When I began writing Awakened Faith, I wasn't setting out to study the Lord's Prayer. What I knew was that I felt called to write. At the time, my mentor and guide, Susan Anthony, was looking for someone to help put her teachings into a book. The timing felt synchronistic. I thought I was writing a book. What I didn't realize was that, beyond what I was learning from Susan, the book itself would begin teaching me. I began noticing signs, synchronicities, and experiences that seemed to...

There’s a classic story about a young spiritual seeker who was excited to advance to the next level of his training. He eagerly approached his mentor, asking when he would be ready for the next initiation. The mentor smiled but said very little. The seeker returned another day to ask again, only to find a different student being called into the next initiation by the same mentor. But instead of celebrating, the older initiate was pleading not to go. The seeker was confused. Why would...

She was here before the neighborhood was, wisdom planted in the midtown neighborhood in the form of a silver maple. She towers over all the rest of the neighborhood trees, her limbs as large as small trees themselves. I asked her her name when I bought the house, and she told me she’s called Ellen. To me and many of my clients, she’s the most amazing healer, bringing us peace and soothing pain. On Thursday in the middle of Holy Week, an ice storm coated the area in glass. I was upstairs...