I am seeking the courage to be open.

I invite you now to join me in the spirit of meditation and imagination. Find a comfortable position in your seat and close your eyes. Take a deep breath and try to find the restorative power of air and water in the breath. We must breathe to live, but our bodies also need water to survive. Our...

Give voice to sorrow and fear — the wracking sobs at family betraying family the shock at the chasm separating neighbors “What will you do in the days ahead?” one asked. “Hide in an attic,” another replied, her eyes as wide and dark as Anne Frank’s. Already the assaults on bodies have...

Someone called me a "bleeding heart liberal." It was not intended as a compliment. However, I will always consider it one of the biggest compliments of my life. My heart bleeds for the underdog. My heart fights for those who can't fight. My heart rejoices in seeing others overcome adversity. My...

All that we have been separately and all that we will become together is stretched out before and behind us like stars scattered across a canvas of sky. We stand at the precipice, arms locked together like tandem skydivers working up the courage to jump. Tell me, friends: What have we got to lose?

Here is where I found my voice and chose to be brave. Here’s a place where I forgave someone, against my better judgment, and I survived that, and unexpectedly, amazingly, I became wiser. Here’s where I was once forgiven, was ready for once in my life to receive forgiveness and to be...

In the newspaper there was a story about a seminary professor in Kansas City who was put on trial by the Southern Baptists, accused of being a Universalist. It's no wonder they were suspicious. He had stated publicly his belief that all people born into the world are children of God....

When we are overwhelmed with the world And cannot see our way clear, When life seems a struggle between tedium and apathy Or frenzy and exhaustion; When today seems a punishment and tomorrow a torment, May we find the courage of patience. May we recognize courage in ourselves and our companions;...

(adapted from the original) If, on a starlit night, with the moon brightly shimmering, We stay inside and do not venture out, the evening universe remains a part of life we shall not know....

Our locks tell us a lot about our lives. Locks of all kinds hold my attention because of a dream I had when I was thirteen. In the dream a gray-haired woman in a white coat sat behind a desk. I knew she was me, far in the future. Behind her on the wall was a cross-stitched sampler with a motto. I...