by David Anderson
One of the lessons we learn as we grow older is to cherish life every day, and not to pin our hopes on a future that never comes. We all believe in the myth of future bliss. Americans especially swear by this one—that with a lot of hard work and sacrifice we’ll one day achieve […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Awareness, Gratitude, Happiness, Love, Now/ the Present
Pam and I spent the weekend with our parents: Pam with her mother and I with my father. Her father died only a year ago or so, and my mother is gone fifteen years now. Both our parents—vigorous in their old age—have suffered setbacks in the last six months. Pam’s mother is on hospice, […]
by David Anderson 13 Comments Filed Under: Conflict, Family, Forgiveness, Happiness, Healing, Letting Go, Love, Now/ the Present
One morning a blood vessel exploded in Jill Bolte Taylor’s brain. She felt a deep pain—like a head freeze from eating ice cream—behind her left eye. Slowly she watched as her brain functions shut down—speech, cognition, motion. Jill was a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist—a brain scientist, observing a brain undergoing a stroke . . . from the […]
by David Anderson 6 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Daily Practice, Happiness, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Seeing, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
“Hurricane Fay to fade, but Gonzalo waits in the wings.” My home page opens to NBC News, and this is the latest headline. If we are disappointed that Fay has faded, it means to say, there is yet more to worry about. Ganzalo waits in the wings. Polls show that Americans are increasingly afraid. We […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Daily Practice, Faith/Trust, Fear, Happiness, Letting Go, Love, Surrender
The primary cause of mental illness, Karl Menninger said, is the inability of people to forgive themselves for being imperfect. Those words came from Frank Griswold, the former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, preaching at Saint Luke’s this morning. He was speaking of St. Paul, who sought famously to perfect himself through a rigorous […]
by David Anderson 6 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Grace, Gratitude, Happiness, Letting Go, Mercy, Patience, Suffering, Surrender, Transformation
“It is never too late to love.” That’s what a good friend told me this week. I was telling her of a kind of break-through: I had learned to love someone a little better, to forgive someone (and pardon myself as well). It felt good, but almost immediately I thought, “I wish I had come […]
by David Anderson 6 Comments Filed Under: Death/Dying, Forgiveness, Happiness, Letting Go, Love, Mercy, Now/ the Present
Tonight I will officiate at my second wedding in a week. I like weddings, but I always struggle with what to say. At baptisms, the parents in the front pews listen even though they’re often tussling with older siblings of the one in white. At funerals, people listen intently. Their stare—both skeptical and desperate—says: […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Conflict, Daily Practice, Family, Forgiveness, Happiness, Intimacy, Letting Go, Love, Mercy, Reality--trusting it, Suffering, Surrender
In his intriguing article, “Love People, Not Pleasure,” Arthur C. Brooks considers the three classic aspirations that fuel our quest for happiness: fame, wealth and pleasure. Not surprisingly, Brooks concludes that none of the big three brings happiness. The whole article is worth reading (http://nyti.ms/1rnCr3I), but I was taken by this reflection on fame. Most […]
by David Anderson 9 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Happiness