August 21, 2023

Many of us ask why we don’t follow our heart’s desire. Our heart’s desire may be our unled life. It may be a need to paint, sculpt or climb mountains. It may be a desire to pilgrimage to another land, another culture. It may be to go on a vision quest. It may be to open up a bookstore or coffee shop.

August 18, 2023

When you hear about a tragedy, you ask, "Why did they suffer?” We have all asked this question because losing anything or anybody is sad and sometimes devastating. Indeed, sometimes we die of suffering.

August 16, 2023

There are many reasons to live. One of them is to survive. Another is for the enjoyment of life’s pleasures. Still, another is to live our purpose. But the greatest “why” of all is to love and be loved.

August 14, 2023

We all like shortcuts, especially when in traffic jams. Shortcuts are sometimes very helpful, while other shortcuts are counter-productive. Some may take a shortcut when baking cookies by skipping a couple of steps or leaving out an ingredient or two. It saves time and the cookies look like the ones with all the ingredients. But they do not TASTE the same.

August 11, 2023

Take it to your heart. Take any question to your heart if you want a true answer. But the ego’s emotions can take over the heart if the soul isn’t directly involved. When the soul is not involved, and things do not go well, some might say, “I followed my heart but shouldn’t have.”

August 9, 2023

Dear God,

Last night the half-yellow moon drifted through the clouds like a large firefly in the heavens.

There I stood, so new, gazing at what has always been.

August 7, 2023

For students of the Spirituality of the Enneagram, a spiritual road test answers the following profound question: How well are we applying the Enneagram's wisdom? Each of us has a personal application of the Enneagram because we each have a unique spiritual and egoic nature. The Enneagram informs both by providing pathways to wholeness, consciousness and healing. How well we apply the wisdom informs our spiritual progression.

August 4, 2023

This morning my ego punished me for being unable to pick up some large paint cans and carry them to the garden house. The heavy cans’ handles dug into my fingers when I lifted all of them. “Ouch,” I said. Then my ego responded, “You can do this, just bear the pain. You MUST do this, or you will be weak.” But the reality was I couldn’t stand the pain because the full cans were too heavy. So instead of taking all the cans at once, I made a couple of trips to the garden house and easily carried them.

August 2, 2023

Many types of information may be gathered from a road test such as how the vehicle’s electrical system, engine and tires perform.

The spiritual life often gives us road tests. We may not schedule them, but they happen and they tell us how we are doing.

July 31, 2023

The mental processes of others are important to know. For example, I saw a snake on the back porch when taking out the garbage one night last week. I am not in love with snakes, but I am not terrified of them. But Lark is horrified at even a picture of one. I knew that if I stayed on the porch too long, she would come out and see where I was. Then she would see the snake and have a heart attack. It was a giant reptile wrapped several times around a column like a candy stripe.

July 28, 2023

A saying is going around: "What others think of you is none of your business.”

It's attributed to several people, but regardless of who said it first, we've all wondered what someone else thinks of us. 

Many of us are insatiably curious about how we come off to others; we wonder if we are esteemed or disrespected. We wish we knew if we were seen as credible or not. We want to know our importance and whether our opinions matter to others. But we definitely would NOT like them to know our private thoughts about them. 

July 26, 2023

Many people label others according to how they act. But on the Enneagram of Personality, we can’t go by someone’s actions in determining their type. Outward actions and rhetoric may be consistent with a specific type but we do not know the person’s underlying intentions and motivation is the key to finding our type.

Knowing the motivations behind people’s actions is the only way to determine their type.

July 24, 2023

We recently finished a Daily Reflections series on “Knowing Ourselves.” As we have explored, self-knowledge is essential for those on the spiritual journey. The Greek philosopher Socrates said, “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” Shakespeare took that idea a step further in his play Hamlet when the character Polonius said,

“This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man...”

July 21, 2023

Our eighth piece of the “Pie of Self-Knowing" is discernment through self-mindfulness. Being in tune with the divine flow includes our sensing the variables that change us. We can change from moment to moment because of incidental intrusions, but we can also shift in big ways.

July 19, 2023

The Self-Knowing Pie

Another slice of the pie of Self-Knowing is readiness for change. Many things change when we penetrate our ego and enter our most authentic nature. On this journey, we are not as enchanted with the ego ... its fears, attributes, deficiencies and desires because we discovered that our soul’s enjoyment, wonders, struggles, curiosities and ecstasies are far more meaningful and impactful.

July 17, 2023

Step Seven, Number 8:

It's easy to sit on our qualities instead of applying them to bring about higher consciousness. But in knowing our divine attributes, we tap into the Sacred Power that created these qualities. When we access the divine within, we have a direct link to the Higher Power. When we accept our divinity and connect to it, we are more powerful than ever and can use our true selves to relieve suffering and help bring the world into higher consciousness.

July 14, 2023

We realize other "persons" are inside us because we hear such voices as our egos, super-egos and primitive selves, to mention a few. But much of our self-talk is self-centered, punitive or shameful. So we won't delve further into these sides of ourselves for fear of what we find, such as mean streaks, deficiencies, moral failures, dark desires, guilt and much more. We may be afraid of disrupting our self-concept if we know the real person behind our persona.

July 12, 2023

All of us have set personality characteristics and inherent soul qualities. Yet there are many different sides to ourselves, some of which come and go, and some that surprise or even shock us when we realize them. When it comes to others, we may find it as difficult to accept their different sides as we do our own.