We live in an attention economy – a system designed not simply to inform us, but to capture us. Algorithms compete for our focus. Notifications interrupt our thoughts. Outrage and anxiety are rewarded because they keep us engaged. None of that is accidental.  The emotional and spiritual costs are real.  When attention is trained primarily … Continue reading The Attention Economy

How are we doing?  How is what we are doing supporting our sense of resilience?  How do non-attachment and commitment, safety and risk-taking, music and silence help weave a web of resilience that can hold us and propel us?  Come and hear personal stories of resilience by Michael and fellow congregants.  Please be in touch … Continue reading Stories of Resilience

Most of us do not feel strong first and then act bravely.  We act – shakily.  We endure – imperfectly.  And then we try again.  Only later do we look back and think: I didn’t know I could do that.  Strength is often retroactive.  Narratives help us notice this.  Agency gives us chances to practice … Continue reading You are Stronger Than You Think

From the empowering joy of coming together with over 1,200 faith leaders, to the details of organizing mutual aid and neighborhoods support groups; from the exuberance of marching peacefully with over 50,000 people in arctic temperatures chanting and singing, to the stunned devastation following the shooting of Alex Pretti by ICE agents – Michael will … Continue reading Lessons from Minneapolis

In every struggle for social justice, we eventually face a deeply personal and communal question:  Where do I draw my line of resistance?  Some of us are called to march in the streets.  Some to organize quietly behind the scenes.  Some to disrupt unjust systems through civil disobedience.  Some to work patiently within institutions.  Some … Continue reading Your Line of Resistance

Daryl Davis is known for a practice that defies easy moral categories: he listens to people who have embraced ideologies rooted in hate. Not to excuse those beliefs. Not to endorse them. But to understand the human story beneath them. Over decades, this practice has contributed to dozens of people leaving white supremacist movements—sometimes literally … Continue reading Listening as Resistance

Unfulfilled resolutions often fail because they live only in our ideals, not in our daily lives. Resolutions ask us to leap; habits invite us to step. A resolution says, “I will be different,” while a habit quietly asks, “What is the smallest faithful action I can repeat?”  Transformation happens not through dramatic promises but through … Continue reading From Resolutions to Habits

Darkness is not the enemy of hope.  It is the place where hope goes to gather strength.  Yet we live in a world that urges us to avoid the darkness and move toward the light as quickly as possible.  But spiritually and emotionally, darkness is not always a problem to be solved.  Often, darkness is … Continue reading Dark to Light

Hope is often described as a feeling inside an individual heart—but hope, at its deepest and most transformative, is a communal force.  Something that lives between us, not only within us. Something we generate and sustain together.  In times of discouragement, it can be hard to kindle hope alone.  But when we step into community—into … Continue reading Rallying Hope

Expectations help us plan, motivate, anticipate. They give structure to our days and meaning to our striving. Yet the same structures that steady us can also confine us. Expectations—our own or those placed on us—can quietly narrow our imagination, shrink our sense of possibility, or convince us that hope lives only on one particular path, … Continue reading Hope Beyond Expectations