As I write this, the world is waiting.

We are waiting to hear more about the proposed agreement between the United States and Iran. The White House says there has been a breakthrough, but Iranian officials say some important questions are still unresolved. Since the agreement has not been released to the public, many people are left wondering what was actually negotiated and what it will mean.1

Meanwhile, Ukraine faces another summer of war. Far from there, families still live with daily missile strikes, military call-ups, and the uncertainty of not knowing if the conflict will end soon or last for years.

Two very different conflicts. Two very different regions. Yet they leave us with the same question: Why do so many lives remain vulnerable to the decisions of so few people?

A small group of leaders sits at negotiating tables. Presidents, prime ministers, generals, intelligence officials, and diplomats make decisions that affect millions of people they will never meet. Our global markets react. Oil prices change. Families worry if their children will be called to serve. Whole populations wait for news they cannot influence.

We like to think that history is moving toward more freedom and participation. But many of our most important systems still keep power in the hands of a few. The people most affected by decisions are often the least involved in making them.

Dorothee Sölle, the German theologian and peace activist, once wrote, “The more powerless people become, the more they are tempted to admire power.” Perhaps one of the reasons we keep concentrating power in the hands of a few people is that so many of us feel powerless ourselves. We long for someone to take control. Someone to solve the problem. Someone to restore order. Someone to make the uncertainty go away.

But the spiritual traditions repeatedly warn us that this longing contains a danger. The more we invest our hopes in powerful individuals, the less we cultivate our own responsibility for the world we share.

That reality brought to mind an old story from Genesis. God tells Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah will be destroyed. Abraham responds in a way that still surprises (inspires?) me. He argues. He negotiates. He pushes back.

“What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?”

Then forty-five.

Then forty.

Then thirty.

Then twenty.

Then ten.

Abraham refuses to accept the idea that the many should suffer because of the failures of the few. People usually see this story as a lesson about mercy from God. But I wonder if it also teaches us something about power.

Abraham stands up for the idea that every life matters. He says that punishing everyone for the actions of a few is not justice. He believes that power should answer to something greater than itself.

Throughout history, most societies have been built on the idea that a few people should hold most of the power. Pharaoh ruled Egypt. Caesar ruled Rome. Kings ruled nations. Today, the titles have changed, but the pattern is often the same. Political, economic, military, and technological power still end up in the hands of a few. Then we are surprised when the results are hard to control.

The biblical tradition repeatedly pushes in another direction.

…Moses shares leadership with elders.

…The prophets challenge kings.

…Jesus gathers a community rather than building a throne.

…The early church distributes resources so that no one is left behind.

Again and again, spiritual life encourages us to share power instead of keeping it for a few. This is not because people are always wise but because no one person can see everything clearly. No leader has enough perspective. No ruler is wise enough to decide the fate of millions alone.

Pharaoh’s greatest achievement was convincing people that only Pharaoh could save Egypt. Every empire tells a version of that story. Every democracy must learn to resist it.

Maybe that is why this moment feels so unsettling. The question before us is larger than Iran. It is larger than Ukraine. It’s larger than Gaza and Lebanon and Venezuela and Cuba. It is larger than any single war or treaty.

What kind of world are we trying to build? One where a handful of people make decisions for everyone else? Or one where responsibility, dignity, and power are shared more broadly?

I do not pretend that such a world would be simple. I do believe it would be more just.

Surely, after so many centuries of war, empire, conquest, and domination, we can find a better way.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. Where do you see concentrated power shaping the lives of people who have little voice in the decisions being made?

2. When have you experienced the consequences of decisions made far from your own life and community?

3. What would it look like to share power more broadly in your family, workplace, congregation, or community?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For a More Human World

God of every nation and every people,

We grow weary of systems
that place so much power
in so few hands.

We grow weary of wars
chosen by some
and endured by others.

We grow weary of waiting
for leaders to discover wisdom
while ordinary people carry the cost.

Teach us another way.

Give us the courage
to share responsibility,
the humility
to listen to one another,
and the imagination
to build communities
where power serves life
rather than controlling it.

May we never stop believing
that a more human world is possible.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Expanding the Circle

Today, pay attention to who gets included in decisions and who gets excluded.

• Notice it in a meeting.

• Notice it in your family.

• Notice it in your congregation.

• Notice it in the news.

Ask yourself: Who will be affected by this decision that is not in the room?

Then look for one opportunity to widen the circle. Invite someone’s perspective. Listen to a voice that is often overlooked. Ask a question rather than offering an answer. Share influence rather than holding it.

The spiritual traditions remind us that wisdom rarely resides in a single person. It emerges through relationships, conversation, and shared discernment.

Today, practice making the circle a little larger.

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Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

June 23, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are reading our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 18, 2026 - ONLINE TEACHING from 6-8pm ET - My dear friend and Buddhist teacher, Isa Gucciardi, is leading a teaching on Depth Hypnosis: Where Shamanism and Buddhism Converge where she will explore how Depth Hypnosis moves beyond the limitations of the conscious mind, guiding individuals into expanded states of awareness where deep healing and insight arise. You can read more here.

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

June 22, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

St. Thérèse of Lisieux never expected anyone to remember her. She was born in France in 1873 and joined a Carmelite convent when she was fifteen. She didn’t travel far, lead any movements, or speak to crowds. Most of her days were spent in a small convent, doing everyday tasks with a handful of other women.

She died of tuberculosis at twenty-four. By most standards our culture uses to define success, her life seemed ordinary. And yet more than a century later, millions of people still read her words.

I’ve been thinking about Thérèse lately. The world feels overwhelming right now. Each day brings a new crisis, another outrage, another war, and more reminders of suffering we can’t touch. It is easy to feel small in a moment like this.

