Hopeful Thinking

     This is truly my favorite question to ask people of all ages. I don’t ask it to be cute. I’m curious, of course. I’m always fascinated by learning about what fascinates others. But there’s much more to the point of my asking the question: What do you want to be when you grow up? I like the new synapse it likely creates in people’s brains when a question that is probably a new thought for them is posed. Especially if they’re already a grown-up. For that’s exactly what a new thought or idea does. It actually creates new structures in our brain. The more a new synapse is reinforced by repetitious thinking, the more strength an idea has for us. This phenomenon can be used for both good and bad, of course. Society convinces us all the time that our value to the world has a limited shelf life. Western culture does not revere the wisdom of age as it should. But I say, if you’re not dead, you’re not done. I once knew of a woman in her 70’s who was attending l...

We should be radically curious about the spiritual beliefs of others. However, our goal shouldn’t be to change someone else’s mind. It should be to merely know them where they are. Plus, it’s a lot easier. I truly enjoy hearing about other people‘s religious beliefs. I am fascinated by how various people interpret the Ultimate Reality. I don’t instinctively feel any reason to disagree with them. It isn’t whether or not I agree with them that matters. I’m curious about them as people. I listen for all the places where our beliefs overlap and through those I shake their hand. PS. This works for politics as well. However, it definitely matters how one presents themselves in a religious discussion. Either they share their beliefs with me as a show-and-tell, or they declare them in such a way that they are trying to convince me to believe the same. I find it much easier to be curious about the former when I’m not defensive about the latter. It’s the difference between visiting a muse...

The Tribe Mentorship Project of Fitchburg Did you know that everyone’s skin is actually brown? Just different shades of it. Different hues and tones. We all have a pigment called melanin in our skin which creates the various depths of color. All of them, basically brown. With every passing generation, as we continue to emigrate from the lands of our ancestors, the planet genetically and culturally shrinks. Our complexions and features and traditions are blending even more quickly today than just a generation or two ago. Some are deeply afraid of this. Pray for them. Have you ever noticed that bi-racial children tend to receive the most attractive characteristics of each? I think there’s something beautiful and sacred to observe here. Something perhaps unexpected. Surprising. Unless, of course, you recognize that aesthetic beauty is partly what propels virtually any species. To me it’s a genetic validation of our spiritual desire to be with one another despite social...

I see no reason not to believe in ghosts. Some of what we see as “ghosts” are quite possibly intense energetic remnants of events imprinted upon the room or space where they occurred. As if the emotions of the original moment were so extreme they left a splatter pattern. Indelibly branded to the walls, the earth, even the air, replaying over and over like an old cassette tape. These are the ghosts some are sensitive enough to see. Different from those voices from the hereafter who dialogue with and advise the living through psychic mediums, these remnant ghostly apparitions we speak of are indicators of a phenomenon which also has a sacred application. What does it mean that humans might have the ability to energetically imprint the earth? To touch a mountain or a tree with such an intensity of emotion that you are literally never forgotten by them? So strong is the residue of your goodness, others passing by at later dates and ages might even see you standing there out of the...