Note:   Today is the actual birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.   The public Holiday in his honor will be tomorrow, Monday, January 16.   I will have more to say about that then in my annual rant.   Today I am resurrecting a post in which Dr. King reminds us himself how truly revolutionary he was. When the Reverend Martin Luther King , Jr. was being held in jail in Alabamain 1963 he received a letter signed by several well-known White self-proclaimed racial moderatesand liberal ministers who decried the unpleasantness and social disruption of the on-going campaign against racial discrimination in Birmingham.   Since he had unaccustomed time on his hands he took the time to patiently, even lovingly explainthe situation in Am...

The Archbishop of Sydney complains that Paganism doesn’t bring fulfillment, communion, and transcendence. He’s wrong. We are moving toward a post-Christian world, and Paganism is particularly well-suited for this time… for those who want it.

      Recently my thoughts have turned to the place of hell in Christian thought. Back in 2021 the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of American belief in heaven and hell. It found across denominations from Catholic to Pentecostal to Fundamentalist in the aggregate ninety-two percent of those who identify as Christian believe […]

In a Religion News Service interview with Adelle Banks, Lewis V. Baldwin, a scholar of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s works, makes the following point: “[Dr. King’s] legacy is being hijacked, misinterpreted. For an example, on the extreme right of the political spectrum, there are those who argue that Dr. King was opposed to affirmative … Continue reading "Distorting Martin Luther King’s legacy"

    Convocation 2023 UU Buddhist Fellowship Convocation is a biennial opportunity for UU Buddhists to sit together, compare notes on our sangha experiences, study and play together. We have been holding convocations since 2005. For each convocation we invite a guest teacher to offer dharma talks and teaching. In addition, there will be times […]

Guest contributor Noelle K. Bowles shares her experience of the National Leprechaun Museum of Ireland. Continue reading The Leprechaun Museum is a magical surprise at The Wild Hunt.

Fine Woodworking has offered my article about mortising hinges on their website at this link. https://www.finewoodworking.com/2023/01/11/hinge-mortise-jig-for-boxes Make, fix and create... 

“Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.” -Archbishop Óscar Romero, priest and liberation theologian from El Salvador.  Liberation theologians begin with the understanding that God favors the oppressed, and that the holy is present with and for the poor. What has allowed you to know an abundant love at work in … Continue reading Abundance

Please join us on Sunday (15 January 2023) at 11:00 AM for “Throughlines” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in person at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA  71106 if you are able to do so. Our service will also … Continue reading "All Ages Worship (15 January 2023)"

January 2023 Pledge Drive (deadline Sunday, 15 January 2023) Shreveport / Bossier City World Religion Day Celebration (2:00 to 5:00 PM on Sunday, 22 January 2023) Congregational Business Meeting (immediately after worship on Sunday, 29 January 2023)

Children and youth will attend the worship service for the first 15-20 minutes and then are dismissed to their classes. After the holiday break, we are now discussing the wisdom of the world’s religions is one of the six sources of our Unitarian Universalist faith. It’s important that we gain an understanding of teachings and … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Classes — 15 January 2023"

Please join us on Sunday (15 January 2023) as we continue our our adult religious education class at 9:00 AM. Our adult religious education class is still meeting via Zoom. We are now reading and discussing the book God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Mirabai Starr. We … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 15 January 2023"

Please join us next Tuesday (17 January 2023) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch. Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

A short  “ thought for the day” offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful   Meditation   (Click on this link to hear a recorded version of the following piece) —o0o— Last year I spent some time looking again at the work of the twentieth-century process philosopher Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000). Not least of all this was because I had become aware that he had seen how the most important sixteenth-century Unitarian theologian, Faustus Socinus (1539-1604), gifted our own Judaeo-Christian tradition with two fundamental insights that are central to Buddhism, namely, the idea that nothing exists independently of other things (pratītyasamutpāda) and the unreality of a permanent self/soul. ...

                                 Major General Benedict Arnold, Continental Army. Note— This is an epically long post as befits the career and complexity of its subject.  Pour yourself a favorite beverage and settle in for a read. If only he had died of his wounds after the Saratoga Campaign—or better yet, had completely recovered and not fallen for the wiles of a teenage temptress, or nursed the bitterness of a petty jealous grudge Benedict Arnold would be celebrated today as one of the greatest military heroes of the American Revolution on one hand or risen on that reputation to almost any political position he desired after the war, perhaps to the Presidency itself.  But he threw it all away to die an un-trus...

              Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Lewis Carrol to the world, died on this day, the 14th of January, 1898, at his sister’s home in Guildford, a small town in Surrey, England. He was two weeks shy of sixty-six. He was born at the All Saints’ vicarage in Cheshire, England, today, […]

Please join us on Saturday (14 January 2023) from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM for our monthly building and grounds work day. There are tons of leaves and lots of other tasks — indoors and out — for all ages and abilities. Other than basic cleaning and lawn maintenance, all the tasks that maintain our … Continue reading "Building and Grounds Work Day (14 January 2023)"

As those of us here in Cohasset continue to follow the story of Ana Walshe — she’s the woman who disappeared on January 1, and whose husband has been arrested for lying to investigators — I thought it might be worth highlighting the work of Jane Doe Inc.: The Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and … Continue reading "Jane Doe Inc."

All-Ages Zine Workshop — Learn about self-published magazines (Zines) and make your own eight page zine out of one sheet of paper. If you’re in a mood to read, you’ll be able to peruse Jen’s Zine library. Friday, January 13, 2023 @ 6 pm in the Fellowship Hall.

“How are you supposed to know you gave up anything, if nothing changes?” Continue reading Oathring at The Wild Hunt.

In ancient Roman mythology, the month of January is named after the god Janus. He is the god not only of beginnings and endings, but also of the liminal spaces — the gates, transitions, and passages that are betwixt and between one thing ending and another beginning.  As a visual manifestation of this duality, Janus […]

At ESSA we're replacing old woodshop countertops with hardwood butcher block. The old ones were from scrap left over from construction, so this improvement has been long awaited. In the background is a new wheeled base for a countertop that I've replaced completely from frame up. Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning lifewise.

“The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” -Toni Cade Bambara.  When I feel insecure about what I have to offer, this reminds me, that writing, listening, reading are revolutionary acts, and no one owns the patent for activism. We need people everywhere who are willing to fight. I feel grateful and … Continue reading Art

I’ve been a Beacon staff member and a publicity team member for seven and a half years! In that time, I’ve witnessed the rise of podcasts as legit and meaningful coverage for authors; the gradual expansion of book sections at major publications like the Washington Post and The Atlantic; and the ongoing growth of the indie book scene here in Boston. And, of course, my work and my life have changed since the onset of the pandemic nearly a full three years ago.

Faithbridge , the organizationthat promotes mutual understanding and respectful relationshipsamong diverse religious communities to advance understanding of unityand diversity for the common good will host the 13th Annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Prayer Breakfast on Monday, January 16 at 7:30 am at the Holiday Inn, 800 South Illinois Rout 31in Crystal Lake, Illinois. 60014.  The Keynote address will be Beyond the Lunch Counter : Health, Wealth and Equity Through an MLK Lens presented by Venoncia M.Bate-Ambrus, Ph.D. who is the Executive Director of the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Lake County.  “Join us for a provocative discussionexploring the relationship between health, wealth, and social justice, guided by the ...

If the Republican Party is any indication of the state of things within the conservative movement, there are some real problems for folks on the other side of the cultural aisle. The most cohesive position that folks on the “right” seem to be able to take is in opposition to what they regularly refer to […]

My reading lately has me in a book about grief and sorrow. It includes two other books about Qi Gong, the 4000 year old Chinese system of health, balance and spiritual wisdom on which Traditional Chinese Medicine is founded. Lydia … Continue reading →

Prayer for Nurturing Community - Week of January 15, 2023 Beloved, what does it take to nourish, every day, just and healing, thriving diverse communities? May we take up these tools, develop these skills, devote ourselves to these tasks with courage and with joy that we can choose to nourish...

