Search

Steel to Flint

• Authored by:
• john heid

“For the last time, I am ordering you to depart the grounds of Griffiss Air Force Base or you will be subject to arrest.” On a crisp spring morning in 1984, I came to realize – in a hands-on, hand-cuffed kind of way – that I was not just a participant in conflict; I was also its student. The tension in the air that day was as taut and clear as the bright blue line demarcating the base. I had just crossed that line, along with my nonviolent comrades, and I realized I had things to learn.

On Conflict (January 2023)

Esther

• Authored by:
• Joseph Snyder

This late summer we welcomed a new resident into our home. She came in through the kitchen window, where she built her own abode. The day eventually came when we needed to close the window due to excessive heat. Our guest moved from the opening to the inside of the sliding panel. She incorporated the curtain and a bit of the houseplant on the windowsill into her dwelling-place, which is an edifice of beauty. We call her Esther.

On Conflict (January 2023)

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (review)

• Authored by:
• Emelyn Buskirk

I can almost guarantee that there will be some parts of this book that you won’t like. This is especially true of the agricultural policies Bill Gates promotes and his advocacy of nuclear power to generate electricity. You may be, as I am, appalled by his great wealth. As Bernie Sanders says, it is obscene. But this book is so valuable that I ask you to look past those difficulties and see within Bill Gates a person with That of God within him. His philanthropic work shows that he listens to that Voice. It has given him a heart for the poor. An essential part of his plan is to encourage economic growth in poor countries. “It would be immoral and impractical to try to stop people who are lower on the economic ladder from climbing up.” Economic development in these countries would increase greenhouse gas emissions. That is part of the reason Gates sees innovation as essential.

On Conflict (January 2023)

Sacred Decisions (review)

• Authored by:
• Susan Loucks

Sacred Decisions provides a case and framework for consensus decision-making in faith contexts – explaining the reasoning, providing tips, and filling out the picture with some case studies. It’s an interesting read for anyone committed to shared power in decision making and a good resource for newly forming groups that are deciding which method to use, as well as for established groups that are interested in moving from majority rule to a different model.

On Conflict (January 2023)

What Every Artist Knows

• Authored by:
• William Ashworth

 

On Perception (March 2023)

Close-up on The Lord’s Prayer

• Authored by:
• Garth Hammond

This is my path: a struggle to learn to be willing to surrender to the Holy Spirit, to finally go home. I have been on this path for years, struggling with the idea of an “other,” an incomprehensible energy. Recognizing the necessity of surrendering to something greater than myself – and interior to me – has taken a long time. I have learned that transformation is about choice, action, willingness to surrender, and knowing that I am never alone.

On Perception (March 2023)

White Light

• Authored by:
• Jonathan Stoll

 

On Perception (March 2023)

Creation’s Viewpoint

• Authored by:
• Daniel Clarke Flynn

 

On Perception (March 2023)

Beyond Linear Thinking (review)

• Authored by:
• Cathleen Loeser

Beyond Linear Thinking (2022) is a page-turner in which Linda Seger uses humor, spiritual wisdom, and practical advice, supported by scientific research, to describe ways of moving beyond linear, competitive, hierarchical, patriarchal thinking – toward cooperation, equality, and diversity. I love the metaphors of line, circle, spiral, and web that she uses to explore these different thinking models. I also like her repetition of this point: holding a goal larger than the self is one way to avoid the pitfalls of pride and the pettiness of hierarchy.

On Perception (March 2023)

Pieces and Patterns

• Authored by:
• Trudy Myrrh Reagan

The man I married, physicist Daryl Reagan, was a skeptic. It gave him an endearing humility. He loved explaining physics to me. When he used his brakes, which produced heat by friction, he explained entropy. He told how eventually all energy would be dull heat energy, a heat death of the universe.

On Perception (March 2023)