Religion

When I attend a 50th anniversary celebration of friends, parishioners and family, I’m struck by love in many dimensions. Undoubtedly the enduring love and good fortune of the couple is celebrated, but also felt and visible are all the effects of that love among...

Graduation is upon us and in a few short days, family, friends and students will be gathering to celebrate this truly momentous occasion. For parents and relatives, feelings of pride and satisfaction well up in our souls as they see the children in their...

The word “foreigner” gets bandied around a lot in the news. Often, it’s a term reserved for people from another country, but it’s frequently used to describe anyone who looks or acts differently.   I want to share my own experience with a foreigner in Morgan...

Do you have a prayer room? Is there a room or destination that is “your place” to connect with God? The garden across the Kidron Valley was a place where Jesus went to pray and connect with his father. It is there that Jesus...

There has been too much senseless violence caused by firearms in this country. Recently, three nine-year olds were killed at a Nashville Christian school and an unarmed African-American teenager, Ralf Yarl, was shot in Kansas City because he rang the wrong doorbell. Here in...

I grew up like many, drawing a heart as the symbol of love. I still see it today in many drawings, cards and advertisements. The heart is the place where love resides. However, in the church that I attended when I was young, although...

There are times in life when we find ourselves called from seasons of relative peace and tranquility into what we know will be a time of unknown storm. Sometimes the storm chooses us. Sometimes we choose the storm.  As we navigate our way forward, we...

The Dhammapada is a Buddhist text that is believed to record the actual words of the founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Guatama, better known as the Buddha. It is a collection of sayings of the Buddha. Verse 131 teaches, “All living beings seek happiness.” Throughout our...

If you have to leave your home quickly, what would you bring? For some of us, this is not a theoretical question. Recent floods and past fires have necessitated speedy departures for safety. Thousands of years ago, the Jews left quickly from slavery in...

In the San Francisco Bay Area, we seem to be in a bubble of more open-minded thinking and inclusion. There are other places, regions and states that seem to be filled with fear of the outsider and suspicion of neighbors of different ethnicity, national...