January 1, 2025

As a child, I kept my crayons in an old fruitcake tin. My colors were usually broken, with dull points and peeled-down paper wrappers. They worked, but never as good as the new ones. That’s why I loved to get a new box of color crayons. 

December 31, 2024

Endings—today is one of them. It closes in 2024. Whatever the year has brought us, good, bad, and indifferent, is finished for this segment of time. This is a day of demarcation—it finalizes 2024 and opens the way for the next 365 days— another segment of time that is measured by a completion of Earth’s complete journey around the sun.

December 30, 2024

Our most important project here on earth is to bring our soul to its wholeness. And we do that by growing in consciousness. The more we are aware of ourselves, the world, and the truth, the more we apply that awareness to our concerns, circumstances, and relationships. So, our soul reaches wholeness through the application of consciousness. 

December 29, 2024

Applying our spiritual knowledge to the issues of our lives can be a challenge. We may believe something wholeheartedly yet not actually put it into practice. The ego has a stronghold, and we all too often fall prey to its unhealthy patterns of behavior. Therefore, application of our consciousness must be deliberate and intentional. But once we exercise conscious behavior enough, we become a new creature.

December 28, 2024

My friend, George Fountain Cox, left this realm seven years ago. He was 88, a clinical pastoral counselor, and a fantastic artist. As with most artists, George began painting inanimate objects or still life. Then, it progressed into more abstract and impressionistic works. George was a regionally known watercolorist and collage artist.

December 27, 2024

As a child, I would often sit in a giant Mimosa tree in the backyard. Though I knew nothing about holy places, thin places, or consecrated ground, it was magical as if in another world— if you stroked the Mimosa’s leaves they would slowly fold up like they were going to sleep. And in the spring, its puffy blossom looked like hundreds of little pink feathers with white tips and an amazing fragrance! You could twirl the blossoms on your face and they softly stroked it. After springtime, the blossoms died, and the tree bore beans well into the Autumn. The green pods hung there swaying in the breeze. 

December 26, 2024

Imagining something in a spiritual context is a spiritual practice and differs substantially from everyday imagining. We can compare spiritual imagining to typical imagining. They are comparable to walking on the holy ground versus on a busy sidewalk. 

December 25, 2024

This is a day of soul— of light—of giving and receiving—of celebrating the birth of Jesus. In the soul, every present moment bubbles with fresh arisings. What gifts of soul await you at this moment—in all the moments of this day? 

December 24, 2024

On this Christmas Eve, we pause to give thanks for all the many blessings of this year. And we prepare our hearts for tomorrow when we receive the Christ child into our homes and souls. Being with friends and family is a precious time; it is a season—a holy period celebrated each year by Christian churches to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a time of giving and nurturing. It has affected so many people that over the years it has become a secular as well as religious holiday. Yet had it not been for a teenage mother named Mary, her baby, and a man called Joseph two thousand years ago, there would be no Christmas. 

December 23, 2024

The conscious life requires forethought before we embark on something new. Going into uncharted territory first calls for us to imagine that territory, and then we build mental models of the people, circumstances, settings, and anything we expect to find in the unknown. To imagine, we usually begin with our knowledge and then build on it with what we imagine may exist beyond it.

December 22, 2024

Imagining is part of goal setting, which paves the way for our future. Yes, wishing, hoping, visualizing, and working on the emerging plan are essential in manifesting our dreams. Therefore, imagination is also a key to our becoming the fulfillment of the seed planted in us at our making. 

December 21, 2024

In anticipation of what's to come, we entertain thoughts, visualizations, and feelings. This is a normal psychological process. For example, if we are excited about a high school reunion, we may anticipate or "pre-live" it by picturing the event's setting, people, and activities. This is referred to as imaginal anticipation, which is not only a process of visualizing; it includes having thoughts and feelings. By anticipating a wonderful event, we experience it in all three centers, even before it happens. 

December 20, 2024

The root word of "imagine" is the Latin word imāginārī, which means "to fancy" or "to picture mentally." It's a derivative of "imago," which means image or likeness. 

To Imagine something is to picture it in our mind's eye. We can picture people, objects, ideas, activities, circumstances, and everything. Our mind not only creates still pictures (stills) but also creates entire imaginal movies. Our minds are well-trained to use images because our subconscious uses them every night to dream. 

December 19, 2024

Many of us have bucket lists. Some of us may think we live life to the fullest only when our bucket list is completely checked off. However, a finished bucket list or periodically checking off its items doesn’t guarantee a fulfilled life. Most of us have daily routines that are not made up of bucket list items. Yet our daily life is where we live the most. Why shouldn’t our daily lives be lived in fullness regardless if all our dreams have not come true?

December 18, 2024

To live your life to its fullest, we follow our heart and listen to our soul. That sounds like simple advice but it’s not so easy to implement. Following our heart means understanding the Heart Center of Intelligence and discerning the impressions it gives us.

December 17, 2024

We are in charge of whether we live our lives to the fullest. So, if we are frustrated with our lives as they are, we can do things to reach our fullness. But first, we must be aware of what our soul tells us it needs to be fulfilled. This means listening to our soul. All during our lives, our soul speaks to us, but because of distractions and misplaced priorities, we can ignore its requests. But during a shock point or anytime we become aware of our mortality, it is even more vital that we listen to our soul.

December 16, 2024

When it comes to the soul, we are amazingly the same. The basic soul needs are universal, even though the way people live their outer lives is very different from one another. Siddhartha Mukherjee is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (2011). An oncologist, he chronicled the many things people want to say to others when they are terminally ill. Four of these requests were the most prominent in everyone he met during their transition.

December 15, 2024

The secret of living life to its fullness is not a “one size fits all” proposition. What brings life to its fullness for one person may be very different for someone else. We see this all around us. There are the golfers, the geeks, the nature enthusiasts, the family-oriented, the gardeners, the sportspeople, the travelers, the chefs, the teachers, the builders, the movers and shakers, the artists, and a myriad of other “Fullnesses.” But these are simply the top layers of the things that satisfy us.