            Friday the Thirteenth mumbo jumbo. I have never been superstitious and have often been condescending to those who are—cue Stevie Wonder .   That is, of course, if you discount the two years in my boyhood when I carried a rabbit foot key chain in my jeans pockets until all the hair wore off and I was left with a weird, mummified paw with surprisingly sharp nails.   But I outgrew that phase.   Later in my militant atheist literally piss-on-churches youth I lumped religion with superstition and went around muttering about mystric-tristic bullshit .   I rolled my eyes at my hippie friends who got into New Age crap—crystals and pyramids, Tarot , I Ching, and Ouija boards . These are the results you get when you cond...

I started drawing this with pens the other day, since I had gray and black gel pens and thought, hey, basically two colors here, I could draw it in just those two. But the lack of erasability made me anxious; I wanted a pencil. So here’s tonight’s start. I just loved this structure (probably part […]

Please join us on Saturday (14 January 2023) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes. This is a sitting Buddhist meditation including a brief introduction to mindfulness meditation, 20 minutes of sitting, and followed by a weekly teaching. Please note that this group is still meeting via Zoom.  You will need … Continue reading "Meditation with Larry Androes (14 January 2023)"

Dan Harper’s year-end blog post — The year in review: Unitarian Universalism — has coaxed me to do what I thought I would not do again: write about Unitarian Universalism, and particularly that part filled by the Unitarian Universalist Association.  I’ve been nursing a post-COVID cough and so a long-form post will not do; I’ll take this … Continue reading "Why stay with the Unitarian Universalists?"

New archaeological discoveries may shed light on ancient cultures and religious practices. Continue reading Unleash the Hounds: Archaeology edition at The Wild Hunt.

“As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.” -Marianne Williamson How can you let your light shine today?

This is a long (long!) delayed article laying out the principles of my work. As I wrote last time I've decided to write down the principles of the work that I do in Cardiff. These are not necessarily in order of importance but simply the order that they have occurred to me. The work, that I feel called by God to do in Cardiff, is a kind of pioneer ministry, community ministry, spirit-led activism

   This video featured in the FineWoodworking weekly newsletter can be found on the Fine Woodworking website through this link or on my youtube channel at youtube/MrDougStowe Make, fix and create...

Natural disasters, political corruption, violence will never subsume the bold history and spirit of the people of Haiti.

We’re having an interfaith prayer vigil this afternoon, for Cohasset resident Ana Walshe. (I just tested positive for COVID, so I can’t go.) Since this is a story that’s been in the news, as soon as word got out about the prayer vigil, our church started getting calls from media representatives. One of the media … Continue reading "Words of wisdom to media representatives"

  Sunday, January 15 ~ 10:30 a.m. Finding My Tribe – and how you can, too!  Join Johanna Ambrosio-LaPlante as she shares her journey to find her true community: the people who accept and love her, no matter what, inspire her to do and be her best, and call her on it when she’s not. She’ll   [ … ] The post Sunday, January 15 ~ Finding My Tribe ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

                                 John Hancock, the elegantly turned out young merchant, in 1765 by John Singleton Copely. John Hancock one of the most powerful and influential of the Founding Fathers who never became President, but just might have if he had lived longer.  He was also one of if not the richest man of his time, a shrewd businessman who often skirted the law, and in his own way true celebrity of his age.  But he also dedicated himself to elective public service on the local, state, and national level.  No, Hancock did not sell insurance.  Or teach penmanship.  But the man with probably the most famous signature in American history was, however, a very successful and wealthy man who became a leading ...

Editor’s note: this is an acrostic, a poem based on the letters of the word “meditation.” You might use it in a couple of ways. Try reading it out loud to yourself a couple of times. Notice any shifts that … Continue reading →

If there’s something you want to do, something you want to be, especially if it’s something you feel called to do or be, start it now. If you wait until the time is “right” you’ll be waiting forever.

Congee (rice porridge) is my go-to food when I’m ill. But because I’m feeling ill, I didn’t want to make congee the traditional way, cooking it on the stove and stirring it by hand for hours. I wanted to make congee in a rice cooker. All the recipes I found online used the wrong proportion … Continue reading "How to make congee in a rice cooker"

A site discovered in Rutland, England offers more insight into the Roman occupation of Britain and boasts a mosaic depicting Homer’s Iliad. Continue reading Ancient barn conversion discovered at The Wild Hunt.

