“Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.” —Alice Walker I had finally begun to relax—a bit. We were en route to Pennsylvania. My friend, a formal part of our “framily,” was visiting. We decided a visit to a crayon factory was the perfect winter outing for toddlers. The day was clear...

"I remove my shoes because this is hallowed ground," the guide says. "A holy place, not an everyday life place." The guide tells us how we know—or think we know—it was the one and not the other for those people millennia ago. But aren’t the places where we live holy ground? Don’t our very...

As we move through life finding ourselves, always newly wise and newly foolish, we ask that our mistakes be small and not hurtful. We ask that as we gain experience we do not forget our innocence, for they are both part of the whole.

Today we share in a blessing for losers, risk-takers, all failures far and wide.... Blessed are they who fall in the mud, who jump with gusto and rip the pants, who skin the elbows, and bruise the ego, for they shall know the sweetness of risk. Blessed are they who make giant mistakes, whose...

I have learned to trust those who are witnesses rather than gurus, those who express their confusion as well as their knowledge, and those who share their suffering along with their joy.

Spirit of Life, God of Love, grant me the courage to love boldly in the face of my greatest fears. Grow me in your wisdom and let my actions speak when silence threatens justice and indifference disturbs peace....