(Photo of my friend Adriana in 2016) “Feed the hungry” is in every spiritual teaching. Think of food pantries, Meals on Wheels, soup kitchens and casseroles taken to nearby friends and families. Recently, I found a way to send food to those in need who live out of state. Spiritual kindness can be made practical […]
(Photo by Tom Fox/Reuters) Extreme forgiveness brings harsh criticism in the face of rulings, verdicts and sentences that appear unfair. For loss of life, the right punishment or exact recompense is never reached. Therefore, how is forgiveness even possible? Texas police officer Amber Guyger entered an apartment she mistook for her own, and shot and […]
(Photo: Suzette Standring with granddaughter Lulu at The Cahoon Museum of Art in Cotuit, Cape Cod, MA) I’m a senior with benefits, very different from “friends with benefits.” Turning 65 is a loaded baked potato: retirement, social security, Medicare, all slathered in anti-aging creams, and sprinkled with AAA senior discounts. What just happened? One minute […]
(Photo by The Milton Art Center: “Snowy Owl,” a quilted wall hanging, by artist Line Corcoran of Milton) Deep fall invites cozy stillness, and an appreciation of fabrics. Quilts and other textiles soften the darkness. Baskets hearken back to close-to-the-earth times. Creating them is a meditation. Too often, their functional use, for example, what we […]
Our humanity is central to the immigration controversy. Jose Antonio Vargas’s new book, “Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen” (HarperCollins, September 18, 2018, 256 pages) looks deep into his oft-repeated answer, “I am an American. I just don’t have the right papers.” In “Dear America”, Vargas, 37, shares his life candidly to correct lies […]