Have the courage to let your heart be broken…to feel..to fall in love. -Dean Brackley, SJ

Yesterday at church my daughter initiated a game at the time of the sermon that we used to play many years ago…she held my hand and this time strategically removed my wedding ring within seconds, so she could distract herself by fidgeting with it. This game used to last nearly five minutes! Time flies.

This week I share a couple nuggets of wisdom that help ground me these busy weeks in the blur of life. I’ve been flying around a bit lately and I’m reminded of a flight a few years ago during which I found myself chatting it up with this talented, female-led Bay Area band, The Rainbow Girls, and their song in the clip below invites us to love and love and keep our love alive, which sounds pretty good to me these days.

Blessings on your week ahead!

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

To live well as a human being is to live in sync with who God is and how God acts. -Miroslav Volf

This week I share the brief poem below as reminder to note and recount the joy-filled moments that Gods graces us with by placing them in our lives on a regular basis. It’s a fast-paced week for me and I appreciate the encouragement to remain aware of God’s holy presence. Blessings on your week ahead!

What is Laughter?

What is laughter? What is laughter?
It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!
It is the sun poking its sweet head out
From behind a cloud
You have been carrying too long,
Veiling your eyes and heart.

It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure
That is your Real body – called Truth.

It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight
To embrace everyone and everything in this world.

-Persian Poet Hafez

Joy is the wellspring of resistance, the water of life. -Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis

The other night I played guitar on our back deck while my oldest and youngest children played basketball in our backyard. My daughter benefited from her big brother’s sage counsel on the game and on life itself. Our middle child was working at his new job at our neighborhood pizzeria. Time is flying by and I work each day to be as present as possible. I am grateful and blessed. One day at a time!

I hope today’s reflection on the pilgrimage of life reminds us to indeed take it one day at a time. Plus an artist whom I admire released a new album for the first time in a while, so I am pleased to share her recent TV performance below. Blessings on your week ahead!

Everyday Pilgrims

I had a new insight about being a pilgrim in everyday life as like being out walking on a trail. This brings pilgrim attitudes of seeking God and responding well to different situations into daily living. Every day is a new journey; it is an openness to the spirit working in ordinary things in everyday life. Life is the great pilgrim challenge, and relationships are both the challenge and the joy.

—Adapted from The Way to Manresa, Brendan McManus, SJ

When we come from gratitude, we become more present to the wonder of being alive in this amazing world, to the many gifts we receive, to the beauty and mystery it offers. -Joanna Macy 

It’s a rainy day in Denver as I write this morning. I am here with a talented group of school administrators, grateful for their hard work and leadership. Wishing you blessings on your week ahead!

St. Oscar Romero – The Violence of Love

The human progress that Christ wants to promote is that of whole persons

in their transcendent dimension

and their historical dimension,

and their spiritual dimension

and their bodily dimension.

Whole persons must be saved,

persons in their social relationships,

who won’t consider some people more human than others, but will view all as brothers and sisters and give preference to the weakest and neediest.

This is the integral human salvation that the church wants to bring about— a hard mission!

But the church knows what its revolution is:

the revolution of Christ’s love.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. -Maya Angelou

This week I share a couple resources from my reading of Fr. Richard Rohr’s The Tears of Things and listening to one of my go-to’s, NPR’s “Tiny Desk” concert series. This past weekend was the annual Flower Piano festival in San Francisco’s Botanical Gardens. During my son’s baseball game warmups nearby, I was able to walk the beautiful garden grounds and soak in the nature, complemented by the richness of the various pianos available for anyone to play to share their talents with all of us passersby. I love where I live!

Another night this past week my youngest kids broke into a spontaneous re-enactment of Hamilton’s first act and I felt blessed by this live entertainment. I try to notice these spontaneous moments of grace that often abound when I pay close enough attention in nature, or open my heart wide enough to hear all the great music in my life. Blessings on your week ahead!

Grace- Richard Rohr, OFM

Grace is not what we deserve by doing the right things, but rather a gift freely given by the Creator in the very act of creation….Grace is one of those realities that is everywhere once you stop weighing, counting, and deserving. God’s freedom to act freely is already highly visible in nature….Such grace follows no logic (or) explanation.

We can learn to love others by closely observing how God loves us and all of creation. -Richard Rohr

The other day I read this passage from Depak Chopra:

Everyone has heard the expression, ‘what you sew is what you reap.’ Obviously if we want to create happiness in our lives, we must learn to sow the seeds of happiness. Therefore karma implies the action of conscious choice-making.

And I felt empowered to choose my own happiness. It may sound kind of silly, but this notion really struck a chord with me in a new way. Parenting three teenagers, striving to be a supportive spouse, working to keep connected with my family and friends, feeling busy and at times overwhelmed (again!) with work and life….sometimes it can feel like a lot. Reminding myself of my own agency to choose happiness in my life has been grounding.

