I believe coffee tastes better in a ceramic mug with a story, paired with a bean with it's own story (of fallow field and seedling turned ready to harvest, plucked, selected and roasted with deep love and care). Bonus points, of course, if the mug was picked for you by a beloved friend or loved one. This deeply savored coffee ritual means a great deal to me. It is a vital part of my mental health routine and it feels fundamentally full of light.
I believe that nature contains vibrant healing properties; that our very souls can lift and our stress can ease when our flesh comes into contact with dirt and leaves and bark and cold water from rivers, lakes and oceans.
I believe that music has the power to heal and restore. That the right four chords on a Sunday morning are rhythmic liturgy and can reconnect your mind and body with stories and tones and words and corporeal movements that live deep in your skin and soul (and in your ancient cellular DNA). And when you let the songs seep into your bones, I believe it allows you to commune with your ancestors, to hear Their stories, and to feel the unbroken connection from their hearts and their world to yours.
I believe community, in and of itself, to be a sacred thing; whether this is a community of your fellow creative misfits, a tribe connected by shared culture or a loose aggregate of wild-eyed wanderers that feel like home. Because I also believe that we humans bear the image of our creator and that the universe longs to know itself, to see and be seen, to love and be loved. So I believe that when we gather, whatever our particular beliefs, stories, backgrounds; if goodness flows and people are held, heard, safe and loved, community is a sacred thing.
And I believe, as Henri Nouwen wrote, that hospitality is the act of meeting people where they are, loving people for who they are, and affirming their dignity as deeply, ineffably loved.
What do you believe?