Many people I know feel exhausted. They care about what’s happening in the world and want to help, to make a difference. But as the problems get bigger, their energy fades.

There’s a special kind of grief that comes from loving the world and knowing you can’t fix it.

Thérèse understood something about that grief. One of the stories she tells is about a nun in her convent whom she found difficult to love. She never explains exactly why. The woman simply irritated her.

Most of us know what that feels like. Some people bring out the best in us. Others seem to reveal the rough edges we’re trying to smooth out.

Thérèse decided that every encounter with this sister would become a spiritual practice. She greeted her warmly. She listened carefully. She offered kindness whenever she could. Over time, the other nun became convinced that Thérèse genuinely enjoyed her company.

One day she finally asked, “What is it about me that attracts you so much?”

Thérèse was astonished. The woman had no idea there had ever been a struggle. She had only experienced her love.

That story strikes me as both beautiful and a little unsettling. Most of us want our lives to matter. We look for proof that what we do makes a difference, that our work means something. But the most meaningful changes often happen quietly.

A conversation changes someone’s day.

A kindness interrupts a loneliness we never knew existed.

A word of encouragement arrives at exactly the right moment.

A patient response prevents a wound from deepening.

Most of these moments disappear almost as quickly as they arrive. But this is where much of real life takes place.

Thérèse called her approach “the little way.” She was not suggesting that the world’s problems are small. She understood suffering. She lived through illness, loss, doubt, and disappointment. She found that love always comes through something specific: this conversation, person, moment or choice.

Maybe that’s why her example still speaks to people after so many years. She reminds us that being significant isn’t the same as being big or well-known.

The world tells us to wonder if our lives are big enough. Thérèse asks if our lives are loving enough. Those are very different questions.

Perhaps that is good news for those of us who wake up each day feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world. None of us can carry everything. None of us can solve every crisis. But each of us can choose how we treat the person right in front of us.

The little way begins there. It begins with the conviction that love is not measured by size. It is measured by presence.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. Where in your life are you tempted to measure your worth by impact, productivity, or visible success?

2. Who is the person directly in front of you right now who might need your presence more than your solutions?

3. What would change if you trusted that small acts of love matter, even when you never see their results?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For The Little Way

God of small things,

When the world feels too large,
bring us back to what is near.

When we are overwhelmed
by all that is broken,
show us the person before us.

When we hunger for significance,
teach us the holiness of attention.

Let us trust
that a kind word,
an open hand,
a patient heart,
and a faithful presence
are never wasted.

May love take root
in the ordinary places of our lives.

And may we discover there
the quiet miracle
of enough.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

One Person

Today, resist the urge to save the world. Instead, choose one person. Give them your full attention. Call someone who has been lonely. Write a note of encouragement. Listen without rushing. Offer help without being asked. Speak a word of gratitude.

Be fully present to one human being. As you do, notice any voice inside you that says it isn’t enough. Do not argue with the voice. Simply return to the practice.

The little way is built on a profound trust: love does not become meaningful because it reaches thousands of people. Love becomes meaningful because it is real.

At the end of the day, spend a few moments reflecting on the encounter. How did it feel to focus your energy on one person rather than the whole world? What did you notice? What became possible?

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

June 16, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 16, 2026, 12pm ET - My friends at the Franciscan Federation are launching a new online community called “The Piazza.” This is a place for all Franciscan-hearted people to gather, connect with one another and build community together. They are launching the community on June 16. I hope you can be a part of their launch event. I will be there, for sure!

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

June 22, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

Over the weekend, Donald Trump hosted a UFC fight at the White House. I wasn’t surprised. In fact, it almost seemed predictable. Even so, it’s still striking to see the White House become the setting for a cage fight.

The symbolism is clear. Hundreds showed up to watch two men enter a ring and try to overpower each other. The crowd cheered for dominance, aggression, and physical strength. The President sat by the ring with celebrities, influencers, and political allies.

I began to wonder how future historians will see that moment. Every society has its own stories about strength. We share these stories through laws, monuments, and the people we choose to honor.

This weekend, we told that story through a fight. It reflects an idea of masculinity that has shaped much of human history.

The strong man.

The conqueror.

The warrior.

The one who wins.

The one who dominates.

The one who never backs down, never shows weakness, never admits uncertainty.

For thousands of years, empires have been built on this idea. Pharaoh ruled like this. Caesar did too. Kings, generals, colonial governors, dictators, slave holders, and oligarchs have all followed the same pattern. They believed strength comes from control, power from domination, and security from making others afraid.

What’s odd is that these stories often seem most powerful right before they fall apart.

I think about Pharaoh. The Exodus story is usually seen as a contest between a powerful ruler and enslaved people. But what kind of strength actually lasts? Pharaoh had armies. Pharaoh had wealth. Pharaoh had monuments that could be seen for miles. But the story remembers Moses because Moses showed a different kind of power.

You can see this pattern in many spiritual traditions. The Buddha leaves a palace. St. Francis leaves wealth. Rabia refuses status. The Hebrew prophets challenge kings. Time after time, the people we remember aren’t those who gathered the most power. They’re the ones who learned to live without it.

As I thought about the UFC fight, another scene came to mind. The night before his death, Jesus knelt on the floor and began washing his disciples’ feet.

The Roman world admired conquest. People celebrated military victories, public shows, and displays of dominance. Power flowed from the top down. The strong gave orders, and the weak followed.

Then Jesus kneels with a basin of water. He doesn’t defeat his enemies or call down angels. He doesn’t try to prove he’s better. He washes feet.

I think that’s one reason the story has lasted. It shows a kind of strength that empires can’t really understand: the ability to serve without shame, to love without owning, and to stand in truth without needing to dominate.

