Archive for the 'Spirit' Category

The Lady’s Hug

A beautiful story, especially for parents who get asked the question, “Is Santa real?”~ Angela Gentile 

The traffic in town crawled. Shoppers walked faster than the bumper-to-bumper cars could move.

“Just a few more blocks,” I muttered. There was so much to do and the heavy traffic was wasting precious time.

Finally, we found a parking spot right in front of Mapes – our destination.

Mapes was one-of-a-kind store that sold hardware, sewing notions, corny greeting cards and household goods. It’d been a fixture in town for decades. The kids loved the toy aisle, which was stocked with board games, puzzles and “must-have” items like silly putty, jump ropes and slinkys.

This visit to Mapes had special… Continue reading

Published on Tuesday December 6, 2011 in Love, Parenting, Spirit and Writings. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

Be A Beam

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.” ~ Lord Byron

As you may’ve guessed, life on the east coast has been hair-raising this past week. Depending on your location, areas experienced varying degrees of destruction, from earthquakes/aftershocks, to Hurricane Irene, hundred year floods and a few tornados thrown in to keep things interesting.

We’re all a little twitchy in the Philly area, looking over our figurative shoulders to make sure nothing else is creeping up on us.

Feeling the need to connect with a higher perspective (see Spirit Key), I decided to meditate. It was no surprise that my energies felt scattered as I tried to meditate for the first… Continue reading

Published on Friday September 2, 2011 in Blogs and Spirit. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

GPS – Guidance Provided by Spirit

As a faculty member, I had the privilege of attending the graduation for the Circle of Miracles Ministry School Class of 2011 this past weekend. Annabella Wood, a fellow instructor, shared the following story during the ceremony (some poetic license taken):

Ever notice how the GPS in your car never criticizes you? It never tells you that you’re on the wrong path, or going in the wrong direction. You simply input the destination and go on your way. If, you should make a right turn, rather than a left, the GPS simply says, “Recalculating…” It occurred to me how much SPIRIT is like a GPS. We simply tell SPIRIT where we want to go and start the journey. We can choose any path to get us there

Continue reading

Published on Thursday April 21, 2011 in Blogs, Healing from Cancer and Spirit. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

Introducing: My Ladies

It’s time for me to ‘fess up. I didn’t actually write Strong & Wise.

Well, my fingers did the typing and my brain did a bunch of editing, but the content itself was taken in dictation – sort of.

Let me back up a bit.

When I was little, I remember lying in bed “talking” to my friends. No one was physically with me in my bedroom, I just knew “my friends” were there. I’d tell them all about my day and eventually sleep would come and silence the conversation.

This went on for years. Each evening, I fell asleep surrounded by love. Whenever I felt worried, my friends would assure me that everything was going to be okay.

But one night, my friends weren’t… Continue reading

Published on Friday February 25, 2011 in Blogs and Spirit. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

Getting Picked By SPIRIT

I teach Strong & Wise as part of the curriculum at an Interfaith Ministry School called Circle of Miracles and they hosted a gathering of graduates this past Sunday. As part of the festivities, graduates had an opportunity to share what’s happened since graduation.

One of the first graduates to share said he was pursuing his dream of working with troubled youth. But then he added, “I’m also writing screenplays. It’s not like I wanted to do this at first but the words kept coming so I had to write them down. I got picked by Spirit to do this, so I am.”

The theme of “getting picked by Spirit” showed up in other sharing. Like the graduate who received multiple requests to do weddings, despite… Continue reading

Published on Thursday February 10, 2011 in Blogs and Spirit. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Coming Home to SPIRIT

When I go to bed at night I always leave a light on downstairs. My children are young adults who think that 10PM is the perfect time to begin an evening so I’m usually asleep when they get home. But when they return a light welcomes them.

Connecting to SPIRIT is no different.

The light is always on – all you have to do is open the door and let the light in.

Last week my husband and I returned to a place of worship after being away from that particular location for nearly a year. This place of worship has a wall where reusable name tags hang. The usual process is to put on a name tag before services. The hand written name tags… Continue reading

Published on Thursday January 6, 2011 in Blogs and Spirit. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Cathedral Building

Life Sculpture (excerpt)
 by George Washington Doane

Chisel in hand stood a sculptor boy
With his marble block before him,
And his eyes lit up with a smile of joy,
As an angel-dream passed o’er him
He carved the dream on that shapeless stone,
With many a sharp incision:
With heaven’s own light the sculpture shone –
He’d caught that angel-vision.

Last week, I was moved to tears at the sight of stone.

I was visiting the Sagrada Familia - the beautiful cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona. I fought tears as I gazed up at the ceiling. Towering pillars of stone, beautifully shaped to arch and branch out, created the illusion of standing beneath a canopy… Continue reading

Published on Monday December 20, 2010 in Blogs and Spirit. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

The Power of Second Chances

Theodore Johnson, or “Mr. J” was my fifth grade teacher.

He was a tall, slender man with a reputation for fun that made students pray to be assigned to his class. Mr. J was significant in my life for many reasons. As an educator, he brought mundane subjects to life with humor and passion.

As a person, he taught me the blessing of an unexpected second chance.

One Monday morning, the schoolyard buzzed with rumors about a fire in the school over the weekend. When the bell rang I raced inside, excited by the acrid scent of burnt wood that confirmed the rumors.

Homeroom hummed with conversation. Mr. J quieted the class and explained that “Home Economics” would be cancelled due to a fire. He also… Continue reading

Published on Tuesday August 24, 2010 in Forgiveness, Spirit and Writings. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Send Beauty

On the morning of Tuesday, September 11th, Kate Cain-Bell was fully immersed in teaching “something important” to her first-grade class at Richboro Elementary School in Richboro, Pennsylvania.

Not long into the day, the principle asked her to step out the classroom for a moment. There, in the hallway, she heard about the devastation in New York and Washington, D.C. It was difficult for her to grasp the news, let alone explain it to innocent minds, so she agreed with the school’s decision not to inform the children.

When Kate returned to her waiting students, the class work seemed to pale in comparison to the significance of the day’s events. As a deeply spiritual woman, she felt compelled to impact the world in a positive way during the time… Continue reading

Published on Tuesday August 24, 2010 in Forgiveness, Spirit and Writings. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The Mark of Angels

Many years ago my husband and I visited Bern, the charming capitol of Switzerland. One evening, we had a night free of planned activities.

Feeling liberated from itineraries, we wandered through the medieval streets into the heart of Bern. The warm evening breeze had lured swarms of people into the town square. Old men played checkers at cement tables amid musicians, jugglers and other assorted street performers. Frank and I paused to drink in the carnival of sights and sounds.

An American accent rang out above the bustle. I grabbed Frank’s hand and pulled him toward the sound of home.

“One… Two… Three!”

A burst of laughter erupted from the crowd around a juggler. I moved in closer, drawn in by his act and familiar accent.… Continue reading

Published on Tuesday August 24, 2010 in Forgiveness, Parenting, Serendipity, Spirit and Writings. 0 Comments Tags: , , .