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"These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them." Rumi, Poet It was not an ordinary evening. Last night. It was supposed to be a night of "Follies" - a fun community talent event in Wenatchee. But it was being overshadowed. There was a damper-like feeling in the air, the kind that settles over a small town when something has shifted and no one quite knows what to do with it. John and I were sitting in a little local Mexican restaurant in Cashmere. The room was warm, the

“Your breathing is your greatest friend. Return to it in all your troubles and you will find comfort and guidance.” — Anthony de Mello. Indian Jesuit Priest, psychotherapist A friend and mentor, Dr. Frank Rogers, Jr. once told a story that is both sobering and, if we are honest, a little funny (It’s in his book, Practicing Compassion; I have his permission to share it with you . ). After 9/11, during the invasion of Iraq, a small Quaker group organized a silent peace vigil at

“Evil is something that ordinary people do, not something that only special people do.” — Roy Baumeister I want to begin with a story that has stayed with me for years because it unsettles a myth we like to believe about ourselves as people. A dear friend—an exceedingly good man and a trusted leader—once told me that he had been a participant in the obedience experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram. You’ve likely heard of these studies but hearing them through the voice of s

Between stimulus and response there's a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and...

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.  Anaïs Nin About forty years ago I had a quick conversation with a friend.  He...

Directing your attention toward the most important object of your choosing - and then sustaining that attention - is the most...

I don't know who discovered water, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a fish. Marshall McLuhan, writer My parents were concerned about...

“The meaning of life is to find your gift...." Pablo Picasso A couple of days ago, we shared one strength with each other in our...

"Know thyself” - well-known philosophical maxim originating in ancient Greece How can we be wiser? Particularly how can we be wiser with...

While working on nuclear weapons I became acquainted on intimate terms with my own self-righteousness - the captivating, invigorating...

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without. The Buddha The story about the two wolves has been told many different ways. I am...

“Nowhere is wisdom more necessary than in the guidance of charitable impulses. Meaning well is only half our duty; Thinking right is the...