May 4, 2018
What's Happening This Week at SpiritualityandPractice.com
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Editors' Pick
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Life is a sacred adventure. Every day we encounter signs written in the texts of our own experiences that point to the active presence of Spirit in the world around us. And we can learn to understand these signs; we can become spiritually literate. The month of May is a time to focus on all the ways we can read the world for sacred meanings.
Watch on the S&P homepage for daily videos and program plans.
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Practices
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Each year on May 4 students, activists, and survivors gather at Kent State University in Ohio to mark the anniversary of day in 1970 when members of the National Guard shot and killed four students who were peacefully demonstrating against the Vietnam War. What does this event mean to us today?
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By Kristin Ritzau
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kathleen Schmitt Elias, Desmond Tutu, Jamal Rahman, Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, and others share practices for awakening patience, openness, and compassion in our relationships.
More Practices: Be Kind to Animals Week, Birthday of Rabindranath Tagore, Birthday of Daniel Berrigan
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E-Courses
A new e-course by Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook
April 30 - May 25, 2018
Would you like to know more about the spiritual practice of pilgrimage or to reflect on a pilgrimage you've already taken or planned? This course started Monday, and every day several new people join. Word is spreading about how good it is! Read more and subscribe: www.SpiritualityandPractice.com/PilgrimageJourney
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A new e-course by Camille Adams Helminski and Daniel Thomas Dyer
May 14 - June 15, 2018
The Compassionate (ar-Rahman), the All-Seeing (al-Basir), the Manifest (az-Zahir). These are but three of the 99 Names of God intrinsic to the Islamic tradition. This e-course, open to everyone, explores the interplay of the Names in our lives and leads us on a journey of renewal. Read more and subscribe:
www.SpiritualityandPractice.com/Ninety-nineNamesofGod
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Films
Directed by Peter Livolsi
A home-schooled teenager lives with his eccentric grandmother -- an avid student of R. Buckminster Fuller -- in a geodesic dome. A friendship with a punk rocker becomes his surprising entry into Fuller's visionary and adventuresome world.
More Films: In the Last Days of the City, Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story, Mercury 13, Symphony for Our World
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DVDs
Directed by Ziad Doueiri
This compelling and parabolic drama vividly conveys the roiling tension of an insult that escalates into a court case. But just when we think the two adversaries will never be able to find peace within themselves and with the other, there are moments of grace.
More DVDs: Bill Nye: Science Guy, Hostiles, Mad to be Normal, The Post, A Taxi Driver
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Books
Everyday Gratitude
By Saoirse McClory, Kristi Nelson, and Margaret Wakeley
While perusing these lively quotations and questions for reflection, we were moved to tally up the bountiful blessings which have arrived in our lives unheralded. Turning these pages, you will quickly see how gratitude puts everything in its proper place and perspective.
More Books: The Little Book of Christian Mysticism, Spiritual Places
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Children's Books
Seven Children's Books on How to Love Your Enemy
By Kristin Ritzau
Whether they're about stone soup, playful ferrets, a mean word, or a potential witch, these books help children ages 4 and up learn creative, compassionate responses to conflict.
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Blogs
By Frederic Brussat
James H. Cone, The Bill and Judith Moyers Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Seminary in New York, died April 28 in Manhattan at the age of 79. He was widely respected as the founder of black liberation theology. His funeral will be streamed from Riverside Church in New York City on Monday, May 7, at 11 a.m.
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KidSpirit Youth Voices Blog
By Andrew Lu
"Every time I hear something touching or beautiful about a religion, I feel like I belong to it," writes Lu in this funny, touching essay about diverse views on where we came from and where we are going.
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The Practicing Democracy Project
We can each do more to heal the conflicts in the world than we realize, and these pages -- spiritual practices, articles, books, films, poetry, quotes, teaching stories, and more -- offer an abundance of good methods. Taken as a whole, these various angles of approach help us face not only external conflicts but also inner enemies like arrogance, fear, and ingratitude.
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Social Media
You can now follow us on Instagram. We will be posting memes with quotes from amazing teachers, spiritual practices, and linking to our resources. Join us and feel free to share our pictures! There is a link at the top of all the pages of the S&P site to Instagram as well as our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube accounts.
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From Our Wisdom Archive
Designed and Compiled by Darren Polito
In honor of Be Kind to Animals Week (May 1-7), here are quotes and images that remind us, in the words of Mary de LaValette, "Blessed are the animals, for they shall lead us back to our lost innocence."
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A Thought to Carry with You
Some of the most fascinating and fitting "thoughts to carry with you" are people's last words. Underground railroad conductor Harriet Tubman gathered her family around to sing with her when she was dying. Her last words were "Swing low, sweet chariot." Comedian Groucho Marx reportedly gave one last quip from his deathbed: "This is no way to live!"
Silent film star Charlie Chaplin was similarly funny but with an endearingly spiritual twist. A priest told him "May the Lord have mercy on your soul," and reportedly Chaplin replied, "Why not? After all, it belongs to Him."
Isaac Newton, one of the most influential scientists of all time, is said to have humbly observed, "I don't know what I may seem to the world. But as to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than the ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
If you could compose your last words, what would they be? It's a puzzle worth pondering. You may even find that your answer will be musical ... or more humorous than you would have expected
Blessings,
Your Spirituality & Practice Team
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Patricia Campbell Carlson
Margaret Wakeley
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