September 13, 2023

Everyone is a brilliant star in their own right. After all, we are each an expression of the Divine. Yet there are specific people in each of our lives who are very remarkable to us.

September 11, 2023

Why do people want to know the future? Many of us are fearful of uncertainty, so we feel the more we know of the future, the more we can control it. There are a lot of folks who find ways to look into the future. In many cases, this is their ego’s irrational attempt to control the mysteries of life itself.

September 8, 2023

Though things can seem grim when we project into the future, there is hope if we look closer.

Drew Gilpin Faust, born in 1947, wrote to President Eisenhower after she discovered, to her disbelief, that black children were not allowed in her Virginia public school. Drew wrote to President Eisenhower, “Dear Mr. President, I am nine years old and white, but I have many feelings about segregation.”

September 6, 2023

The present is the only time we really have to live. Living in the past or the future takes us out of the present.

When we think about the future, some of us may think that we are not living in the present. But if we are fully aware as we think about the future, those thoughts are brought into the present. We only lose awareness of the present when we live in the future or the past.

September 4, 2023

A method exists by which we can know our essence without asking others. We can ask ourselves. Yes, in the beautiful self-inquiry exercise, we can uncover and discover many qualities of our soul. To know our essence, we can ask ourselves a series of three questions like the following:

September 1, 2023

Have you ever said or heard the words, "Oh my God!?" These words signal we have had a shock. In the enneagram, the concept of shock, otherwise known as “shock point”, is very important. A shock point rattles our current perception of reality. If we deal with the shock point healthily, we inevitably come to a higher level of consciousness and can understand the causes of the shock.

August 30, 2023

Essence is the intrinsic quality of something. As individual humans, our essence is made up of the indispensable attributes of our innermost being, our soul. Our essence is that which remains after we peel away the layers of the false self. Our essence is our true nature.

August 28, 2023

Dickson Elementary School in Mobile, Alabama had a pageant every year when I was a student there in the Nineteen Fifties. All the classes presented their own show. It was my first-grade year, and my class was to do the Bunny Hop. We practiced the show for weeks. We stood in a long line holding the waist of the "rabbit" before us while hopping to the music.

August 25, 2023

In all our years, Lark and I had never been inside a gambling casino. One day while driving back from the beach, we decided to see what $20.00 would do in the Wind Creek Casino, right off the highway. On the sidewalk to the building, we ran into a middle-aged couple who were leaving the casino. "Hey, does this sidewalk take us to the front doors?" we asked.

August 23, 2023

One of the first odd things that happened to me was when I was four. I was walking in the grassy common area of our apartment complex. I suppose my parents were somewhere nearby, but I had struck off by myself down the sidewalk that wrapped around the common area.

August 21, 2023

Many of us ask why we don’t follow our heart’s desire. Our heart’s desire may be our unled life. It may be a need to paint, sculpt or climb mountains. It may be a desire to pilgrimage to another land, another culture. It may be to go on a vision quest. It may be to open up a bookstore or coffee shop.

August 18, 2023

When you hear about a tragedy, you ask, "Why did they suffer?” We have all asked this question because losing anything or anybody is sad and sometimes devastating. Indeed, sometimes we die of suffering.

August 16, 2023

There are many reasons to live. One of them is to survive. Another is for the enjoyment of life’s pleasures. Still, another is to live our purpose. But the greatest “why” of all is to love and be loved.

August 14, 2023

We all like shortcuts, especially when in traffic jams. Shortcuts are sometimes very helpful, while other shortcuts are counter-productive. Some may take a shortcut when baking cookies by skipping a couple of steps or leaving out an ingredient or two. It saves time and the cookies look like the ones with all the ingredients. But they do not TASTE the same.

August 11, 2023

Take it to your heart. Take any question to your heart if you want a true answer. But the ego’s emotions can take over the heart if the soul isn’t directly involved. When the soul is not involved, and things do not go well, some might say, “I followed my heart but shouldn’t have.”

August 9, 2023

Dear God,

Last night the half-yellow moon drifted through the clouds like a large firefly in the heavens.

There I stood, so new, gazing at what has always been.

August 7, 2023

For students of the Spirituality of the Enneagram, a spiritual road test answers the following profound question: How well are we applying the Enneagram's wisdom? Each of us has a personal application of the Enneagram because we each have a unique spiritual and egoic nature. The Enneagram informs both by providing pathways to wholeness, consciousness and healing. How well we apply the wisdom informs our spiritual progression.

August 4, 2023

This morning my ego punished me for being unable to pick up some large paint cans and carry them to the garden house. The heavy cans’ handles dug into my fingers when I lifted all of them. “Ouch,” I said. Then my ego responded, “You can do this, just bear the pain. You MUST do this, or you will be weak.” But the reality was I couldn’t stand the pain because the full cans were too heavy. So instead of taking all the cans at once, I made a couple of trips to the garden house and easily carried them.