Thank God for dogs and music (like the picture depicts!), and family and friends, and faith in the goodness of others. Blessings on your week ahead!

Humility begets gratitude. -Mike Quinn

Nothing like a good ole Irish Catholic funeral to keep one grounded! This morning I attended services for the mother of a long-time colleague who I respect for his integrity, wit, and values. In both his Eulogy, and in the priest’s sermon, reflections noted how beautifully optimism and community can foster kindness in our world. I couldn’t agree more!

I am pacing myself on the home front as the opening weeks of the new school year give way to the increased ebb and flow of afterschool activities and weekend commitments. A Labor Day getaway to the beach with our friends and family this past weekend fed my soul for the adventures on the horizon. Blessings on your week ahead!

Labor Day Prayer

God our Creator, we are the work of your hands.

Guide us in our work, that we may do it, not for self alone, but for the common good.

Make us alert to injustice, ready to stand in solidarity, that there may be dignity for all in labor and in labor’s reward.

Amen.

Prayer for Hope in Action

We must be ready to expect the unexpected from God.
The ways of Providence are, by nature, surprising.
God is here, near us,
unforeseeable and loving.

We are People of hope
because we believe the Holy Spirit is at work
in the Church and in the world,
even where God’s name remains unheard.

We are People of hope
because the prophets and saints, in times of darkness,
discovered a spring of grace,
and shed beams of light on our path.

To hope is a duty, not a luxury.
To hope is not to dream,
but to turn dreams into reality.
Happy are those who dream dreams
and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.

– Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens (1904-1996)

Looking without judgment, we can understand, and compassion is born. -Thich Nhat Hinh

Yesterday my leadership coach had me run through a helpful exercise. I listed out all my stressors and anxieties and then she asked me to circle the items over which I have control, and then place squares around the items over which I have no control. As we reviewed them I was pleasantly relieved to be reminded of how few areas over which I actually have control. She also encouraged me to change my phrasing from, “I worry about ____,” to “I pray for____.”

Subtle shifts in thinking and language can add valued perspective and enhance mental and spiritual health. And walks in nature help too! Today I am grateful for community and for all the trusted advisors in my life. Blessings on your week ahead!

Self Awareness in Leadership- Sr. Pat Kozak, CSJ

Self awareness- we might also call it humility- enables us to recognize the service we can offer and the gifts we have been given to share. It also opens us to seek help, to know our limitations, and to welcome the gifts of others. Strength and vulnerability – an ironic combination – are essential components of community where everyone is needed and everyone has worth.

Today may be the day to pay attention, to open our eyes and see both the gifts and the needs present among us, and to give thanks for the community they create.

We can only love by loving. -Iris Murdoch

My three kids in three different schools each had their first day of the new academic year in this past week and life has been a flurry of activity on the home front. They’re happy and having fun, which means I am relieved! My daily walks with Brigid and Bingo continue to keep me focused and light on my feet and in my soul…today our dog picked up her millionth stick to proudly bring back home to our backyard and she could not have been happier….may your week ahead be a blessed one and may we all delight in the simple pleasures of every day.

Trust in God- Saint Francis de Sales

Do not fear what may happen tomorrow.

The same loving Father

who cares for you today

will care for your tomororw

and every day.

Either he will shield you from suffering

or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

Be at peace, then,

and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings.

When I slow down enough to smell the roses, I usually see the beauty and all else that is ours to share. -Morgan Jennings

This week I share a reflection on the faith aspect of the concept of welcoming the stranger. This important principle has shaped my own approach to hospitality, and resonates with me as a parent at this time of year as two of my three children are welcomed into new school communities. As a society I think it beneficial for us to remind ourselves of how valuable diverse perspectives contribute toward positive experiences of community.

Blessings on your week ahead!

On Welcoming the Stranger

The role of the stranger in our lives is vital in the context of Christian faith, for the God of faith is one who continually speaks truth afresh, who continually makes all things new. God persistently challenges conventional truth and regularly upsets the world’s way of looking at things. It is no accident that this God is so often represented by the stranger, for the truth that God speaks in our lives is very strange indeed. Where the world sees impossibility, God sees potential. Where the world sees insecurity, God sees occasions for faith. Where the world sees death, God proclaims life. God uses the stranger to shake us from our conventional points of view, to remove the scales of worldly assumptions from our eyes. God is a stranger to us, and it is at the risk of missing God’s truth that we domesticate God, reduce God to the role of familiar friend.

(Parker Palmer, The Company of Strangers: Christians and the Renewal of America’s Public Life, New York: Crossroad, 1983, p. 59)