“Human beings construct meaning as spiders make webs,” observes writer Catherine Bateson. “This is how we survive, our primary evolutionary business.” We are both meaning seekers and meaning makers. We try to discover the purpose of our lives and to make sense of our experiences. “What we are looking for on earth and in earth and in ourselves is the process that can unlock for us the mystery of meaningfulness in our daily lives, Jungian psychologist Alice O. Howell counsels. “We can only see half of anything. The other half is the meaning we give to what we see. In every tree, apple, flower, there is an aha! waiting!” Significances beckon at every turn. To see them, we must be attentive, open, and hospitable. “Meanings,” according to Victor Frankl, “are inexhaustible. We need to develop our intuitive sense that allows us to smell out meanings hidden and dormant in life situations.” “Spirituality lets meaning flow into daily life,” Brother David Steindl-Rast adds. As a result, we are constantly weaving new constellations of meaning through our search for truth, our struggle for justice, and our acts of love. In the end, as diarist Anais Nin reminds us, “There is not one big cosmic meaning for all. There is only the meaning we all give to our lives, an individual meaning.” Find that meaning and share it with others……..Frederic & Mary Ann Brussatt

our prayers light up like fireflies when we offer them with intention, with grace, and with honesty…..may the night dance around our soul knowings, where fireflies ask sparkly, kind-hearted stars for the next go-round…..

I often dream I am a tightrope walker. I climb the rope ladder slowly, carefully, adjusting to its wrigglings. The wooden slats mutter to me all the way up. The rungs my right foot stands on say “If you are afraid of falling, you will fall,” and the rungs my left foot presses say “If you believe you cannot fall, you will fall.” Eventually I arrive on the little platform at the top. I strip off my track suit and am revealed in all my sequinned glory. I look out and down at the upturned eyes, sparkling brighter than my costume. Then the spotlight pins me, and I hear its mocking tones. It says, “And probably in the end you will fall anyway.” And in my dream, I always listen politely and know it is true, and then I go out sparkling, flashing and dance on the void. That is the challenge, the moment of hope: to dance as near the edge of destruction as possible, to be willing to fall and still not fall. And the audience cheers, because it is beautiful and because they know that this time I may indeed fall and because they know that that is precisely why it is beautiful, and I have made it beautiful……Sara Maitland

the word has inspired

We are travelers on a cosmic journey,

stardust, swirling and dancing

in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity.

Life is eternal.

We have stopped for a moment

to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.

This is a precious moment.

…..Paulo Coelho