When I look at our world today, I sometimes feel the old story is running out of steam. The story that says power means wisdom, that domination brings security, and that masculinity requires control. People still believe it. It still fills arenas and wins elections. But it feels tired. It feels like something trying to convince itself it’s still alive.

The problems we face now can’t be solved by domination. Climate change, loneliness, political division, economic inequality, and spiritual confusion don’t respond to force. They require cooperation, humility, relationships, and care. These are the same qualities empires have often called weakness.

I suppose in the end this weekend isn’t really about a UFC fight. It’s really about two different ideas of what it means to be human. One is built around control. The other is built around connection. I think the future belongs to the latter.

But history shows we might have to watch the first idea wear itself out before more people notice.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. When you think about strength, who taught you what it means to be strong?

2. Which vision of power feels more compelling in this moment: domination or service? Why?

3. Where are you being invited to practice a different kind of strength in your own life?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For A Different Kind of Strength

God,
We have been taught to admire the loud voice,
the clenched fist,
the one who wins.

Yet your wisdom often arrives differently.
In a basin of water.
In a servant’s hands.
In the courage to tell the truth.
In the willingness to love without control.

Teach us to recognize strength
where the world sees weakness.

Teach us to honor humility
without mistaking it for surrender.

Teach us to carry power
without being possessed by it.

And when we are tempted
by the spectacle of domination,
turn our eyes toward the deeper work
of becoming fully human.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Redefining Strength

Today, pay attention to the moments when strength appears.

Notice what images come to mind.

The executive making decisions.

The politician giving orders.

The athlete overpowering an opponent.

The person who seems to have control.

Then ask a second question: What examples of strength am I overlooking?

A parent caring for a sick child.

A friend telling the truth in a difficult conversation.

A neighbor showing up for someone in grief.

A person admitting they were wrong.

A community choosing cooperation over competition.

Before bed, write down three examples of strength you witnessed today that would never appear on television.

Sit with the list.

Notice what kind of future those forms of strength might create.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

June 16, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 15, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

June 16, 2026, 12pm ET - My friends at the Franciscan Federation are launching a new online community called “The Piazza.” This is a place for all Franciscan-hearted people to gather, connect with one another and build community together. They are launching the community on June 16. I hope you can be a part of their launch event. I will be there, for sure!

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

Elon Musk is expected to become the world’s first trillionaire.1

It’s hard to even imagine that amount. A million dollars is already a huge sum. A billion is almost beyond belief. But a trillion is on a whole different level. At that point, wealth isn’t about comfort or security. It’s about power.

But here’s the thing: wealth this size isn’t accumulation. It’s siphoning. It’s not that Musk will have a trillion dollars. It’s that a trillion dollars has been pulled from somewhere else. While people talk about the world’s first trillionaire, House Speaker Mike Johnson is considering cuts to Social Security and other programs, saying the government needs to fight fraud and save money.2 Millions of older Americans rely on these programs to get by. Food banks are seeing more people in need. Housing is still too expensive for many families. And many communities are still trying to recover from disasters like floods, fires, and storms.

I find myself wondering what kind of society can hold all of these realities at the same time.

The question is not really about Elon Musk’s net worth. In fact, the grammar of “net worth” is a lie. There is no “worth” that is net. There is only taken and left behind.

The question is: have we come to accept this as normal?

We often talk about wealth as if it comes from individual talent, innovation, or hard work alone. Of course, talent is important. So are effort and vision. But no fortune exists apart from relationship.

Every company needs workers. Every industry relies on public infrastructure. Every market depends on things like laws, courts, schools, roads, utilities, natural resources, and the knowledge built up over generations. Wealth is always social before it becomes personal.

Musk isn’t an aberration. He’s a symptom made flesh, the logical endpoint of a system that treats extraction as genius, that calls hoarding “innovation,” that lets one person’s IPO feel like a national event while USAID’s dismantling gets a paragraph.

At what point does accumulation cease to serve human flourishing and begin serving itself?

The ancient Israelites in the Book of Exodus wrestled with a version of this question in the wilderness. Each morning they gathered manna from the ground. The instruction was simple: take what you need.

This story stands out because it challenges a basic belief many of us have. We often think security means having more than we need. But the manna story suggests real security comes from trust, community, and believing that everyone should have enough.

The text says, “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.” That is a long way from the world we live in now.

In the fourth century, Basil of Caesarea looked out at the vast inequalities of the Roman Empire and wrote, “The bread that you keep belongs to the hungry.” Basil saw that wealth isn’t just about what you own. It’s also about what you owe to others. Every extra bit of wealth brings up questions about responsibility.

That’s why Jesus talked so much about money. He knew that wealth shows what we really believe about the world. It shows our fears, our loyalties, what we think about scarcity, and what we believe makes life meaningful.

A trillionaire is not simply an economic phenomenon. It is a cultural and spiritual one. It shows what we choose to reward. It shows what we’re willing to accept. It also reveals the stories we tell ourselves about success, value, and what makes people matter.

The question facing us: do we still have the moral imagination to ask if anyone should ever have that much?

What are your thoughts?

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. When you hear that someone may soon possess a trillion dollars, what emotions arise in you?

2. How has our culture shaped your understanding of success, wealth, and what constitutes “enough”?

3. Where in your own life are you being invited to practice sufficiency rather than accumulation?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For a World That Has Forgotten Enough

God of manna,

We confess that we have built a world that is hungry in all the wrong places.

We gather more and more,
yet remain afraid.

We accumulate wealth,
yet struggle to share.

We celebrate excess
while children go without.

We call it success
   when fortunes grow beyond imagination,
   and wisdom when markets expand,
   even as loneliness deepens
   and communities fray.

