What’s your most memorable story about getting lost? What do you remember about finding your way home?

Sometimes love is simply letting someone else like what they like.

It can be a lonely time for those of us whose arms are empty.

The stories remind us there is still and always joy in this world, but it usually comes right alongside the struggle.

The most life-giving coping strategy—for me—is to attune to a voice calmer and wiser than mine, and allow that seeking to be its own expression of faith.

I’m confident in our human ability to together muscle our way into renewing our world.

If we aren’t willing to ask the important, uncomfortable, and even scary questions, we won’t get to larger and deeper truths.

I call the tall bush on my back patio “Burning Bush” because in autumn its leaves are a fiery red. All winter long I overlooked three uninhabited nests inside of it. For months and months I could have perceived—but didn’t—what was in plain sight. ...

"We can change. People say we can’t, but we do when the stakes or the pain is high enough. And when we do, life can change."...

This is a story of in-the-middle for those wondering how their story ends.

May we find unexpected ways to remember where we came from and imagine where we may go next. May we find touchstones of our pasts, and may they become a foundation for the future.

In the days ahead, many of us will gather with family and friends, people with whom we may have long and complicated relationships. It helps to prepare. Let us enter into the spirit of prayer or meditation. Dear Spirit, Great Mystery that has blessed us with Life, help us to feel grateful....

We seekers are on a quest: A quest to discover truth and meaning. Sometimes we think we’ve found it— Wrapped up, glimmering with newness Straight off the intellectual assembly line. All the answers right here for us And others, if they’d only listen. But truth has a way of coming in disguise,...

People move places for jobs, relations, opportunities, escape, hindering our ability to put down new roots. And yet, we carry a constancy: the still, quiet voice within.

“There’s a hunger beyond food that’s expressed in food, and that’s why feeding is always a kind of miracle. It speaks to a bigger desire.” Note: one version of this quote, quasi-attributed, appears in Take This Bread (p. 23) by Sara Miles.

However imperfectly I may be living this life of mine, there’s no one better at it, and there’s no one else who can do it for me.

In real life, we can only place the pieces, one by one, and see what kind of picture we create. Sometimes we turn out to have chosen the wrong piece. Sometimes the picture is wildly unexpected.

We seek our place in the world and the answers to our hearts’ deep questions. As we seek, may our hearts be open to unexpected answers. May the light of our chalice remind us that this is a community of warmth, of wisdom, and welcoming of multiple truths.

“If I ask you a question, do you promise to tell me the truth?" For future reference, if a child asks you this question at Christmas time, EVADE.

Open up the doors Push on looming wooden arches embroidered with ironwork Brace shoulders against the weight of history unmoved Slough off the musty smell of unused joy and stored up sorrow Knock rust off the hinges if you have to And let your breath precede you inside Open the doors more Make ro...