Altruism is good for you. Caring for and about other people is good for you. Loneliness is stressful, and can give rise to those self-critical thought spirals as you lie awake at 4am. The solution? Spend more time creating connection and meaning.
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Rise of the Nones
Interesting article by Adam Gabbatt in The Guardian exploring how the pandemic has accelerated a trend of church closures in the US:
Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline
“As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year – probably accelerated by Covid”
Old Maps No Longer Work
A poem about maps and paths and stars that was shared in a thread on Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s Substack, Life is a sacred text.
Continue readingWhat is religion for?
Knocking on doors
Fascinating article in The Guardian about two guys who started out atheist comedians and ended up becoming Christians with a priestly vocation. I’m including it here because it shows how changing paths is a very gradual process, not usually a sudden change, and that sometimes these changes are quite insidious and hard to resist.
I like the metaphor of rooms in your life that change when the Divine enters them.
Content warning for people who have recently left Christianity: you may find the article distressing.
Continue readingMetaphors for religion
It can be helpful to look at religion metaphorically, because that gives us a different perspective on it than one that is merely focused on beliefs, or even values. Useful metaphors for religions include software, cookery, dancing, music, radio receivers, ex-partners, color schemes, trees, landscapes, river systems, underground root systems or rhizomes, and cities.
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Changing Paths 