Teach us again the holiness of enough.
   Enough bread for every table.
   Enough shelter for every family.
   Enough dignity for every person.
   Enough belonging that no one must prove their worth.

Break the spell of endless more.

Free us from the fear that drives us to hoard
and the stories that tell us abundance belongs only to a few.

Help us remember
that we belong to one another.

And help us build a world
   where no one is forgotten
   and no one is left behind.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Counting What Is Enough

Today, choose one ordinary part of your life. It might be your closet, your pantry, your schedule, your savings account, your calendar, or even your ambitions. Spend a few moments looking at it honestly.

Then reflect on the question: What would enough look like here?

Do not ask what would make you successful. Do not ask what would impress other people. Ask what would be sufficient for a good and meaningful life. Sit with the discomfort if it comes.

Many of us have spent years inside a culture that teaches us to measure life through accumulation. Our spiritual traditions offer a different measure. They invite us to consider whether contentment, generosity, and right relationship might be more reliable guides.

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Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

TODAY!!!! June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

June 16, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 15, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

June 16, 2026, 12pm ET - My friends at the Franciscan Federation are launching a new online community called “The Piazza.” This is a place for all Franciscan-hearted people to gather, connect with one another and build community together. They are launching the community on June 16. I hope you can be a part of their launch event. I will be there, for sure!

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

Two days ago, an all-white Texas jury sentenced Karmelo Anthony, a young 17 year old Black youth, to 35 years in prison for murder.

A few weeks before that, the Supreme Court decided Louisiana v. Callais, which didn't "weaken" the Voting Rights Act. They inverted it. Racially discriminatory maps are now legal if lawmakers claim partisan intent. Now, it is much harder to challenge voting maps that reduce Black political representation if lawmakers claim partisan reasons instead of racial ones.

Many people will see these as unrelated events. I do not.

One event happened in a courtroom. The other happened through changes to voting maps and court decisions. Both are part of a bigger story about power, race, and who is protected by American institutions. Karmelo's all-white jury exists because of gerrymandering. Collin County's demographics didn't produce that jury by accident. Voting rights and criminal justice are the same fight.

Peter Turchin, a complexity scientist, has studied long cycles of instability in American history. He believes that times of social unrest often come from deeper problems that have built up over many years.1 When I look at America’s racial history, I believe we are seeing something like this now.

The 1870s brought the collapse of Reconstruction. Black political gains were met with racial terror, disenfranchisement, and the systematic dismantling of newly won rights.

The 1920s brought the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, racial massacres, and the destruction of thriving Black communities.

After the Civil Rights Movement, the 1970s saw the Voting Rights Act expand access to voting. Black political participation increased. But new forms of backlash appeared, like mass incarceration, felony disenfranchisement, and policies that kept racial inequality without using openly racist language.

Now we find ourselves in the 2020s.

History does not repeat itself in the same way. The tools and legal arguments change, and the language becomes more complex. Still, some patterns are easy to recognize.

Again and again, periods of expanding Black political power are followed by efforts to contain it.

That observation makes many Americans uncomfortable. It should. It forces us to confront a possibility far messier than individual prejudice. Racism is not simply an attitude. It is not merely ignorance. It is not only a matter of individual hostility. Racism is most powerful when it becomes part of institutions and works without anyone having to name it. Racism in America is deeply systemic.

The prophet Isaiah spoke out against those who “make unjust laws” and those who create oppressive rules. Amos warned against systems that treated people as things to be used. The biblical prophets knew that evil does not stay personal for long. Over time, it becomes part of larger systems: It enters courts. It enters economies. It enters governments. It enters religion.

Eventually it becomes normal. Once it becomes normal, people stop seeing it.

This is why I keep returning to Pharaoh. The problem with Pharaoh was not merely cruelty. Egypt’s wealth was built on enslaved labor. The empire’s success came from the suffering of others. But Pharaoh could not see what was right in front of him. He saw suffering and called it necessary. He saw injustice and called it order.

The Bible calls this a hardened heart. A hardened heart is not just hatred. A hardened heart is the inability to be changed by another person’s suffering. It means refusing to let reality change the story we want to believe. This may be one of the greatest spiritual dangers our country faces.

Black Americans look at a jury, a sentence, a redistricting map, a court decision, and see a pattern that stretches back generations. Many white Americans see isolated events.

The gap between these experiences is also part of the story. Racism depends upon forgetting. It asks us to forget how wealth was accumulated. It asks us to forget how political power was distributed. It asks us to forget who was excluded, who was dispossessed, whose labor built the nation, and whose communities paid the cost. Once people forget, the inequalities that remain seem natural. The struggle for justice has always been a struggle over memory.

This is why the Hebrew scriptures repeatedly command the people to remember.

• Remember that you were slaves in Egypt.

• Remember the widow.

• Remember the stranger.

• Remember the poor.

• Remember.

Memory interrupts the stories that power tells about itself. It restores context. It reveals patterns. Memory stops wounds from being covered up by patriotic stories or legal words.

The question before us is not whether racism still exists. That question was answered long ago. The question is whether we possess the courage to recognize the forms it takes in our own time, whether our hearts remain capable of being moved, whether we are willing to remember.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. What histories have shaped your understanding of race, justice, and belonging in America?

2. When you encounter stories about racial inequality, do you tend to see isolated incidents or larger patterns? Why?

3. What would it mean to practice memory as a spiritual discipline rather than merely a historical exercise?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For Courage to Remember

God of the living and the dead,

We inherit stories we did not choose,
wounds we did not create,
and responsibilities we cannot escape.

Keep us from the comfort of forgetting.

When history is rewritten,
give us memory.

When suffering is minimized,
give us honesty.

