Let us enter into a spirit of meditation. Much of our human struggle is with what we do not know or understand. It is often difficult not to want answers—or even more difficult, not to think we have them already. May we experience what we do not know not as an individual failure but as an...

In the moments when Word is silence give yourself to it in wholeness and wait. Let the knowing of this primal sound carry you into circles where sound itself— where silence itself—becomes new and the new a song you sing from your bones.

If there is a heaven, it is right here, right now, in this particular arrangement of nature, this happening of earth, moon, and star, this constellation of instants, this laden moment, this flash of recognition, this particle of time. If there is a god, it is all around us, everywhere, in every...

Here is where it all begins. It cannot be otherwise. Here we have come to listen, we have come to hear. An old woman sat here yesterday on a park bench, a brown bag at her side, her eyes sparkling as children frolicked on a carousel. "Nice day," I said. "You're right," she said, and smiled....

God, God is water sleeping in high-piled clouds. She is gentle drink of rain, pooling lake, rounding pond, angry flooding river. She is frothy horse-maned geyser. She is glacier on mountains and polar ice cap, and breath-taking crystalline ideas of snowflakes. She is frost-dance on trees....

Last spring, I got a message from the universe. Now I don’t get too many messages from the universe; sometimes I don’t even get my phone messages. But this message was very loud, and it came at four in the morning in the form of a tremendous thud from my closet. This particular message was one...

During a Blessing of the Animals, it is customary for members of the congregation to bring their animal companions with them to the service. If they cannot bring their animal friend with them, encourage them to bring a photo or some other meaningful item related to their animal friend. Prelude:...

In gathering In the fall In the church In the quiet In the noise In thought In the spirit In anticipation In calm In the beginning In the end In transition In gratitude In hope In love In faith In unison Ingathering.

Remembering that the universe is so much larger than our ability to comprehend, let us go forth from this time together with the resolve to stop trying to reduce the incomprehensible to our own petty expectations, so that wonder—that sense of what is sacred—can find space to open up our minds...

Let us sing the magic of imagination by which we know one another and learn the lives of eras gone by. Let us sing the magic of creation by which we build the world of our soul and teach its wisdom to others, young and old. Let us sing the magic of our lives together, holding and shaping by the...

Once upon a time God said, "I'm bored because I don't have anything to do. I want to play with my friends." And because God is God, as soon as the words were spoken, God's friends were there. When God saw them all gathered, God said, "I've been bored because I haven't had anything to do....

Do not live too far in the past or the future. Live now. In each moment expect a miracle: ten kinds of birds at the feeder, and the tracks of a fox in the snow. Pick up a magnifying glass and scrutinize that crocus. See the pollen at the center of the daffodil, life's dust, death-defying life. Be...

I don't know about you, but I'm a little bit skittish about holidays that seem to have originated with the greeting card people. That's not true, in fact, of Mother's Day....