Soulful Blogs
Immerse yourself in a tapestry of enlightening insights, empowering stories, and soul-nourishing wisdom
Freedom is a state of mind
For many July is a month to celebrate freedom. People in the US, Canada, France, Argentina, Peru, the Netherlands, Belgium, Laos, Slovakia and other countries celebrate their national independence this month. Forty years ago my parents gave up their country, their...
What Pride Means to Me
It is hard for me to believe that it has been 20 years since the publication of Coming Out Spiritually. This year is also the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York’s Greenwich Village that are generally identified as the launch of the LGBT rights...
A Call for Heroes Retreat
What does it mean to be a hero — to live heroically — in these times? Have you known or even suspected that you had a role to play as teacher, healer or spiritual activist? We are living in what may be the most critical juncture in the evolution of humanity. The...
Negotiating the Holidaze
For many of us, the holidays are a challenging time. We grieve the loss of loved ones, of relationships we wish had turned out differently. With shorter days for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it can feel like darkness descends upon us, perhaps triggering feelings...
Darkness & Light
I used to believe America was the most enlightened country in the world, not because of some particular and intrinsic exceptionalism, but because as a melting pot it represents the best of all humanity. Granted, my perceptions were likely slanted while living in the...
Destruction and Creation
Destruction—and creation—have been up for me lately. As did many others, I personally witnessed the destruction Hurricane Irma wreaked on Miami, which pales in comparison to her impact on the Florida Keys and the Caribbean. Last week we all witnessed further...
The Power Of Letting Go
This week we look at the critical importance of letting go on the road to freedom. Part of the ego’s job is to maintain the status quo, which means resisting change and holding on to people and things and situations. A story from Richard Bach’s book “Illusions”...
Speaking of Freedom…
July is the month when those of us in the U.S., France, Canada, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina and other countries celebrate independence. As the election cycle in the U.S. intensifies and enters its final phase, freedom is also being brandished about—through fear in some...
Power, Violence and Courage
There is a certain level of numbness that can happen when we hear about yet one more mass shooting or terrorist attack. Overwhelmed with emotions—grief, anger, frustration, helplessness—our system shuts down. Orlando struck particularly close to home for me, both...
On Earth Day Eve, thank you for all your gifts, Prince!
"Imagine holding Planet Earth In the palm of your hand With no regard for your place of birth Or claim to any land The only thing between us now is the truth we understand If Planet Earth was in the palm of your hand 50 years from now what will they say about us here?...
Trump, Ego & Power
Like many others, I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around the Trump phenomenon. What is the appeal of someone so offensive and mean-spirited—a self-important, narcissistic bully, a self-aggrandizing, pompous and vulgar loudmouth spewing such chauvinistic, racist and...
Navigating Power Plays
When was the last time you got caught up in a power struggle? Who was the other player? A lazy co-worker? A manipulative boss? A controlling spouse or irresponsible teenager? Or perhaps that passive-aggressive customer service representative snagged you after you had...
Sex & Power
Our world is “obsexed,” a bit out of control in this area, to say the least. Sex has been so repressed and demonized that it comes out in unhealthy expressions. In its most extreme and violent forms, the unhealthy expression of sexual and power dynamics show up as...
Better than Sex?!?
Don’t get me wrong. I love sex. And I consider it nothing less than sacred. Before I knew practices like meditation and breathwork, that was the only time my mind would stop. Ego boundaries would collapse and I could experience fleeting moments of oneness with...
Namaste in the Bedroom
For some people, "sacred sexuality" is an oxymoron, an inherent contradiction in terms. And it’s no wonder, given humanity's religiously-inspired history of making sex wrong. Yet, if you doubt the connection between sexuality and spirituality, just ask yourself: whose...
What Can I Do?
Many of you know from following my posts on Facebook that my 28 y/o nephew Ralf Garcia was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died ten days later. How does one even begin to make sense of the loss of such a young man, beautiful in every sense of the word, leaving behind...
Where Does the Love Go?
One of the reasons so many relationships don’t last is that we confuse “falling in love”—the temporary, emotional, hormone-infused high—with the act and art of loving, the sacred work of relationship. Additionally, our culture of immediate gratification and the “grass...
The Power of Gratitude
Gratitude is a renewable energy. It is a magnetic, attractive and transmutative force that becomes self-perpetuating, engendering even more things for which to be grateful. In Spanish the word for “thank you,” gracias, also means grace. We can say that gratitude is a...
The Power of Commitment
One of the quotes which participants of Soulful Purpose retreats find most helpful is from William Hutchinson Murray’s The Scottish Himalayan Expedition: “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts...
Moving Through Fear
Fear, in one of its many facets is what has kept us in stuck in stifling jobs, soul-devouring mediocrity, suffocating relationships—in “lives of quiet desperation,” as Thoreau wrote. The issue of fear and how to transcend it almost always comes up with clients and...
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