July 12, 2019
What's Happening at
SpiritualityandPractice.com
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Editors' Pick
An e-course by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
July 15 - August 23, 2019
Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh speaks to people of all religious backgrounds. He helps us recognize the connections -- the interbeing -- of all life on Earth. Embark on a very special practice journey with the teachings of a true spiritual master.
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Practices
By Thich Nhat Hanh and Patricia Campbell Carlson
This practice will help you not only when you find yourself struggling to convey to a loved one that you still care, but also when your anger has boiled over and you need to forgive yourself.
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By Patricia Campbell Carlson
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains," said Nelson Mandela, "but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." Honor this Nobel Peace Prize laureate on his birthday with reflection on his quotes and a spiritual practice about commitment to a cause near to your heart.
More Practices
: Birthday of Henry David Thoreau, Birthday of R. Buckminster Fuller, Birthday of Woody Guthrie, Birthday of Abraham Joshua Heschel
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A new e-course by Donald Altman
July 1 - 26, 2019
Registration is still open for this e-course with opportunities to reflect on the value of in-between moments, listening to what unwanted emotions can teach us, helping others keep their inner flame lit, our point on the infinite web of connections, and more.
Read more and subscribe:
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Practice Group
Open to beginners and experienced photographers alike, this community of mutual support takes delight in the wonders that this artistic medium opens for us.
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Films
Directed by
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
A shy person who cherishes solitude, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Morrison agreed to let her old friend Timothy Greenfield-Sanders put together this enlightening documentary on her striking and august life and career.
More Films:
Joy, Papi Chulo, Phil, Skin in the Game, Yesterday
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DVDs
Directed by Robin Bissell
Few films have dramatized effective ways out of the quagmire of racism. How can enemies be transformed into friends? This true-life story about an African-American community activist, Ann Atwater, and the president of a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, C. P. Ellis, gives a surprising answer.
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More Film and DVD Reviews Coming In July
Watch for reviews of these New Film Releases:
American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel, Astronaut, The Chambermaid, Echo in the Canyon, For Sama, I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians, Jirga, Marianne & Leonard, The Operative, Rosie, Sea of Shadows, Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Sweet Requiem, Toy Story 4, Unmasking Jihadi John: The Anatomy of a Terrorist, Wild Rose, and a few more.
Iyengar: The Man, Yoga, and the Student's Journey; 3 Faces; Working Woman
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and a few more.
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Books
By Ella Berthoud
These bibliotherapy tips are meant to refresh your outlook, giving you practical meditative exercises that will deepen and enrich your reading experiences.
More Books: The Way of Forgiveness, The World Could Be Otherwise
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Children's Books
By Cao Wenxuan
With the sun blazing down on the grasslands, how will seven animals -- ranging in size from an elephant to a mouse -- manage to stay cool? Here's a story of cooperation paying off.
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Teachers
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Happy 93rd birthday to our dear friend Br. David Steindl-Rast, the Benedictine monk who reminds us that every day is a gift -- and the only appropriate response to a gift is gratefulness.
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KidSpirit Youth Voices Blog
By Celie Johnson
On open water, it doesn't matter where you come from or where you're going. It's possible to be fully aware, engulfed in something lovely.
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Practicing Democracy Project
By Habib Todd Boerger
What factors determine how you earn, spend, invest, and give away your money? Here are suggestions of ways to promote democratic values by the way you handle your finances.
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By S&P Team
The Freedom Train (1947 - 1949) carried original copies of documents fundamental to American democracy for people around the country to view. Read the Freedom Pledge visitors signed. How would you put it in your own words?
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By Micah Bucey
These funny, poignant alternative lyrics remind us that patriotism isn't merely a grand feeling. It requires questing, desire, and determination to manifest an ideal.
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Reverence Project
Directed by Toby Wosskow
This 17-minute film (viewable on the review page) tells the story of the war for rhino horn from the perspectives of a ranger and a poacher. It moves beyond "good guys versus bad guys" thinking and helps us see the bigger issues that must be addressed if humans and wildlife are to survive.
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Free Updates
Keep up with what's happening at Spirituality & Practice by signing up to hear about upcoming e-courses, to receive our Spiritual Practice of the Day, or to get emails about the Practicing Democracy Project.
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From Our Wisdom Archive
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
This weekend ICE will be rounding up thousands of people for deportation. When we see governments commit acts that harm people, wisdom teachings say "Resist!" These prayers, quotes, readings, practices, and websites will support you in doing so.
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A Thought to Carry with You
Following a spiritual path fills us with a natural courtesy and joy, but it is not a kind of "pleasant tense" in which everything we say and do has to be cheerful, polite, and exceedingly glad. If anything, the spiritual life -- with its call to refine our character and attune it to something higher -- tends to be more demanding and confusing than going unconsciously with the mainstream flow.
Even so, conformists as well as questers will know what one of our friends meant when he quipped: "When you're about to be born, you get a choice of what kind of life you want. Hard? Harder? Or hardest?" Wrestling with the things we need to learn in life is simply human. As the 15th-century Indian poet Kabir observes in Robert Bly's version of one of his poems, "We are all struggling; none of us has gone far. Let your arrogance go, and look around inside."
This week, when you face your own struggles or those in the world, pull out Kabir's whole poem, which you will find here. See if it helps the "daily sense of failure" go away, as you remember that we're in this boat together and that "the universe is shot through in all parts by a single sort of love."
Blessings,
Your Spirituality & Practice Team
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Patricia Campbell Carlson
Margaret Wakeley
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