Prayer is not about changing God, but being willing to let God change us.

In my opinion, most organized religion does neither agentic service nor relational nurturance very well.

Pain and suffering that are not transformed are usually projected onto others.

If you try to assert wisdom before people have themselves walked it, be prepared for much resistance, denial, push-back, and verbal debate.

If you stay in the mainstream of life, in other words, you let in the suffering of the world that invariably enters all of our lives by the time we're in our middle years, when we've experienced a few deaths and read a few headlines. Famine, poverty, abuse, you can't keep that all blocked out. If you let those things teach you, influence you, change you, those are the events that transition you without you even knowing it to become more compassionate. In other words, you hold onto your values, but you do it much more inclusively, humbly and in an open ended way. Suffering takes you there.

Advent is not about a sentimental waiting for the Baby Jesus.

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain.