The Longest Study on Happiness: What We Can Learn I would like to invite us to reflect on a book titled The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, co-authored by Robert Waldinger, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an authorized Zen master; and Marc Schulz, a psychology professor at Bryn Mawr College. They are also the current directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which began 87 years ago in 1938... Read more

Wicked is a box office smash, earning $722.50 million worldwide so far, and the film has received ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Cynthia Erivo), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Ariana Grande), Best Original Score, Best Costume Design. With the Academy Awards scheduled for Sunday, March 2, this feels like an auspicious time to explore the political allegory behind the many iterations of the Oz mythos. Frank Baum’s classic children’s novel The Wonderful... Read more

The following are the top ten best books I’ve read since this time last year — in alphabetical order by the author’s last name because agonizing over a precise order would take all the fun out of remembering these books: Loving Corrections (Emergent Strategy Series, 12) by adrienne maree brown (2024) Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman (2024) What to Believe?: Twelve Brief Lessons in Radical Theology by... Read more

What do you feel led to do, to change, or let go of in this season of your life? As a guide for exploring that question, I want to share some insights from a recently published book titled Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport. In addition to being a tenured professor of computer science at Georgetown University, he is also a bestselling author of numerous books for a popular audience at the intersection of... Read more

The subject of climate change is not particularly cheery, but it’s terribly important — especially in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which were both supercharged by climate change. If you are interested in the data of how much worse various natural disasters are and will be due to climate change, I recommend the website climatecentral.org. They are doing some great work on crunching the numbers. And as I began pondering the topic of “multiple ecosystem collapse in our... Read more

Back  in 1994, the Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies released a song titled “What A Good Boy.” The opening lyrics went like this: When I was born, they looked at me and said “What a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy” And when you were born, they looked at you and said “What a good girl, what a smart girl, what a pretty girl” We’ve got these chains hanging around our necks People want to... Read more

This summer, when I was planning my sermon topics for the year, I stumbled upon an intriguing social media post from Matthew Bowman, a professor of religion and history at Claremont Graduate University. He was promoting his new book The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill: Alien Encounters, Civil Rights, and the New Age in America. It’s significant to highlight that this book was published by the prestigious Yale University Press. This instance is one of many examples we will... Read more

The following are the top ten best books I’ve read since this time last year–in alphabetical order by the author’s last name because agonizing over a precise order would take all the fun out of remembering these books: Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr. by Marc Andrus – “The story of the friendship between King and Nhat Hanh — icons who changed each other and the world.” The Dawn of Everything:... Read more

 It feels auspicious to return to Hinduism since we are near Diwali, the annual Hindu festival of lights. In Sanskrit, Diwali literally means “a row or series of lights” and has the connotation of lights which illuminate knowledge. If you google “Diwali,” you will see some spectacular images that merely touch the surface of the truly dazzling wonder that is Diwali. This holiday is truly a symphony for the senses. Religion is about so much more than interpreting ancient texts.... Read more

I was recently on an eight-day retreat for meditation teachers near Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. Because we have an almost five-month old, the only way for me to attend the retreat was to rent a house about twenty-five minutes away in nearby Black Mountain, North Carolina. My mom and my wife took care of our baby during the day, and I drove back each evening to help with our infant overnight and in the morning. We also brought... Read more