Jessica Maxwell is a funny woman. She's a nationally acclaimed travel writer who sees her father's face in the sky soon after he dies. So does her sister who lives 1000 miles away. Thus our Miss Maxwell "marched," as she says, "into the divine principal's office" and told to quit...

So many books, so little time. I know, I know, we're all too busy, but this gem of a book, The Gentle Art of Blessing: A Simple Practice That Will Transform You and Your World by Pierre Pradervand is worth every speck of time it will take you to...

Trish Kinney described the amendment in these august pages (with a painful video):

Senator Al Franken got my attention and the attention of a lot of other people who care about sexual abuse and violence, with the passing of his Senate Amendment 2566. The Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill...

The list alternates fiction and nonfiction because that's how I read.

1. The Maeve Chronicles by Elizabeth Cunningham
This one recommendation is actually three books. Magdalen Rising, The Passion of Mary Magdalen, and Bright Dark Madonna tell the story of the Celtic Mary Magdalen, Maeve.

2. The Queen...

Deborah DeNicola approached the spiritual life seriously because of a broken heart. So many of us create crises in order to awaken; it's definitely one way to do life, but, believe it or not, crises are not a requirement. Neither is exquisite poetry, but DeNicola thrives on both.

Her new...

Remember that 70s button "Question Authority?" My perverse mind has always wondered, "Who made you question authority?" Believe it or not, after almost forty years, I think I've found her.

I recently read Caroline Myss' new book, Defy Gravity. In it she asks the most authoritative questions I've considered in...

This past week's Newsweek with Al Gore on the cover was illuminating. Consider this: 20% of CO2 is attributable to deforestation--more than all of the world's cars and trucks combined.

If this is true, and I have no reason to believe it isn't, why aren't all magazine publishers rushing to...

I almost always take cover blurbs with a grain of salt, don't you? But this endorsement from Ira M. Sacker, M.D. caused me to come to a full stop as I began to read Sarah Maria's book Love Your Body, Love Your Life. "Powerful, honest, and elegantly written. An amazing...

Mike Dooley is a modern-day magician in the best sense of the word. Trained as a CPA, he has, through contemplation of the world's largest questions, emerged as a metaphysician of no mean accomplishment. Remarkable.

You know who he is, right? The TUT guy. Totally unique thoughts. He...

I think there's a message in Chicago losing the Olympics. I also think there's a message in the moon invasion despite its alleged success.

The message is a simple one: It's time to focus on home. We need to take care of business here in America.

That means a...

Above my desk, on what my sweetheart calls my altar-cation, is a framed page from a Mary Englebreit page-a-day calendar from my birthday one long-ago year. It reads: "You must do the thing you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt." It is my favorite quote.

You can imagine my pleasure...

As you know, President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 on Friday. To the naysayers and the crabs, I have a message: Get over it.

Obama himself said he does not deserve this prize. He hasn't done the work required to stand in the queue of those who...

Sarah Brown's recent article in these august pages whooshed the breath right out of my lungs and made me shiver. Her text was: "Caring for women and girls is the key to caring for both our global society and our environment."

Juxtapose that with this YouTube clip of Belly Dancing...

At the top of the second act of the wondrous Broadway musical Wicked, Glinda addresses her assembled public, "Fellow Ozians." Surely it is not only the casts and audiences of Wicked who may be addressed as such?

Since 1900, there have always been Ozians. That's when Lyman Frank Baum's The...

I'm on a Tao Te Ching kick. It's the second most translated document in the world. The first one is the Bible. Lao Tzu is the alleged author; his name translates as "ancient child." Clever, huh?

One of the 81 has captivated my imagination. It's #18. The translation I'm going...

Newsweek editor-in-chief, the erudite Jon Meacham, reminded me of this quote in his Top of the Week column this week. Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. He used it to describe the way Teddy Kennedy operated during his years in government. It's a mistranslation of...

Anybody else hit the despair wall on the health care front? I hadn't until I watched Bill Maher's Friday night in-depth interview of the resplendent Bill Moyers, journalist of journalists. Here's a piece of it on YouTube, if you're curious.

The gentlemen were discussing metaphor and Mr. Maher asked...

I'd like to have lunch with Judith Orloff.

Her latest book, Emotional Freedom, is a gift to those of us who are often called "too sensitive." Dr. Orloff is a psychiatrist and an intuitive, a self-described energy psychiatrist (I have to applaud her for that alone!) and her passion...

I wasn't going to weigh in on the healthcare reform debate. Truthfully, the debate seems particularly pointless to me because I don't think there is a real debate. Fifty million citizens in this blessed country of ours do not have health insurance--isn't that a no-brainer?

I wish it were, but...

I've recently undergone a strange phenomenon. I've also heard of others experiencing these sorts of things, too. I've lived on the second floor of the same Victorian house for four years. The second floor means stairs, of course.

Twice in the past three months, and for the very first time...