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Finding Your Soul

by David Anderson

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Blessing

Unlearning the Lessons of Happiness

September 28, 2023 by David Anderson 13 Comments

“How happy are you?”  Happiness studies are all the rage these days, and happiness books abound. The most popular courses at Ivy league colleges are devoted to happiness and what it takes to get it. The tricky thing is, happiness surveys are self-reporting. People respond to questions like:  I am pleased with the way I […]

Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, authority, Awareness, Blessing, Change, Daily Practice, Happiness, Letting Go

My Spiritual Hot Spot

September 21, 2023 by David Anderson 15 Comments

My definition of a saint, a spiritual giant, is someone who makes other people holy, just by their presence. Someone who engenders peace in other people’s hearts, who calls forth beauty and goodness and faithfulness in other people’s lives. Nurturing your own holiness, your own peace, calling forth your own beauty and goodness and faithfulness […]

Filed Under: Awareness, Awe, Blessing, Community, Death/Dying, Faith/Trust, Grace, Letting Go, Surrender, Transformation

The Birthday Willow

May 18, 2023 by David Anderson 20 Comments

May 16, 2023. I kneel beside a small hole in the earth. Today is our daughter Maggy’s fortieth birthday and we have given her, according to her wish, a weeping willow to mark the occasion. Since, in a fit of spring madness, I have just planted over forty trees and bushes around our home, I […]

Filed Under: Blessing, creation, Family, Grace, Gratitude, Nature/Creation

The Yellow Falling Leaf

February 22, 2023 by David Anderson 16 Comments

Question One: What more did I think I wanted? We don’t think of Ash Wednesday as a time to reflect on happiness. Isn’t it about sackcloth and guilt? But Ash Wednesday is set apart simply as a day to ponder this one fact: We came from dust, and we return to dust. When we accept […]

Filed Under: Blessing, Daily Practice, Faith/Trust, Gratitude, Happiness, Lent, Letting Go, Love, Nature/Creation, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Reality--trusting it, Repentance, Surrender

Monday, Monday

April 6, 2015 by David Anderson 10 Comments

Easter Monday is always like the day after Christmas. The party is over. The leftover lamb is sitting forlorn on the counter top; it was not put away last night. The children’s plastic eggs lie empty and raided on the floor. The sun comes in the window a little harsh. That great victory over death […]

Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Awareness, Blessing, Grace, Gratitude, Happiness, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Seeing, Transformation

The Power of Simple Touch

March 17, 2015 by David Anderson 15 Comments

He lay there with only his diaper on, my grandson Dashiell. It was seven o’clock, time for his bedtime rituals. My wife, who adores this eight week-old child, is ready to give Dash his massage. She dips her hands in coconut oil and begins to stroke his stomach. She rubs his legs and presses her […]

Filed Under: Blessing, Family, Healing, Intimacy, Love

Two Notes

February 17, 2015 by David Anderson 3 Comments

There is an old Jewish story that helps prepare us for Ash Wednesday and the coming of Lent. A certain rabbi, seeking to know his place in the world, kept with him two notes. In one pocket he kept a note which said, “For me the world was created.” In the other he tucked a […]

Filed Under: Blessing, Grace, Identity

Judgers and Blessers

February 9, 2015 by David Anderson 2 Comments

Priests and ministers get calls from the local funeral home all the time. Someone has died. They may have been Methodist or Lutheran or Episcopalian, whatever the denomination of your church, but that’s the only, tenuous connection. Would you come and do a service? I walked into the funeral home and met the two daughters. […]

Filed Under: Blessing, Conflict, Family, Grace, Listening, Love

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