Author and futurist David Korten writes in his book, Change the Story, Change the Future: “Choice-making beings of many possibilities, we humans live by shared cultural stories. They are the lens through which we view reality. They shape what we most value as a society and the institutions by which we structure power……When we get […]

Thanks to Stephen Polmar, who has been studying the Stoics, I cracked open my Epictetus, one of the great Greek philosophers, and I found this quote: “Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not […]

We gather again as a congregation in a time of tremendous upheaval and challenge. The pandemic rages on, as pandemics do, and we are doing the best we can in living with this reality. This is the time in any crisis when we are at our lowest. Many social psychologists say that six months into […]

After years of obscurity, the Black Lives Matter movement has exploded into American culture with a fierce urgency that has not been seen since the Vietnam War. The reasons why this movement has gained this urgency are many. The fear and response to the pandemic, the crash of our economy, the loss of millions of […]

In the midst of this continuing pandemic, we have laid bare the rotten root at the base of the American tree. Racism, what many have called “America’s Original Sin,” is still all too alive and well. Racism built this country and made it great. The unpaid use of enslaved black and brown bodies provided the […]

These minister messages began in part as answers to the “Question Box” sermon long before the pandemic struck. These were not answered in the service itself. One of those questions was “What’s your favorite part about being our minister?” It’s a great question and one I think about often. Let me start by saying what […]

We often hear the words “pay attention” and slip back to some distant memory of being scolded by a teacher or a parent. In reality, this simple command has so much to offer us. When the student asked the Zen Master “What is the path to enlightenment?” the old master replied “pay attention!” Surely, thought […]

Someone shared this little fable with me the other day and I thought it was very wise. We should all recognize that one of the downsides of this continuing pandemic and isolation is the grief we are feeling. Grief is a natural part of being human and it comes in all shapes and sizes. Let’s […]