Speaking of Spirit

Maybe it is because my family is a conglomeration of several nationalities or perhaps it is merely my own intrinsic love for world culture, but finding myself immersed in teaching immigrants and refugees the intricacies of the English language is one of my greatest joys.  We will begin 30 Poems in November in two days.  This is the major fundraising event for Center for New Americans where I teach.  Yes, we are teaching in the middle of the pandemic.  Let me tell you a little about that. First, imagine the difficulties of learning a new language. Now, imagine that you are in a new land, where you must support yourself and your family. Add to this mix a pandemic that closes most of the industries that will hire someone new to this country with limited English skills. Finally, imagine that for the first time in your life you must master technology so that you might continue to learn English.  Most people would have given up long ago, but my students have tenacious...

  “There is a spiritual hunger in the world today - and it cannot be satisfied by material things alone.”   Adlai E. Stevenson, the renowned statesman and ambassador to the United Nations, had a deep spirituality. The quote above is as true today as it was when he first spoke it in his 1956 Democratic acceptance speech. The world still has a deep and unquenched spiritual hunger. Why?  I believe, as Stevenson did, that our priorities are in the wrong places. Too many of us are striving for a better life through material things. However, new cars, bigger houses, the latest technical gadgets and closets full of clothes cannot fill the emptiness in one’s soul. Since COVID, this emptiness has become more apparent due to the lack of things to occupy our minds.  Many of us have never sat alone with ourselves. How do we fill the emptiness? What can we do as we head into the eighth month of this pandemic?  For me, natural beauty of any kind fills my heart and soul ...

    Friday night, social media was flooded with comments, memorials and quotes from a gently fierce woman, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As the news of her death from cancer spread around the world, people began asking questions like, "Can anything else go wrong in 2020?"  and making statements like, "Now, we are lost." But, I see it differently. Yes, my social justice, activist heart broke at the news that Justice Ginsburg was no longer with us on this physical plane. However, in an email to one of my daughters, I wrote something that inspired this post.  I wrote that with her death, I now knew what the disciples must have felt when they learned that Jesus had died.  A TZADDIK Not long after writing to my daughter, I read that "according to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, which began tonight, is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness."  How perfect!  Justice Ginsburg absolutely embodied "great righteousness."  While my ...

  Today, I have the great honor and pleasure to share an interview I had with the multi-talented and multi-gifted Angela Yarber. Welcome, Angela! Being able to share your many talents with my readers, brings me great joy! To get us started, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?  Aloha! I’m Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber. I live on Hawai’i Island with my wife and two young children; here, we run a non-profit, the Tehom Center, which empowers marginalized women by teaching about revolution ary women through art, writing, retreats, and academic courses. I hold a Ph.D. in Art and Religion, and I’ve been both a Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and a Professor of Divinity since 2006. For fourteen years, I was an ordained clergywoman and served churches as a pastor. I’ve published seven books addressing the intersections among the arts, gender/sexuality, and spirituality. Four of these books were listed in the top LGBTQ Religion Books by QSpirit. Finally, I’m a w...

  Nine Muses by Royer   Ever wonder why certain numbers appear over and over in sacred texts?  For our ancient ancestors, certain numbers...numbers found in nature...were sacred and carried with them mystical powers. For instance, the number nine, which is the length of time in a novena, (the word novena comes from the Latin word for nine) was believed by the ancients to represent wisdom, leadership, Universal love, creation, and service to name a few.  These beliefs in the sacred number nine come from many cultures. There are nine muses in Greek and Roman mythology. There are nine forms of devotion and nine treasures in Hinduism. There are the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit as well as the nine levels of Heaven along with the nine choirs of angels. In the Mayan and Aztec cultures, there were nine levels in the underworld. The significance of the number nine as a sacred number can truly be found worldwide. Therefore, when we come to our ninth day of ref...

 Entwined  (c)2020 Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas   This is the Truth... All beings that draw breath on this planet are connected. We all come from the same Whole. We are diverse and ever-changing. We are Family - a dysfunctional family - but Family, nonetheless. Some of us have lost the insight of our connectedness. Some of us have become so mentally, emotionally, and spiritually sick that we can no longer remember who our true Parents are. Some of us have been so oppressed, abused, diseased, tortured, and forgotten that we live in constant pain, fear, and terror. Some of us enable the dysfunction. Some of us make excuses, find loopholes, look the other way. Some of us have nothing, yet understand the Truth. Some of us look evil in the eye, daily, yet understand the Truth. Some of us sacrifice everything for the Truth. Some of us see the Light within other beings and kindle their flickering spark of Truth. This is the Truth... You are Loved. You ...

Baby Cardinal Outside My Window (c) 2020 Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas   "The older you get, the less sleep you need."  This maxim was quoted to me in my youth by many of my elderly family and friends as an explanation of why they would be "up with the birds." Thing is, I never believed it to be true since many of them took long afternoon naps!   That being the case, I find myself up with the birds today. The sun has hardly crested North Sugarloaf Mountain, and I am wide awake wondering why. After all, at 5:45 it is still fairly dark. The birds singing didn't wake me because I can't hear them until I put in my hearing aids.  So, why am I wide awake?   Some people believe that waking early is a call from Spirit to rise and commune with the Divine.  Not sure if this is so, but I do know that when I find myself up and about in the wee hours, I usually use the time to pray, to write and to appreciate Nature.    Even in the semi-lig...