She was pregnant and about to deliver at any time. Her name was Magnolia and she was our sweet little cocker spaniel. At one point, the vet said she was not pregnant. But Magnolia had different ideas and delivered five healthy little cocker spaniels. The newborn litter was a fabulous delight for our family. Why are births so joyful?

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon, England in 1564. To this day, tourists visit his house and walk through each room imagining the life of the most famous writer in all of English-speaking history. A curious fact is that in 1775, Thomas Jefferson visited this house when touring England with his fellow statesman, John Adams. To this day, tour guides at Shakespeare's home point to the window upstairs, on which Thomas Jefferson etched his signature on one of the glass panes. Other people of note have also added their “John Hancock” to this set of windows.

In the 1980s, I was an assistant professor of behavioral science for a medical residency program of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. For eleven years, I made rounds with the Family Practice residents every morning in the hospital. My job was to educate beginning physicians in bedside manner, understanding the psychological situation of their patients, and how to deal with their own stress levels as physicians.

Like most of us on the spiritual journey, by midlife and thereafter, I had grown away from some of my earlier conceptions about God. For example, for me, the entire world of prayer has been gradually reshaped. I had grown up to pray for what I wanted and to praise God when things occurred as I had prayed. When things did not turn out according to my prayers, I was either secretly resentful, or muttered under my breath that I must not have prayed hard enough. Because of my youth, mine was a typical and somewhat immature concept of prayer. But as I grew in spiritual maturity, I realized there are levels of faith.

What does our essence do while we are here on earth? It extends and deepens in richness, wisdom, and wholeness. It burns away anything that would impede its progress. Our essence, which is tethered to the Divine, goes through life experiences that help it love even more than it knew how to love when it first came to earth.

In 1966, Stevie Wonder released his famous song “A Place in the Sun.” This morning that song immediately came to mind when I saw the brilliant sunlight gleaming on a bench in our garden. Having our own place in the sun affords us warmth, joy, and hope.

Grace is love and mercy freely given to us without our doing anything to earn it. Grace has its place as one of our essential aspects. The name “essential aspects” comes from the word “essence” – who we are at our core, our truest self, our essential nature. Many of us have experienced God’s grace when we are granted forgiveness, healing, or blessings. We have also experienced grace from our friends, family and others — gifts which we do not demand or necessarily deserve.

Every disappointment carries a secret message: this world was never meant to satisfy us fully.

Few things wound us as profoundly as lost hope. The collapse of anticipation into disappointment, then into despair, can fracture our inner world.

When there is so much doom and gloom, division and conflict, how do we have hope? 

Close your eyes and imagine standing at the edge of tomorrow. Can you feel it? That feeling in your stomach that something extraordinary is on its way, like we experienced as children on Christmas Eve. Or on this edge, we may feel dread … it may be a difficult conversation we must have, or the dread of putting down a loved pet. We spend so much of our lives headed into what is coming that we forget to be here now. Here’s a truth that sometimes alludes us: being absorbed in anticipation, whether it is of a party or a funeral to attend, can hijack this moment, the only one that exists.

What if disappointment is not a failure of the spiritual life, but the moment just before surrender?

Have you ever wondered why you anticipate the outcome you want? Have you ever wondered why you avoid the outcome you do not want?

Have you ever noticed how quickly joy can turn to disappointment? One moment you’re looking forward to something, and the next, it’s vaporized. This week, something I’d been anticipating for months was suddenly canceled, but in that instant, I discovered something surprising about the nature of disappointment itself.

“I know my divine essence,” she said, and told others the formula for finding theirs. But when her husband forgot their anniversary, she shattered like glass. The books and discussion groups had exposed her to spirituality, but life demanded something more than exposure. 

What if the secret to a meaningful life isn’t found in grand achievements, but in the quiet pleasures we barely notice?

What if self-doubt didn’t have to paralyze you?

What you think of yourself in the dead of night when no one’s watching, when no mirror reflects it, might be the most consequential opinion you’ll ever have. But what if, in this situation, we are wrong about ourselves?