When fear tempts us toward silence,
give us courage.

Break open every hardness of heart
that keeps us from seeing one another clearly.

Teach us to remember
not for the sake of guilt,
but for the sake of truth.

And let truth become the soil
from which justice can grow. Amen.

Spiritual Practice

The Work of Memory

Today, spend fifteen minutes learning a story from American history that was never fully taught to you.

Read about Reconstruction. Read about the Wilmington Coup of 1898. Read about Tulsa. Read about the Black Codes. Read about the original purpose of the Voting Rights Act.

Do not approach the exercise as a student gathering information. Approach it as a spiritual practice.

Notice what emotions arise. Notice what surprises you. Notice what becomes easier to understand about the present.

The biblical command to remember was never about nostalgia. It was about truth. A people who forget their history become vulnerable to repeating it.

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Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

TODAY!!! June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

June 16, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 15, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

June 16, 2026, 12pm ET - My friends at the Franciscan Federation are launching a new online community called “The Piazza.” This is a place for all Franciscan-hearted people to gather, connect with one another and build community together. They are launching the community on June 16. I hope you can be a part of their launch event. I will be there, for sure!

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

Bill McKibben recently published an article about the global shift to clean energy.1 I was oddly encouraged reading his account of how the current war with Iran is speeding up the rise of solar power and new battery technology. The conflict has disrupted oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage that carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil. Energy prices have jumped. Governments are rushing to respond. Markets are shifting. Once again, we’re reminded how much modern economies still rely on a few fragile fossil fuel routes.

McKibben says this crisis might actually speed up the move away from oil. Countries that rely on imported fossil fuels are seeing the risks firsthand. Now, renewable energy seems less like just an environmental effort and more like a national security plan.

We’re used to telling ourselves a certain story about the future: the climate is getting worse, democracies are weakening, wealth is piling up in fewer hands, and trust in institutions is fading. There’s a lot of truth in this story. But it’s not the whole truth.

While glaciers melt and forests burn, solar energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels in many places. Electric vehicles are spreading quickly across countries. Nations that once relied almost completely on imported oil are starting to picture a different future. The facts are changing faster than our story about them.

That thought made me think of the political philosopher Hannah Arendt. Arendt spent much of her life exploring how reality and the stories we tell are connected. She was concerned about what happens when people get stuck in stories that no longer fit the world. The real danger isn’t just propaganda. It’s losing the ability to see what’s really happening.

I wonder if this problem goes beyond politics. Many of us have gotten very good at spotting decline. We know how to identify corruption. We know how to notice cruelty. We know how to see when institutions fail. These are important skills. But wisdom requires something more. Wisdom means being able to notice what’s starting to grow or change.

Jesus talked about seeds growing in fields, yeast working through dough, and treasure hidden in plain sight. The message wasn’t that God would show up someday, but that God was already at work in ways most people didn’t notice.

The Buddhist tradition teaches us to see things as they are, not as we want them to be.

The Desert Fathers warned that being too sure can blind us to reality.

Again and again, spiritual life asks us to let go of our stories for a moment so we can notice what’s really happening around us.

It’s true: some things are getting worse. It’s also true that some things are getting better. Some institutions are failing. Others are being created. Some systems are breaking down. Others are taking their place.

History has always held both realities at the same time. The challenge is learning to see both sides. As playwright William Gibson once said, “The future is already here. It’s just unevenly distributed.” The real question is whether we’re able to see it.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. What story about the future are you carrying right now? How does that story shape what you notice and what you overlook?

2. Where do you see signs of decline in the world? Where do you see signs of emergence?

3. What new possibility, movement, relationship, or idea might already be growing that you have not fully recognized?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For Eyes To See

Loving Spirit,

The world is changing.

Some things are falling apart.
Some things are coming to life.

When fear narrows our vision,
help us see more clearly.

When old stories no longer fit,
give us the courage to release them.

Open our eyes to what is growing.
Open our hearts to what is possible.

Teach us to recognize your presence
in the breaking and in the becoming.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Revising the Map

Take fifteen minutes today and make two lists. On the left side of a page, write: What is breaking? List everything that comes immediately to mind. Personal concerns. Social concerns. Political concerns. Environmental concerns. Be honest.

Then, on the right side of the page, write: What is emerging? This list may take longer. What new possibilities do you see? What technologies, movements, communities, relationships, ideas, or practices are growing? What gives evidence that people are still creating, healing, adapting, learning, and organizing?

When you finish, sit and look at both lists. Resist the temptation to erase either one.

The goal is not optimism. The goal is not despair. The goal is a fuller picture of reality. Wisdom begins when we can hold both lists at the same time.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 9, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 15, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

June 16, 2026, 12pm ET - My friends at the Franciscan Federation are launching a new online community called “The Piazza.” This is a place for all Franciscan-hearted people to gather, connect with one another and build community together. They are launching the community on June 16. I hope you can be a part of their launch event. I will be there, for sure!

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

1

The Crucial Years

The Biggish Picture

Read more

6 days ago · 230 likes · 27 comments · Bill McKibben

On June 8, 1789, James Madison stood before the House of Representatives and introduced a set of amendments that later became the Bill of Rights. The first freedom he wanted to protect was religious freedom.

The First Amendment starts with revolutionary idea: the government should not decide which faiths are legitimate and which are not. The founders saw what happened when governments set up official religions and treated other beliefs with suspicion. They knew that faith and force do not go well together.

I started thinking about that history after I read that the Department of Defense has greatly reduced the number of recognized faith groups and belief systems for military personnel. About 180 traditions were taken off the list. My own denomination, the United Church of Christ, is now listed as “Christian – Other.”1

This leaves me wondering: Who gets to decide which expressions of faith matter?

