Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to my blog.  Now that we are fully immersed in the holidays, I wanted to take a look at what we can do to stay centered in our spirits such that we can spread joy year round.

In order to set the stage for this blog, I wanted to share something that Thomas Merton, a Catholic Monk, wrote in Choosing to Love the World.  As a heads up, he is long winded in his sentences, but he seems to have enough commas to slow us down such that we can digest what he is conveying.  I was really drawn to this passage, even though, admittedly, I had to read it a few times to fully digest it.  I think he nails down the major impediment regarding our ability to spread joy year round.  In the following passage, he illustrates the root cause to the problems that we experience, which, is also what impedes are ability to stay centered in the spirit.  He says:

 The aggressive and dominative view of reality places, at the center, the individual with its bodily form, its feelings and emotions, its …

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