For me, the Lord's Prayer is a wonderful meditation, and the more ways I can experience it the more personal it becomes. Maybe it seems inappropriate to take it onto the sidewalks, so to speak, complete with panting from exertion and the noise of traffic, but to me it felt like a small awakening.

The title of the book Unbornness refers to the state of the soul’s being before birth, as it prepares to be born in its little human form. The book by Peter Selg refutes the image of the giant gumball machine where you turn the handle and a new soul pops out. Instead, he says, it is a very intentional (and often difficult) process that is anything but random.

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with programs that propose to promote understanding between identity groups by “breaking barriers,” “building coalitions,” or “finding common ground.” I like the goal, and I’ve gotten to know some great people through these activities, but I’ve always felt more restless than truly changed by them. That said, I like this simple statement about the need to... read more

Can we consider the three major religions of the Middle East—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—each as an expression of a necessary step in “reconnecting” with the spirit? And can we judge the rightness of these steps without the wisdom of the feminine principle? In this section from How Wide the Heart, Marko Pogacnik poses these questions while traveling in the Direct download: pogacnik.MP3
Category:readings -- posted at: 5:00 AM

Just like body parts, some works of literature require “enhancing” to reach their full potential. In this case, I was pleased to render service to the opening chapter of an audio book I picked up at the library called The Nature of Monsters. See if you don’t agree that a few subtle effects help... read more

I was yanked by the hair by this passage from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. It’s hard to read without the uneasy feeling that Lewis looked down his nose at the working classes and the uneducated, but grappling with that feeling is part of the joy of reading and marveling at it. Above all he is calling for us to become... read more

‘Round this part of this neighborhood of this city, the City Slackers are pretty widely known characters. They’re a well-married couple, and though they have no children, their friends and relations substitute quite well. Sure, Slick and Slack have their peculiarities (as you may detect in this episode), but what’s a little mess among good friends?

Direct download: AOT_again.mp3
Category:drama -- posted at: 3:56 AM

Well, friends, let not it be ever said that we, your hosts, were cursed by lack of courage or surplus of talent. Treading the ground trod by Shakespeare and probably a bunch of other people before us, we pay humble tribute to stage drama and the radio shows of old with this presentation and a few more to follow. We hope therewith... read more

Dipping back into Love and the Soul by Robert Sardello. This reading has many things, including bone-chewing by the dogs and me doing my best Michael Toms voice (stuffy and nasal). If you can get past those features, you’ll hear about individuality—a sense of the I; how a sense of purpose can well up from within; the heart as an organ of perception; and... read more

Here are some excerpts from an astronomical calendar for 2011, written by Brian Keats. (His web site is www.astro-calendar.com.)

While these passages mostly relate to the Moon, I particularly like the part where he asks us if... read more