It is hard to miss the irony. Many of the people who helped shape America would not fit easily into today’s categories. Thomas Jefferson rejected key Christian beliefs like the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus. John Adams went to a Unitarian church. Benjamin Franklin often questioned Christian traditions. Some signers of the Declaration of Independence were Deists, believing in God but doubting organized religion and old creeds. No matter what you think of their beliefs, these were not outsiders. They helped build the nation.

The freedom they supported was never meant just for people who shared their beliefs. The brilliance of the First Amendment is that it made room for disagreement. Baptists, Catholics, Quakers, Jews, Unitarians, Deists, and later many others could live together without the government deciding whose beliefs were truly American.

We have always struggled with this. We like clear lines. We like categories. We like knowing who is included and who is not.

The Bible has many stories about these boundaries. One of the most important is in the Book of Acts. Peter spent his whole life thinking he knew who belonged in God’s community. Then he had a vision that challenged what he believed. The Spirit led him to Cornelius, a Gentile Roman officer. By all the usual standards, Cornelius was an outsider.

But Peter saw the Spirit at work among people he never thought would be included. His conclusion changed Christian history: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.”2

The early church spent generations struggling with the question of who belongs. Could Gentiles belong? Could foreigners belong? Could people with different customs, languages, and backgrounds belong?

Again and again, the Spirit seemed more interested in expanding boundaries than protecting them. Sometimes I think the history of religion is people drawing circles and God crossing over them.

We are always tempted to draw smaller circles. Sometimes these circles are about theology. Sometimes they are political, racial, national, or cultural. We often tell ourselves that making the circle smaller will make us safer, stronger, or more faithful.

The Gospel points the other way. Jesus always moved toward people others saw as suspect, unworthy, foreign, or outside what was respectable. Tax collectors. Samaritans. Gentiles. Lepers. Outsiders. The question was never if they belonged to God. The real question was whether everyone else could see it.

On this anniversary of Madison’s proposal of the Bill of Rights, I am grateful for a freedom that is both constitutional and spiritual.

The freedom to choose my own religion (or none at all).

The freedom to disagree.

The freedom to seek truth without being forced.

And maybe most important, the humility to remember that God has always been bigger than our categories.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. Where do you see people drawing smaller circles of belonging in our society today?

2. Have there been times in your life when someone expanded your understanding of who belongs?

3. What categories, labels, or assumptions might be preventing you from seeing the image of God in someone else?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For Larger Circles

God of all,

We are quick to sort people into categories.

We decide who belongs and who does not.
Who is worthy of our trust and who is not.
WhoExamining the Circle

Take a sheet of paper and draw a circle in the center.

Inside the circle, write the names of the groups of people you naturally think of as “us.”

Then, outside the circle, write the names of groups you find more difficult to understand, trust, or relate to.

Do not judge yourself. Simply notice.

When you are finished, sit quietly for a few moments.

Choose one group that ended up outside your circle.

Ask yourself:

* Who taught me to see them this way?
* What assumptions am I carrying?
* Have I ever listened to their story?

Then pray for them.

Not as a project.
Not as an enemy.
Not as a category.

As fellow human beings.

The goal is not to erase differences.

The goal is to remember that belonging to God is always larger than belonging to our tribe. is familiar and who is foreign.

We draw lines and then forget that we drew them.

Forgive us.

Open our eyes to the ways your Spirit continues to move beyond our assumptions.

Give us the humility to recognize that your love is larger than our understanding.

Help us resist the temptation to make faith smaller, narrower, and more exclusive than you intended.

Teach us to honor the dignity of every person.

Teach us to protect the freedom of conscience that allows faith to flourish rather than be forced.

And when we are tempted to fear those who are different from us, remind us that your kingdom has always been larger than our categories.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Examining the Circle

Take a sheet of paper and draw a circle in the center. Inside the circle, write the names of the groups of people you naturally think of as “us.” Then, outside the circle, write the names of groups you find more difficult to understand, trust, or relate to.

Spend ten minutes with Peter’s words from Acts: “God shows no partiality.”

Read the sentence slowly several times.

Then ask: What would change in my life if I truly believed that?

Sit with whatever arises. Do not rush to answers. Let the question do its work.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 9, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 8, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

June 16, 2026, 12pm ET - My friends at the Franciscan Federation are launching a new online community called “The Piazza.” This is a place for all Franciscan-hearted people to gather, connect with one another and build community together. They are launching the community on June 16. I hope you can be a part of their launch event. I will be there, for sure!

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

We are entering the spring harvest season at the Common Good Farm. This year, we have had rain. Lots of rain. The vegetables are making the most of it. Each morning, we walk through the rows of crops and find something new that should have been picked the day before. The zucchini are about the size of baseball bats now. The cucumbers seem to double in size overnight. Squash pop up unexpectedly. The tomatoes will be ready soon. The challenge right now is not whether the crops will grow. The challenge is that everything ripens at once.

Every year, there is a short time when the farm shifts from not enough to more than enough almost overnight. For months, we prepare the soil, plant seeds, watch the weather, pull weeds, and wait. Then, all at once, everything is ready. Soon, I’ll probably feel the same way I do every year: I won’t want to see another zucchini, squash, or cucumber for a long time.

Thinking about this made me reflect this week. We spend a great deal of our lives worrying about scarcity. Will there be enough money? Enough time? Enough opportunity? Enough love? Enough security? Many of our fears begin there.

But standing in the middle of a field overflowing with vegetables, I was reminded that abundance creates its own challenges.

Scarcity asks, “Will there be enough?” Abundance asks, “What do I do with all of this?”

