Many of the paths that we take in life are repeats.  That is to say, for example, I travel the same route to work every morning and evening.  What is curious about these repeat paths that we take in our lives is that many times the rote-ness or familiarity of the pattern or route numbs us to the possibility for noticing something new about the path or route. …

How far do we have to go in order to get to God?  Where are we looking for the divine?  Are Sunday mornings in church the extent to which we “find” God?  What if we don’t have to go anywhere to find God? …

So much of life seems to be about “seeing.” What constitutes the contents of our vision? The images that come before our eyes we many times take for “truth” without any consideration that what it is that we are “seeing” is already set within an environment set by personal, cultural and historical elements that “identify” and name these images along prescribed lines of familiarity.…

Like many, hopefully, I spent this past Easter Sunday with family and friends, celebrating with laughter (and some tears) our lives, the lives of loved ones and story-telling about past events.  The “newness” of Easter draped across the new spring’s landscape always has the possibility to give fresh hope and enthusiasm to perhaps worn perspectives and patterns. …

“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad” is a quote that has been attributed to Euripides, Seneca, as well as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with some nuancing in each version.  The image is searing by all accounts.  There is the theme of destruction by gods and the implication that the destruction is accomplished primarily by driving those destroyed into madness. …