“Organizing takes humility and selflessness and patience and rhythm while our ultimate goal of liberation will take many expert components. Some of us build and fight for land, healthy bodies, healthy relationships, clean air, water, homes, safety, dignity, and humanizing education. Others of us fight for food and political prisoners and abolition and environmental justice. … Continue reading Organizing

Our dear friend and colleague, Rev. Ashley Horan, (who will be the worship leader this coming Sunday,) is deeply committed to justice, change, collective liberation, and love. She also is deeply committed to supporting one another in being human, resting, time for creativity as we ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – January 10th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

For the Faith Development for children and youth this Sunday: Children’s Chapel – for in children in Kindergarten through 6th grade. We will meet in the Kindergarten-3rd Grade Room next to the dining room. Children can come directly there as they arrive for the morning. We’ll ... read more . The post This Week in Religious Education – January 10th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Green Sanctuary is highlighting two opportunities for environmental activity. The first is a webinar this Thursday, 1/12 at 7PM, on the Effects of Plastic on Human Health. The webinar is offered by Beyond Plastics and given by the director of Boston College’s Global Public Health Program. It ... read more . The post Green Sanctuary Opportunities appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

 

  My Favorite 12 Albums of 2022  (there were so many more, but 12 is a nice number) Wet Leg by Wet Leg Earth Worship by Rubblebucket  Painless by Nilufer Yanya Expert in a Dying Field  by The Beths  Natural Brown Prom Queen by Sudan Archives 19 Masters by Saya Gray  De Todas Las Flores by Natalia Lafourcade I Walked With You a Ways by Plains  In These Times by Makaya McCraven The Spur by Joan Shelley Florist by Florist  Cruel Country by Wilco

UUSC staff members recently visited Southeast Asia to learn more about the current situation in Burma

Deborah Weiner As sacred beings, we hold the wisdom to know what is best for our own selves. Continue reading "Protectors of Agency"

In November 2022, UUSC staff members traveled to Thailand to gain deeper insight into the realities of life in Burma at the moment. Today in Burma, pro-democracy actors are resisting total control by  members of the military attempting to gain total control of the country. These military officials formed a junta and attempted a coup […]

                                                  Buffalo Bill Cody--still a handsome man in 1916. On January 10, 1917 a family gathered around the bed of a dying man in Denver, Colorado.   His health had been failing for some time and he was in great pain from renal failure.   His great mane of white hair was soaked with sweat.   The day before a Catholic priest with whom he had become friendly was called to the bedside and the 70 year old allowed himself to be baptized into the church and receive the Last Rites .   When the old plainsman , soldier , hunter , scout , and showman drew his last breath it was international news.   Buffalo Bill was dead.   Coincidently so was the man named William Fredric...

Though centering can be a metaphorical way of describing your place in the universe and our core values, you can also physically and emotionally center using this practice. To do this, use the following steps. First, orient your body to … Continue reading →

I had very strange dreams a couple of nights ago. I make an effort to not remember dreams, on the theory that they’e waste products of you imagination. But I do remember that an old acquaintance appeared in a dream wearing bright red-orange lipstick; this is someone who would never wear lipstick in real life. … Continue reading "Dreams"

Taken with a Fuji X100F Just click on the photo to enlarge it.  Taken back in March 2018 on the edge of Stourbidge Common whilst walking back into town after a cold and occasionally snowy walk out to Fen Ditton.

COP15 was held in Montreal in December, and while an agreement was reached, the commitments made by participants are non-binding. Continue reading Global Agreement on Biodiversity at The Wild Hunt.

The path to liberation starts by knowing oneself and being clear about what it means to show up in the world as a thriving human being. The more we show the world who we are, what we believe, how we love, we become disentangled with the false promise that there is something out there in … Continue reading Inside Ourselves

These professional achievements are not my own as each of these things I’ve accomplished alongside you—many members, friends, community leaders, my fellow workmates, and All Souls leadership and Board of Trustees. The post My love letter to All Souls appeared first on BeyondBelief.

      A fun factoid. All three of the earliest dateable examples of printing, a piece of paper, a printed book, and a printed book using moveable type are Mahayana Buddhist texts. The oldest existing printed text that is dateable is the Mugujeonggwang, the Great Dharani Sutra, and was printed in Korea somewhere between 704 & […]

A list of the books I read in 2022.

                         The Lucas Gusher at Spindletop Hill south of Beaumont, Texas in 1901.  Photo by John Trost. On January 10, 1901 after almost nine years of poking useless holesinto a salt dome formation near Beaumont, Texas in the southeast corner of the state near the Louisiana line and Gulf Coast some nearly busted and discouraged wildcatters watched in amazement as oil geysered 150 feet in the air from a well head at a rate of 100,000 barrels per day. It took nine days before the well was brought under control.  When the well began pumping instead of spewingan oil boom was set off around the Gulf Coast, an industry was disrupted and transformed, and the door was opened to the age of the automobile for better o...

Editor’s note: Sherree shares a blessing acrostic she wrote. You may use this in a number of ways. Try reading it out loud, slowly three times and notice the shifts in yourself. You may want to try and write a … Continue reading →

Announcing a new on-line class from Under the Ancient Oaks: “Tarot For Divination” begins January 26 and runs for 11 weeks. This class is intended for anyone and everyone who wants to learn to read Tarot – no previous experience required.

Religion News Service reports: “If you’re an exvangelical who has been scrolling through TikTok lately, you may have stumbled across a duo singing what sounds suspiciously like evangelical worship music. Until you hear the lyrics. ‘Anyone who is captured will be cut down and run through with a sword,’ they sing in harmony, guitar strums … Continue reading "Songs and signs — Isaiah 13:15-16 and Genesis 19:6-8"

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, a Queer Reading list, new fiction on Witches of World War II, lithium mining in Thacker Pass, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of January 9, 2023 at The Wild Hunt.

Like a lot of people in the last few days, I watched the drama play out in the US House with both a little shock and not a little schadenfreude. When they hit the 11th vote, I called my mom … Continue reading →

 “When my brothers try to draw a circle to exclude me, I shall draw a larger circle to include them. Where they speak out for the privileges of a puny group, I shall shout for the rights of all mankind.” ―The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, lawyer, civil rights activist, and the first African-American woman* ordained an … Continue reading Inclusion

Temple Grandin laid out a case for hands on learning in this article in the New York Times. If you've not read my book, The Wisdom of Our Hands: Crafting, A Life, I hope you will do so. Make, fix and create.  Assist others in learning lifewise.

As I’ve aged, I’ve gotten dizzier. It seems inadvisable to stand or turn around too quickly. Sometimes these bouts of dizziness culminate into a dramatic episode of vertigo where I cannot navigate my home, much less the world outside my … Continue reading →

  This early anti-Jackson cartoon lampooning his anti-bank policies shows a loyal Martin Van Buren cleaning up after Old Hickory's jackass.  It was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, uses of the donkey as the symbol for the Democratic Party.  But it didn't take immediately.  Anti-Democrat cartoonist Thomas Nash used the Tammany tiger as the party mascot at first.  The Democrats did not embrace the donkey until well into the 20th Century, long after the GOP had adopted the elephant. Note— Yesterday we examined Andrew Jackson’s stunning victory at New Orleans in 1815.   Today we look at one of the most consequential results of the battle—the creation of America’s oldest political party. The Democratic Party was founded...

When Epiphany was still simply Epiphany and not so easily confused with January 6th, I met my friend Sarah at the neighboring church she pastored. Near the start of 2021, we sat in her minister’s study and nibbled on star-shaped … Continue reading →

This May will mark twenty years of my blogging, with more than 4,200 posts behind me. But for the last few years, I’ve been writing very little; I hope to change that, sparked by recent events by one well-know social media outlet, and a bit of encouragement I found there. The meltdown of Twitter is … Continue reading "Reviving blogging?"

I asked my daughter for a drawing prompt, and she texted back, “Wires.” Then I drew for about 90 seconds and fell asleep. I did more tonight, enjoying the play of abstraction. But also, between that prompt and missing my wife, I noticed a substation (I think that’s what it was) and took a couple […]

ANDRE: “OK. Yes. We’re bored now. We’re all bored. But has it ever occurred to you, Wally, that the process which creates this boredom that we see in the world now may very well be a self-perpetuating unconscious form of brain-washing created by a world totalitarian government based on money? And that all of this … Continue reading "“Somebody who’s asleep will not say no”"

  CHALLENGES:  our Comfort, our Concerns, and our Creativity Jan. 8, 2023 Rev. Kit Ketcham As I’ve enjoyed our Coffee Klatches in December and have thought about the topics discussed, it’s become clear to me that each region of our parish has common thoughts about certain subjects, many of them similar.          It’s exciting to see the positive effect of the new energy and ideas that have come with folks who have arrived in our parish in the past couple of years.  Not only did we survive the pandemic in pretty good shape, but we gained some really incredible new members and friends.  We are not the PUUF of the past; we are becoming the PUUF of today and the future.          Let me run down the list of topics di...

