If you had even the slightest inkling how completely and powerfully you are loved by the angels around you, you would cry for joy -- and then quickly become reassured that you had all the resources, so many more than you ever dreamed you had, to turn your life into the magnificent adventure you want it to be.

by Sandy Goodman.

We have not done well with dying. We have denied its reality and considered it an end to life that should be avoided at all costs. We tell our children that Grandma died and went to a beautiful place called Heaven, and then we quit saying her name. Instead of seeing death as the next stage of life and exploring the possibilities of such a belief, we choose to let fear keep us ignorant.

by Marijoyce Porcelli.

I was very close to my father, and very upset when he died. A few days after his death, I turned over in my bed, supposedly still in mid-dream, when a shadowy form appeared. He, for I assumed the figure to be such, was similar to those dark depictions of the spirit...

by Will Johnson.

Most of our spiritual traditions tell us that, as humans, we are miniature reflections of God and that we have been created in God's image. If this is so, then it would follow that a more direct way to look upon the face of God would be to sit and gaze at an actual person, a real flesh-and-blood human. If you can truly see another and be seen by the other, you begin to see that he or she is an embodiment of the Divine, and you begin to feel that you are as well.

by Bobbie Christmas.

One of my most cherished Christmas memories involves a Christmas when the only gifts I received came without gift-wrap. The socks hung exactly as we had left them, lifeless and flat. "There's nothing there," I sobbed...

by Rich Rahn.

A lot of what we've been taught by well-meaning parents, teachers, and clergy, is not conducive to self-realization. We've been taught how to fit in, get by and do what we're told. That's fine for children. But there comes a time in everyone's life when you have to start thinking for yourself.

by Jane Katra, Ph.D. & Russell Targ.

Each of the major religions has the same goal: to provide us with a way to know and experience God. The only difference lies in the instructions for accomplishing this knowing. It's very hard to know where to focus my attention to find peace. I am sad to discover that I can't find it in my morning New York Times.

by Neale Donald Walsch.

Life is a prayer in the sense that it is a continuous request to the universe and its God to present us with what we choose and desire. God understands our desires not just through the occasional utterances that we call "prayers" in the traditional sense, but through every thought we think, every word we speak, and everything we do.

by Martin Lowenthal.

In the Kabbalah of the Jewish tradition, the soul is not something that needs curing from some affliction so much as needing to be repaired, tikkun. It is said that if one person truly knew how to fix the soul by celebrating the Divine Presence in life, then that person would repair the whole world. This version is an adaptation of a story told by Rabbi Shlomo Carlbach and included in the book Shlomo's Stories.

by Joseph S. Willis.

We who value tolerance sometimes behave as if we think tolerance is the ultimate value of the liberal spirit, a cure for all the ills of society. But what if your next-door neighbors come from a part of the world where their homeland custom demands that the man...

by Steven D. Farmer, Ph.D.

In our youth-obsessed culture, the advancing specter of growing old becomes something to be tirelessly avoided. Our society's beliefs about growing old don't honor the eldership status of our seniors. What's usually overlooked is the tremendous storehouse of knowledge and wisdom that we've accumulated, the gifts we can give to subsequent generations.

by Christopher Penczak.

Everybody on this planet has a spiritual support team. This group is our backup in the game of life. We come into the world with this team, and build on it through our spiritual practices and experiences.