Date Archives August 2021

My apologies for the delay in writing to you this week. Like many of you, I watched in horror as images of Afghanistan flooded our television screens and social media feeds. I was heartbroken by so many stories that we heard and our collective complicity in creating this tragic moment. I decided to take a few days to think about what this means for us as a global community and where we might go from here. The tension this week for me, and perhaps you, is that I agree that… Read More

This weekend I will be hosting an online event with theologian Matthew Fox and Buddhist spiritual teacher Isa Gucciardi, author of Coming to Peace. Isa is a psychologist and creator of Depth Hypnosis, a groundbreaking therapeutic model that has won rave reviews from psychotherapeutic and spiritual counselors alike. In her book, Coming to Peace, she explores a process for moving through conflict in ourselves, our families and groups based on indigenous practices of honest dialogue and self-reflection. But for any process to work, she says these elements must be present… Read More

In a time long ago, a wise old Sufi was making his annual pilgrimage to Mecca. But it was a long walk for him, and the sun was high. Having averaged more than 20 miles a day, once Mecca was in sight, the old Sufi decided to lie down on the side of the road and rest up for his final leg of the journey. Minutes later, one of the other pilgrims violently kicked his feet. “Get up,” he commanded. “You blasphemer, you lie with your feet pointed toward God… Read More

Many years ago, a brave and prophetic colleague/friend named Jim Antal began sounding the alarm of climate change. Few other leaders in our circles were prioritizing climate change as the crisis of our time. We were locked in global wars, struggling with inequality, challenged by mass immigration, and fighting terrorism across the world. But Jim knew that all of those were irrelevant in the face of a larger brewing crisis. I remember him saying to me, “Cameron, if faith leaders don’t start speaking about the damage we are causing our… Read More

When I was a child going to school in Atlanta, Georgia, my teachers taught me that forming a “more perfect union” of freedom, equality and opportunity was the dream of democracy. “You are a citizen of this country,” they said, “and your responsibility is to hold that dream – even fight for it – not for your individual benefit but for all of us.” As I grew older, this duty of citizenship became complicated. I realized that my white skin color opened doors of opportunity closed to people with darker… Read More

We are in the harvest season. Most mornings right now, I begin my day by putting on my mud boots, grabbing a basket, clippers, and bug spray, and walking out to the field just behind our house. There we have planted a wonderland of vegetables – peppers, okra, zucchini, squash, beans, peas, cucumbers, carrots, beets, jalapeños, onions, tomatoes, eggplant, and herbs. These mornings, at the height of the harvest, I fill my basket to overflowing. This morning ritual reminds me that life is designed with “abundance” in mind. Living in… Read More

Outside the Shibuya Station in Tokyo stands a bronze statue of a dog named Hachiko. Hachiko was an Akita Inu dog born in 1923 and adopted by Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor of agriculture at the University of Tokyo. Each morning Ueno and Hachiko would walk together to the Shibuya train station where Ueno would tell Hachiko goodbye before getting on the train to work. Hachiko (Hachi) would then spend the day waiting for Ueno to come back. In the meantime, local shopkeepers and station workers would keep an eye on… Read More

This week as we continue to celebrate the Tokyo 2020 Olympics we are hearing the wonderful and inspiring stories of the lives of the athletes and the sacrifices they’ve made to get to this point. More than that, we are seeing their character and care for one another even at the height of competition. Sunday, high-jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar flawlessly jumped the high jump at 7 feet, 9 1/4 inches. But neither of them could clear the bar at a higher level after… Read More