Category: Spirituality

By Marlene Buffa
My mother-in-law sat on the beach in Aruba and reached for her cold beverage nestled in the sand by her chair.  She miscalculated her grasp and instead, her hand dove into the sand and she pulled out a glorious 14K solid gold rope necklace.  Teams of salvage hunters spend millions of dollars, countless [...]

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff
At the beginning I was mistaken in four ways. I sought to remember God, to know Him, and to seek Him. When I had come to the end, I saw that He had remembered me before I remembered Him, that His knowledge of me had preceded my knowledge of Him, His love [...]

By Marlene Buffa
In the romanticism of this nation’s early years, the one-room schoolhouse represents ingenuity at its finest.  Depicted in the movies as the epicenter of the small, rural communities, this learning environment united the spirits of cooperation, patience, initiative and flexibility.  When we step back and look at life in general as a one-room [...]

by Jonathan Lockwood Huie
We all want to be happy, but something always gets in the way. There is never enough time… or money. Somebody is always failing to do what they are “supposed” to do… or not do. Our boss, our spouse, our kids, our parents, our friends, government, big business, whoever… “They” aren’t doing [...]

By Marlene Buffa
Ok.  I admit it.  I hate cleaning windows.  Like most of us, the task often gets delayed until the last possible moment.  After craning my neck to look around the spots on the glass to see outside, I finally relent and get the window cleaner and the newspaper.  My most recent attempt at [...]

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff
There are as many ways to God as there are created souls.
-Muhammad
In our culture, who assumes the role of holy or wise one? In more traditional cultures the holy, wise one is a central figure.  Often, they advise the king/queen, sit at the right hand of the chief, understand human behavior [...]

By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff
The Sufi is absent from self and present with God.
-Hujwiri
For the spiritual traveler, one of the most intriguing spiritual practices, through the use of focused prayer, turns free will choice into submission to the higher. In some paths, submission to the higher is the goal and accompanying this level of service is [...]

by Toni Gardner
So, I have this theory.  You know what a mirror ball is, right?  I’m talking about the giant, shiny disco balls you see in dance halls, night clubs and old Travolta flicks.  You know the ones - the spheres covered with all those little square mirrors that bounce back all that funky red, [...]

by Rick Jarow, PhD
The poet Gary Snyder once remarked that the “inner revolution” is the mercy of the East, while the “social revolution” is the mercy of the West. In our contemporary global mandala, East and West (as well as North and South) are no longer separate entities. They interpenetrate, soften, and energize one another [...]

by Marlene Buffa
A Boulangerie is a bakery which sells breads and rolls. A pâtisserie is a French bakery that specializes in pastries and sweets.

My friend Ann and I walk two miles to the nearby gourmet grocery store.  Contained within the store, resides a most decadent Boulangerie.  The bakery also sells pastries and sweets, making it [...]

International Alchemy Conference to Take Place at L.A. Convention Center October 23-25.
Caught in an unprecedented vortex of stress-inducing conditions - economic, health-related, and faith-challenging - individuals are turning every which way for solutions. Some find answers, serenity, and healing in an approach rooted in the ancient tradition of Alchemy.
Beyond the old lead-into-gold legend, though, the [...]

by Barry Vissell
It was Saturday, June 20, 2009, and we had one more week till our daughter Rami’s wedding to her fiancé River. I had no idea that this day would shake my whole world. We worked to get our house and property ready for the anticipated 170 people. Our new refrigerator arrived and I [...]