"Our brightest dreams and our greatest fears are just over the horizon."

The Buddhists have a story about blind men trying to describe an elephant by feeling it's various parts, and each describes the elephant according to the part he touched.  That is the way we can hope to know God.

Solitude is a condition of peace that stands in direct opposition to loneliness.  Loneliness is like sitting in an empty room and being aware of the space around you.  It is a condition of seperateness.  Solitude is becoming one with the space around you.  It is a condition of union.  Lonliness is small, solitude is large.  Lonliness closes in around you; solitude expands toward the infinite.  Lonliness has its roots in words, in an internal conversation that nodbody answers; solitude has it's roots in the great silence of eternity.

We are born male.  We must learn to be men.  Remember, strength is a force.  It is an attribute of the heart.  Its opposite is not weakness and fear, but confusion, lack of clarity, and lack of sound intention.  If you are able to discern the path with heart and follow it even when at the moment it seems wrong, then and only then are you strong.  Remember the words of Tao te ching.  "The only true strength is a strength that people do not fear."  Strength based in force is a strength people fear.  Strength based in love is a strength people crave.

In a perfect world perhaps we would all see more clearly.  But this is not a perfect world, and it is enough to hope that each of us will share our talents, and find the balance between greed and benevolence that will allow us to live and thrive and help the world around us grow.

Giving is a generative act.  When you give of yourself something new comes in to being.  Two people, who moments before were trapped in separate worlds of private cares, suddenly meet each other over a simple act of sharing; warmth, even joy is created.  The world expands, a bit of goodness is brought forth, and a small miracle occurs.  You must never underestimate this miracle.  Too many good people think they have to become Mother Teresa or Albert Schweetzer, or even Santa Claus, and perform great acts if they are to be givers.  They don't see the simple openings of the heart that can be practiced anywhere with almost anyone.

This is important.  Money on its most basic level is a hard fact - you either have it or you don't.  But on it's emotional level it is purely a fiction.  It becomes what you let it become.

I sometimes like to think of God as a great symphony and the various spiritual paths as instruments in an orchestra.  The gift that you have is like music waiting to be played.  You need only to find the instrument that will best bring it out.  You alone can never play all the instruments, and your music might not find voice in all the instruments.  All you can do is find the instrument that suits you best, play it as well as you can, and add your music to the great symphony of divine creation.