I want to thrive. I don’t want to die never having lived into who I really am. I don’t want to hide in fear or smallness. I don’t want to wear masks. I want to understand what drives me. I want to respond to what calls to me. I want to be strong and vulnerable, compassionate, boundaried, courageous, energetic, playful, determined, and focused. I want my outer life to manifest the pure gold of my soul. And I want this for those around me; I want this for everyone; I want this for all of nature. The wellbeing of everything requires it. Justice for everyone demands it. There is no wellbeing without flourishing, and there is no flourishing without justice.

Following the early fall eco-justice series (here and here), “Cooperation Not Exploitation: Finding Ourselves in the Great Web of Life,” I’m now teaching/preaching around the theme, “Flourish: How to Bring Out the Best in Ourselves.” The series is based on the New Testament text, Matthew 15.11 (Jesus said, “It’s not what’s outside you that brings trouble and ruin, but what spills out from inside you”) as well as the early Christian text, the Gospel of Thomas, saying 3 (Again Jesus said, “When you know yourselves, then you will be known. But if you do not know yourselves, then you will live in poverty”). Click here for the audio recording. Click here for the PDF of the Deep Self-Inquiry Questions.

1.

Once upon a time there was a tigress, she was pregnant and about to give birth. One day, late into her gestation, she was out hunting and came upon a herd of goats. She was ravenously hungry, and sprung upon the goats who scattered in a frightened frenzy. In her pregnant condition, she was only able to catch the weakest and smallest goat in the herd. The stress of the chase forced her into labor. She died giving birth to a single cub.