For a New Beginning

In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

~John O'Donohue

Spring has its hundred flowers,
Autumn its moon,
Summer has its cooling breezes,
Winter its snow.
If you allow no idle concerns
To weight on your heart,
Your whole life will be one
Perennial good season.

-  The Golden Age of Zen, p. 286

Meditation Moment

This is a minute long meditation for you to enjoy. The music is by Tom Nothnagel. Want more? Let me know: Email me!

It's the Journey

I am in the process of starting a new church. Deeply in the process. In fact, we have been celebrating worship as a community of faith since June of last year. The name chosen for the experience, quite appropriately, is Journey Church. (Check out and like our Facebook page).

This is the second new church I have planted and it is indeed a journey. One might even say it is a journey of epic proportions. I am encountering so many amazing people along the way; deeply spiritual individuals of every shape and hue who have chosen not to be burdened by a religious institution's interpretation of how to practice faith. Instead, there is this amazing spectrum of discussion and celebration occurring as we explore a multi-faceted and fully inclusive experience of The Sacred.

A Guided Meditation

Thin Places

A number of years ago I went along on one of my wife’s work trips seeking a respite from the day to day demands of my shamanistic vocation. While she was collecting stories about Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado I amused myself by sitting on the edge of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Sitting alone, listening for a nudge of the holy in the cavernous silence exuded by the steep and craggy walls, I marveled at the cathedral before me: how unlike the houses of worship created by human hands.

With an eye to right angles, smooth interiors, and committee chosen stain glass it feels too often that we insulate ourselves from The Sacred Experience God desires us to have.

In the tradition of the Celtic Christian community there is the notion of “thin places.” It is a reference to those places and times where heaven touches earth and are known as the sacred moments of life.

While dangling on the edge I felt as if I were pressing against the thinnest of membranes that separated me from the Sanctum Sanctorum, the Holiest of Holies.

 It felt good.

The Dance of Connection

A “Ted Talk” by Louie Schwartzberg looked at the hidden beauty of pollination. Schwartzberg offers us a beautiful, mystical, experience through a slow motion film of some of the wonders of creation. For me, it is a reaffirmation of the inter-connected-ness of all living things. It is also a reaffirmation that there is more to why we are here than mere chance.

The dance that Schwartzberg captured through his lens portends the miracle of renewal and excites my soul with the expectation of more wonders to come. The Psalmist expressed it in this fashion:

Psalm 65:9-13 (The Message)
Oh, visit the earth, ask her to join the dance! Deck her out in spring showers; fill the God-River with living water. Paint the wheat fields golden. Creation was made for this! Drench the plowed fields; soak the dirt clods with rainfall as harrow and rake bring her to blossom and fruit. Snow-crown the peaks with splendor, scatter rose petals down your paths, All through the wild meadows, rose petals. Set the hills to dancing, Dress the canyon walls with live sheep, a drape of flax across the valleys. Let them shout, and shout, and shout! Oh, oh, let them sing!

Delight awhile in meditation and allow the Presence of the Holy to fill you and transform you.