June Mack Maffin offers journal prompting questions on her Soulistry blog. For example:

Would you identify yourself as one who expectantly looks to each day as "the very life of life!"; or are you more a person who looks to each day with dread?

If the latter, what can you do to be more a person who celebrates life?

It’s not just Buddhism/ Hinduism/ Jainism/ Sanskirt proverbs which espouses this philosophy (Look well therefore to this day) of celebrating life. Jewish people often shout “L’cheim … To life!” at special celebrations and Jews and Christians find solace in the Deuteronomist’s encouragement to “Choose life!” Are there some little things you can do to make “every tomorrow a vision of hope” beginning today?

For more, click here.

Brother David Steindl-Rast is a Benedictine monk who for decades has divided his time between a hermit’s life with periods of silence and lecture tours on five continents. He has been a leader in building bridges between religious traditions, working closely with Thomas Merton in the early years of the Christian dialogue with Eastern traditions. He is perhaps best known for his work on gratitude, and at present, serves a world wide Network for Grateful Living through www.gratefulness.org, an interactive Web sitewebsite with several thousand participants daily from more than 242 countries. Kate Olson spoke with Brother David about how the ‘way of love’ is revealed in the teachings and practices in the Christian tradition.

Click here to listen to a 13 minute interview of Brother David.

 

[via The Fetzer Institute]

Today, [October 17] the Dalai Lama is scheduled to meet with President Bush at the White House. Wednesday, Bush and congressional leaders are to present the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner with the Congressional Gold Medal — the highest civilian honor awarded by Congress — during a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Thousands of the Dalai Lama's supporters will celebrate on the Capitol's West Lawn.

Click here to read the entire story.

Randall Friesen is noticing more and more people are intertested in spiritual direction.

For whatever reasons, it seems that Spiritual Direction has been on the radar of a number of different people and organizations lately. It’s coming up in conversations I’m having with people about leadership, and in peoples personal development stories. Interesting to me is that I’m not initiating those discussions.

He wonders if this is a passing trend or a confluence of new thinking in the world. What do you think?

Spiritual Direction on the Rise

Is the spiritual direction a passing fad? Yes, it seems to be a 1970s style trend that will eventually fade. No, there is a real shift going on in the world, and spiritual direction is an integral part of new thinking. Current Results

 

Click here to read Friesen's original post.

Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship Ministries, recently wrote on the value of having a soul friend. He writes from an evangelical Christian perspective, but his ideas are easily applicable in any tradition.

[T]he amazing disappearing act of deep personal friendships is a tell-tale sign of spiritual malnutrition. Think about it. As Mindy Caliguire asks in her new small-group study guide, Spiritual Friendship, “What do you do when you can’t stand the thought of praying, when the words of the Bible seem plastic and false . . . when you have been doing everything ‘right’ and the bottom falls out?” It’s at these times when it is the spiritual friends who throw us a life-preserver.

Click here to read the entire post.