Reflections

This article, a revised version of an essay from our free, downloadable Conversations About Forgiveness guide, ponders what, if anything, is unforgivable.

I love this game. I really do. 

For instance,

I love the shape, the geometry of the game—so clean, so precise, 

60 feet 6 inches exactly from the pitcher’s mound to home plate.    

I love the beauty of a baseball diamond.

No warlike football territories that need to be defended and conquered

But a round white pitcher’s mound, and miles and miles of green, green grass.

And the trinity of bases, or 

the stages of my life may be—from youth to adulthood to old age 

I have a fierce inner critic who has shadowed me most of my life. While she still hovers, bit by bit she is relaxing her grip. That’s in large part due to finding Kristin Neff’s work on self-compassion. Whether your inner critic is as vocal as mine or not, self-compassion is a great practice for integrating all of those naturally imperfect aspects of ourselves and for cultivating sacred kindness from the inside out.

March 8 is International Women’s Day, a day to honor women’s economic, political, and social contributions and achievements. When I think about the women who have helped shape my life, there are many who come to mind, which prompted me to ask my workmates about the wise women in their lives. Here are a few we have to thank for offering their love, kindness, wisdom, and steadfast sense of self that encourage us to be better people.

After decades together, a member of my writing group announced she was getting married. It was the second gay wedding in our group in the last year and I was invited! On an overcast fall morning I joined friends and family as we gathered in a cozy room overlooking the Puget Sound.

From a talk given at the twelfth family foundations conference, February 1998, published in the 1998 25th anniversary issue of Noetic Sciences Review.

Is it possible for money to be a conduit for love? The word philanthropy carries the meaning "love of humanity." Modern philanthropy brings together two seemingly irreconcilable concepts: love and money. But if we read through all the annual reports of all the foundations for the last ten years, I'd wager we would be hard-pressed to find the word "love" mentioned more than ten times.