You cannot eat every zucchini. You cannot harvest every cucumber. You cannot preserve everything. Eventually, having more than enough means we have to make choices. It encourages us to be generous, to use good judgment, and to let things go.

Spiritual traditions consistently center lessons about this exact conundrum. When Jesus feeds the five thousand, the story does not end when everyone has enough to eat. The disciples gather twelve baskets of leftovers. The abundance becomes part of the lesson. What we do with what we have received?

The same thing happens in our lives. Some people inherit abundance in the form of wealth. Others receive abundance in relationships, opportunities, education, creativity, health, or time. Some seasons of life bring an abundance of possibilities. Others bring an abundance of responsibilities. The challenge is learning to accept abundance without feeling like we have to keep it all.

I think this is one of the reasons gratitude matters so much. Gratitude lets us enjoy a gift without feeling like we have to control it. It helps us accept what we have today without expecting it to last forever. Gratitude helps us let go.

The farm teaches this lesson every year. The zucchini do not care whether I can eat them all. The cucumbers are not worried about efficiency. The tomatoes are not calculating future market conditions. Mother Nature simply keeps offering herself. Some of it will be eaten. Some of it will be shared. Some of it will be canned. Some of it will become chicken food. Some of it will become next year’s soil. Nothing is wasted.

I think that might be part of the wisdom that comes with abundance. The purpose of abundance is not accumulation. The purpose of abundance is participation. To receive. To enjoy. To share. And eventually, to let go.

Today, I am grateful for the rain.

I am grateful for the harvest.

And despite what I may be saying three weeks from now, I am even grateful for the zucchini.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. Where are you experiencing abundance in your life right now?

2. How do you respond when you have more than enough—more opportunities, more resources, more commitments, or even more blessings than you can fully receive?

3. What might it look like to share, enjoy, or release some of what you have been trying to hold onto?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For the Gifts We Cannot Keep

Loving Spirit,

We spend so much of our lives worrying about what we lack.

We worry there will not be enough time, enough money, enough energy, enough opportunity, enough love.

Yet sometimes life surprises us with abundance.
   The harvest comes.
   The garden overflows.
   The blessings multiply faster than we know what to do with them.

Teach us how to receive these gifts with gratitude rather than anxiety.

Help us enjoy what is here without trying to possess it forever.
   Give us generous hearts when there is more than enough.
   Give us open hands when it is time to share.
   And remind us that every good gift is meant to move through us, not simply accumulate around us.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Taking Stock of the Harvest

Today, take ten minutes and make a list of the forms of abundance present in your life right now.

Don’t focus only on money. Consider friendships. Experiences. Skills. Knowledge. Health. Community. Opportunities. Moments of beauty. Small daily blessings that have become easy to overlook.

When your list is complete, choose one item and ask yourself: What is this abundance asking of me?

Perhaps it is asking you to enjoy it. Perhaps it is asking you to share it. Perhaps it is asking you to express gratitude. Perhaps it is asking you to let go of the fear that there will never be enough.

The farm teaches me every year that abundance is not something we own. It is something we participate in.

Spend a few moments today noticing the harvest that is already present around you.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 9, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 8, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

June 8, 2026, 12pm ET - My friends at the Franciscan Federation are launching a new online community called “The Piazza.” This is a place for all Franciscan-hearted people to gather, connect with one another and build community together. They are launching the community on June 8. I hope you can be a part of their launch event. I will be there, for sure!

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

This week, I read an article about Israel’s defense industry. The numbers were staggering.1 Last year, Israel exported a record $14.8 billion in weapons systems and military technology. More than half of those sales went to European countries. The article explained that ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, and the wider region have increased global demand for Israeli weapons, surveillance systems, missile defense technologies, and military expertise.

The article did not celebrate this. It was simply describing reality. Still, I found myself holding many questions:

• At what point would there be enough?

• How many weapons would create security?

• How much military spending would satisfy us?

• How many enemies would have to disappear before nations stopped preparing for the next war?

The more I thought about those questions, the more I realized the article was not really about Israel. It was about a multi-trillion dollar global system of violence that no longer knows how to stop.

The sociologist Hartmut Rosa has a term for this: dynamic stabilization.2 The idea is simple. Modern societies stay stable only if they keep growing. Economies must expand. Consumption must rise. Productivity must speed up. If growth slows, institutions start to struggle.

After I learned that term, I started noticing it everywhere. Companies aim to increase profits every quarter. Universities look for more students. Social media companies want more attention. Politicians look for new crises. News organizations seek more engagement. Economic systems push for more consumption.

Standing still becomes dangerous. “Enough” becomes a threat. I think this is one reason so many people feel worn out. We are living inside systems that have no off-ramp.

Thinking about Rosa’s ideas made me remember the story of Pharaoh. In Exodus, Pharaoh is often seen as the villain, but the story is more complex. He leads one of the most advanced economies of the ancient world. Egypt’s wealth comes from grain, building projects, military strength, and a huge labor force. The whole system relies on constant output.

When the Hebrew people start to grow in number, Pharaoh does not see neighbors. He sees workers, productivity, and economic resources. So he demands more bricks. Then more bricks. Then the same number of bricks without providing straw. The machinery of Egypt cannot slow down because slowing down threatens the system itself.

God delivers the Hebrew people from that system. They pass through the sea. They leave the empire behind and enter the wilderness. In the wilderness, God begins teaching them how to live differently. Every morning manna appears, but only enough for the day. If they try to hoard it, it spoils. On the sixth day they gather enough for two days because on the seventh day they are commanded to rest.

The people have spent generations inside an economy of scarcity, production, and accumulation. They have learned to believe that survival depends on constant labor. They know how to make bricks. They do not yet know how to be free.

