenda other than spreading fear about how it might compromise our health? What if, hidden in its drive to be contagious there was another message, urging to be heard? Whether we come running or are being dragged, this virus teaches us to consider each other in a whole new way. Much like prisoners, we are being asked to give up our personal freedom to protect society from ourselves. We get a brief taste, with these temporary 'shelter in place' orders, what it might be like to be confined for decades on end. Please consider what it is like, to be elderly or in bad health—and trapped inside prison? How does it feel to be punished for being ... posted on Apr 24 2020 (7,779 reads)

Li, MD, is a physician and author whose decades-long personal healing journey through a disabling autoimmune illness required her to question her medical training. Through extensive experimentation with complementary approaches to Western medicine, she ultimately embraced the principles of integrative and functional medicine and wove together intuition and science toward a brave new medicine which allowed her to unlock her body’s innate potential to heal. In these unique times of pandemic, it has become clear that the primary difference between people who develop serious illness from COVID-19 and those who have mild to no symptoms is the strength of their immune syste... posted on Apr 2 2020 (45,413 reads)

Marilyn Lacey, third from left, raises her hands with South Sudanese refugee women in celebration of the micro-loans provided by Mercy Beyond Borders. They had just draped Sister Marilyn in blue and put a bracelet on her wrist when they spontaneously grabbed her arms and began singing. (Courtesy of Mercy Beyond Borders/Alison Wright) Feb 24, 2020 Every Eucharist includes time for an offering of gifts. Here in the U.S., that's almost always the moment to contribute money. I've experienced other cultures where it can include contributing fresh produce from one's farm or home-baked goods to share. In South Sudan, instead of the collection basket being passed a... posted on Apr 4 2020 (7,774 reads)

of intricately interconnected relations. As the Persian Sufi poet Saadi spoke almost 800 years ago: “Adam's children are limbs of one body / That in creation are made of one gem. / When life and time hurt a limb, / Other limbs will not be at ease. / You who are not sad for the suffering of others, / Do not deserve to be called human.” 2. Everything prepared us for this moment. The wings of our rituals, circles, meditation hours, dhikr invocations, mantras and pilgrimages have carried us to this point in time. We feel grateful for the anchoring power of those practices. They support us to stay present in the midst of chaos and turmoil, be it inside or outside. T... posted on Apr 5 2020 (64,771 reads)

every crisis of my life, learning has helped me find my way thru. That means paying attention, allowing myself to feel as well as think, looking at things from different angles, gathering the best info available, trying to connect the dots, and “living the questions” when the answers elude me. That’s why I love this excerpt from T.H. White’s novel “The Once and Future King,” based on the legend of King Arthur. The wizard Merlyn, who’s been entrusted with educating the young Arthur, is speaking to the future king at what we'd call a "teachable moment." As Americans and world citizens, we’re at a teachable moment called &qu... posted on Apr 6 2020 (17,355 reads)

August 2015, my husband was unexpectedly diagnosed with a one in a million potentially fatal condition whose causes are largely unknown and that western medicine has no dependable cure for. Just days earlier he’d carried a wheelchair-bound friend up the stairs to our home. He’d tossed a Frisbee, climbed a steep hill, given a high-level presentation at work. To say we did not see this coming is an understatement. We explored alternative options, and met remarkable practitioners of Ayurveda, acupuncture, and more. We entered a period that in retrospect felt like an open-ended meditation retreat. My husband's bone marrow suppression resulted in acutely low immunity, It re... posted on Apr 8 2020 (10,995 reads)

both inspire and baffle me. The thought that a caterpillar can crawl into a sac made of its own body and dissolve its form and come out as a butterfly is a cliched image of transformation, but holy crap. Stop for a moment and really think about that. Does the caterpillar know this is going to happen? If it does that shows some tremendous trust. If it doesn't, then that shows some incredible courage. It just hangs out there, isolating itself from the rest of the world and changing in ways it can never understand. Does a caterpillar see a butterfly and go "that will be me one day?" So yes, we are all heading into our chrysalises. We have all climbed into our... posted on Apr 9 2020 (10,743 reads)

by Michelle Urra Two years ago, I had an ectopic pregnancy. It was sudden and unexpected, and left me reeling. It happened during this time of year. The weather was slowly turning. The days suddenly getting longer. I sat in our new backyard and read and deep-breathed and cried. I scooted my chair to chase the sun across the lawn. I watched spring outside my living room window, the women in their sundresses and sandals. Their joy felt a lifetime away from my bitterness. I waited. I waited to see if my body would erupt. This is what these days remind me of. These days of waiting and foreboding. I sit and wait. But there’s one difference—this time, the wh... posted on Apr 11 2020 (13,046 reads)

the time we’re 60, we will have been alive for almost 22,000 days on this planet, rarely, if ever, stopping to watch just one. By immersion into nature in solitude, we allow the natural human to become entrained to the nature of the planet we are part of. On the 7th day, my mind was flowing at the speed of sea fog. Or maybe that was the description of my nervous system. I felt so present with a gentle flow — and my mind felt open to whatever arises. Good stuff. I had been camping in solitude in nature — on a hill over the ocean on the coast of California — as I have done twice a year for the past 20+ years. I jokingly call it my “People Fast&rd... posted on Apr 13 2020 (7,315 reads)

we grow accustomed to life under lockdown, we are discovering the richness that can emerge from the quiet, contemplative nature of solitude. Hoping to tap into the inner wisdom of our collective attempt to find light amidst darkness, writer Emily Rose Barr asked one simple question of individuals across the globe: What are you doing that's bringing a little extra joy, light, or laughter to your days? As the answers poured in, she realized that perhaps the paradoxes of our time -- hope and fear, connection and isolation, anger and compassion -- are not meant to be reconciled, but simply to be lived. Read more to learn how the discomfort of uncertainty invites us to take care ... posted on Apr 29 2020 (8,085 reads)

from "Listen with the Ear of the Heart: An Autobiography" I can't remember exactly when I first began the ritual of stealing into my parents bedroom to 'say' Mass. But I can recall vividly the moment when the whole fantasy fell apart. Every day, around 4 o'clock, that parental bedroom became a private chapel where I 'said' rather than 'heard', Mass. The centrepiece of that room was a small fireplace of brown and grey tiles, which faced the big bay window. I would stand up on the little ledge of the fireplace and being ahead of my time, face out towards the congregation. The gangly oak tree outside danced and sang. 'For you shall... posted on May 5 2020 (5,552 reads)