WINN

A Few Words for Now

By Celia Coates These are such unusual times – around the world 2018 is ending with no clear way for many of us to see through the dark of the differences and frightening struggles that surround us. This week the first line of an old hymn echoed in my mind: Lead, kindly light, amid th’encircling…

Red and Green

By Celia Coates Years ago I heard a simple story that I’d never heard before: Once upon a time there were two creatures, one red and one green, who lived in a forest near the top of a mountain. They had lived there for centuries and even though Green was easy-going and liked peace and…

What Does Synergy Mean?

By Celia Coates In the headlines this week it was reported that a negotiator for Russia had offered to make a deal with the 2016 Presidential campaign, a deal to create something they called “political synergy.” Originally synergy was a medical term and meant that the combined action of the physiological components – muscles, nerves, organs,…

Revelation / Realization

By Sally Hilton-Chalfen When I was in college I had a transcendent experience which I want to share because it changed my perspective on life. I most deeply hope that writing about what I was shown can help the reader feel more joyful and confident about the meaningful course of life. In October 1974 I…

What’s Real and What’s Not

By Celia Coates Perhaps the most famous reported case of bilocation occurred in 1774, when Saint Alphonsus de’ Liguori, then a bishop in southern Italy, celebrated Mass in the small village of Arienzo. After the liturgy, he fell into a prolonged spiritual trance, and his vicar-general told people not to disturb him. When he finally…

The Sense of Wonder

By Celia Coates It’s rare that the introduction to a book is as fine as the book itself, but the one written by Linda Lear for Rachel Carson’s THE SENSE OF WONDER is a lovely equal to her text. Lear wrote: Carson urges us to explore nature with feelings and emotions, to use all our…

Our 12 Senses

By Celia Coates This is a small post about a huge subject – our senses. We’ve been taught (in the West) that there are five senses, five ways in which humans can perceive our surroundings: Seeing Hearing Touching Tasting Smelling. We take in information through neurological systems connected to specific parts of the body: eyes,…

More Than Rest and Recreation

By Celia Coates With extra time to spend before boarding a flight, I was turning the display rack of books meant for business travellers. Not my usual reading material. But I was glad I’d looked through one of them – ON MENTAL TOUGHNESS – that contained a selection of articles from the Harvard Business Review. Its…

Fourth Grade Hero

By Richard Howland When Mrs. Parmelee sat up there behind that gigantic desk, tapping the point of her red pencil and looking out over the tops of those gold-rimmed glasses like that, we knew somebody was going to die. And the way Bobby Livingstone was staring down at his hands, lying there on top of…

Two Questions…

By Celia Coates This week’s post is both very short and unending. It’s about only two questions: “What do you know?’ and, “How do you know it?” These are two very old questions for humans that give rise to more and more questions. Most of us have opinions about what knowing is. I found some…

Elmer Green and Al Sharpton

By Celia Coates Both Elmer Green, a pioneer in clinical biofeedback, and Al Sharpton, “The Rev,” have given the same wonderful advice: “Just keep going.” Elmer gave me that advice years ago when I was puzzled about where I was going with studying subtle energies. He was helpful to many, many people – at first…

What Is Needed Now