Find out more about my memoir No Letter in Your Pocket
Life’s challenges can sometimes bring fear and doubt. How do you sustain your faith, allowing it to flourish? What symbols or metaphors represent your faith journey: e.g. a mighty rock, flowing river or immovable mountain? What does faith look and feel like for you? Who or what tests or strengthens it? Please note that as…
My blog features Spirituality as one of a dozen or so main topics. For the past five years, I have written weekly on subjects ranging from walking labyrinths, Jean Houston, and making a First Nations drum to mindfulness and Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hanh. To explore some of the spiritual themes of my blog, click…
I recently completed a memoir that explores my path of spiritual exploration, including seven months of travel and meditation in India. It proved challenging to articulate my spiritual voyage, attempting to transform words and experience from the abstract realm into something personalized, fresh, and universal. Currently, I am seeking representation for this book No Letter in Your Pocket: Twenty…
I teach workshops on a process called SoulCollage®, a wonderful, intuitive form of self-discovery and celebration created by Seena Frost of California. A graduate of the Yale School of Theology, Seena drew on her work in the Human Potential Movement, archetypes, and Jungian sub-personalities to form a SoulCollage® movement. Now there are SoulCollage® workshop facilitators around…
For the next two to three months, I’ll be writing a series of weekly posts, with photographs, about my 800-kilometre walk along the El Camino in France and Spain. Each week, I’ll feature a new topic, from “creating sacred space” to “the Roman road.” I look forward to a lively discussion with readers. If…
Spirituality and writing for children My children’s book Gracie’s Got a Secret (MW Books 2011) shares the concept of “letting go” with children and the “Don’t push the river” approach to life. This echoes the Taoist notion of “wu wei” or “action through inaction.” Find out more on my Gracie’s Got a Secret website. I…
While a master’s student in creative nonfiction writing from 2007-2009, I wrote the essay Dharma by the Dozen: The Art of Spiritual Writing. This paper identifies 12 characteristics found in the best writing on this topic. Here are just two examples: Be as transparent as possible. Use cultural and cross-genre literary sources to reinforce a…
While a board member of the Workplace Centre for Spiritual and Ethical Development, I was a luncheon guest speaker in downtown Vancouver, BC in December 2005. My talk “A Spiritual Workplace: Reality or Utopia?”, presented to businesspeople and consultants at 555 West Georgia, focused on the research I did related to my PeopleTalk magazine article on…
As we move towards more holistic work environments, employers will strive to honor and provide space and time for employees’ spiritual expression. To me, this is part of celebrating diversity and offering work-life balance. While editor-in-chief of PeopleTalk magazine in Vancouver, I chose the theme Spirituality in the Workplace for the summer 2005 issue. I…
While editor of the Vancouver human resources magazine PeopleTalk, I attended a 2004 workshop on spirituality in the workplace, offered by then-PhD-candidate Joan Deeks. She addressed the misconceptions and stigmas related to the term “spirituality” and defined how it differed from “religion.” Click this spirituality in the workplace link to read my feature, which…