TWH welcomes back Nathan Hall, who writes about the new year as a time to concentrate on healing and shadow work. "As ever, this is a great time to be a Witch or magickal person. There can be no wrong time, really, because we often consciously attempt to work as conduits for manifesting the needs of the universe, and by extension, our little place in the world." Continue reading Reflecting on Healing Journeys in the new year at The Wild Hunt.

Liberation feels like a giant concept, hard to define, and hard to visualize sometimes. It’s easier for me to think about small things that make me feel free – being with friends who make me feel like myself, meeting new people who share my values, learning new truths that shift my worldview for the better … Continue reading Small Things

For three weeks in June 2022 Evan Rose drove to and from his 50th Dartmouth College reunion. Along the way, he stopped at several sites associated with Civil Rights and Civil War, including the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN and Harper's Ferry, WV. Evan will speak about his travels and answer questions.

It's the beginning of a new year. Appropriately, our theme for this month is "Finding Our Center." This week, we begin with an exploration of the ways the spark at our own center makes itself known.

        I notice that today, the 8th of January, marks the beginning of the American Democratic party in 1828. While the mythic origins of the party are with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s Democratic-Republican Party, the actual history is much later. The party was gathered largely through the work of Martin Van […]

We only got out on the trails twice this last week because of the rainstorms that have been hitting our area. “Atmospheric Rivers” they are calling them. We used to call them downpours. If the downpours were too intense and lasted too long, the rivers and creeks flooded. They are comparing this series of storms […]

A review of 2022's most popular blog posts.

Lee Valley, one of my favorite woodworking suppliers, has a kit for getting started in whittling. The kit includes a Frost sloyd knife, protective carving gloves, two flex cut gouges, other miscellaneous supplies, and two roughed out carving blanks along with instructions. What a satisfying way to pass a few hours and to have something to show for it! https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/supplies/project-materials/115105-make-it-yourself-hand-carved-basswood-birds-kit?item=MK111 Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise

This 1922 illustration show General Andrew Jackson on the breast works in the Battle of New Orleans with his Tennessee Volunteers, Army Regulars, and Jean Lafitte's pirates.  Few if any of the Tennesseans  would have been in buckskin and coonskin caps, Most had at least fragments of uniforms after months of campaigning against the Creeks and capturing Mobile from the Spanish. Probably the most important battle ever fought after a war ended occurred on January 8, 1815.  Thousands of British troops, including regiments that had distinguished themselves in the Napoleonic Wars and elite units of Royal Marines,were shattered by murderous fire from make-shift American breastworks manned by U.S. Volunteers,Regular Army, local militia (includ...

I fault no one for doing what they need to do to take care of themselves or for realizing they belong on a different path. But I give thanks for those who persist on this journey to worship the Gods, learn more about Them, and experience Them for ourselves.

Turmoil appears frequently in our lives. Whether it appears in the form of war, political disruption, or an internal battle with individual goals such as getting in shape, connecting with others, or quitting a bad habit, the need to resolve the turmoil begins with the active action of acknowledging the reality that appears before us. Continue reading The Responsibility of Bearing Witness in the New Year at The Wild Hunt.

      CEASE FROM EVIL A Reflection on the First Precept of Zen Buddhism James Ishmael Ford Today we’re inaugurating a series of reflections on Zen’s precepts. From one angle we can consider them the moral or ethical container of our spiritual discipline. But, really, it’s more complicated than that. Different Zen communities approach […]

The sage advice of giving those who you love roots to come home to, wings to fly and a reason to stay defines liberation to me.  It indicates freedom to live a good life. -Judy DiCristofaro (CLF) What gives you roots and wings?