This is why the command to remember the Sabbath is so radical. For one day each week, the people stop. They stop producing. They stop accumulating. They stop proving their worth through output. They remember they are human beings, not machines.

I think Hartmut Rosa is getting at something similar when he talks about resonance. He says people need experiences that break the pattern of constant growth: moments of awe, beauty, wonder, prayer, music, friendship, and time in nature. Experiences that cannot be measured by productivity, that do not generate profit, that remind us that life is not simply a project of accumulation.

A sunset accomplishes nothing. A symphony does not increase GDP. Standing beside the ocean contributes nothing to quarterly earnings. But those moments often feel more real than much of what fills our calendars.

The mystics understood this long before Rosa gave it a name. They knew that beauty changes our relationship with time. Wonder loosens the grip of urgency. Love interrupts calculation. Awe reminds us the world is something we take part in, not just something we try to control.

Maybe that is why experiences of transcendence matter so much today. They do not stop the machine. But they remind us that we are not the machine.

Maybe that is where every real off-ramp starts.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. Where do you feel the pressure of “more” operating in your own life right now?

2. What activities, relationships, or practices help you experience awe, beauty, wonder, or presence?

3. If you truly believed your worth was not tied to your productivity, what might change about the way you spend your time?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For a World That Cannot Stop

God,

We live inside systems that never seem to rest.

There is always another task, another crisis, another headline, another demand for our attention.

The world teaches us to keep moving.
To keep producing.
To keep accumulating.
To keep proving ourselves.

And many of us are tired.

Teach us again the wisdom of Sabbath.

Help us remember that our value does not come from what we produce, what we own, or how much we accomplish.

When anxiety pushes us to hurry, give us patience.

When fear tells us there is never enough, teach us gratitude.

When the machinery of the world pulls us away from what matters most, call us back to wonder.

Help us notice beauty.

Help us make room for joy.

Help us remember that we are more than workers, consumers, and producers.

We are your beloved creatures.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Finding an Off-Ramp

Hartmut Rosa argues that experiences of awe, beauty, and wonder help us step outside the constant pressure of growth and productivity. He calls these moments experiences of resonance.

Today, create space for one such experience.

Leave your phone behind and take a walk. Sit beside a tree. Watch the sunrise or sunset. Listen to a piece of music without multitasking. Read a poem slowly. Spend time with someone you love without trying to accomplish anything. Pay attention to what happens inside you.

Notice how quickly the mind wants to return to tasks, productivity, efficiency, or planning. Then gently return your attention to what is in front of you. You do not need to optimize this moment. You do not need to produce anything from it. Simply receive it.

The goal is not escape. The goal is remembrance.

For a few minutes, step off the highway of constant acceleration and remember what it feels like to be fully alive.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 9, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 8, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

June 8, 2026, 12pm ET - My friends at the Franciscan Federation are launching a new online community called “The Piazza.” This is a place for all Franciscan-hearted people to gather, connect with one another and build community together. They are launching the community on June 8. I hope you can be a part of their launch event. I will be there, for sure!

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

The current economy can be confusing because two things seem true at once. The stock market keeps going up, but people feel less confident than ever. Economists mention strong job numbers, yet many families feel like they are falling behind. Grocery bills are high, insurance costs keep rising, young people struggle to afford homes, and many older adults worry about retirement. This isn’t a mistake. The system was built this way.

The stock market and the real economy have become separate worlds. The market rewards things like speculation and concentrating wealth, while the real economy is where people buy food, raise kids, and plan for the future. These two no longer move together. When a company lays off workers to make shareholders happy, the stock price rises, but families have to cut back. Both things are real, they just affect different people.

So if you feel anxious even when you hear ‘good news,’ you are not confused. You are noticing something real. The economy has changed, and the old promises about security do not hold up anymore. The statistics show one picture, but people’s real lives tell another.

An old story from the Desert Fathers comes to mind…

A visitor came to Abba Agathon, one of the early Christian monks, and said, “I hear you are proud.”

“That is true,” Agathon replied.

“I hear you are vain.”

“That is true.”

The visitor kept listing faults, and Agathon calmly agreed with each one.

Finally the visitor said, “I hear you are a heretic.”

But this time, Agathon disagreed.

“No,” he said. “That is not true.”

The visitor was confused. “Why did you accept all the other accusations but reject that one?”

Agathon answered, “The others separate me from myself. Heresy separates me from God.”

I think many people today might find that answer hard to understand. Our culture often treats financial stability as the most important kind of security. We spend years building careers, saving money, investing, and planning for retirement. Much of our lives are shaped by the hope that careful planning will keep us safe from uncertainty.

There’s nothing wrong with planning ahead. It’s wise to save money, pay down debt, and act responsibly. Spiritual traditions have never encouraged being reckless. But they do raise a question that many of us would rather not face: What happens when the things we depend on begin to wobble?

The stock market can go up, but our anxiety can rise too. Retirement accounts can grow, and someone might still feel more afraid. Even a bigger paycheck can come with a stronger sense of insecurity. These are common but curious reactions. If money really brings security, why do so many people who have more than past generations still feel afraid?

Jesus spoke to this tension. When he tells people not to store up treasures on earth, he isn’t saying wealth is bad. He’s warning us not to get confused. He wants us to see that resources aren’t the same as real security.

Money can buy a home, but it cannot create sanctuary.

Money can purchase comfort, but it cannot produce peace.

Money can fund treatment, but it cannot prevent mortality.

Money can increase options, but it cannot tell us who we are.

Money can reduce certain risks, but it cannot remove uncertainty from human life.

Modern society tells us that uncertainty is something we should fix. If we just work hard, save, invest wisely, and make good choices, we’ll finally be safe. But life doesn’t work that way. Markets go up and down. Governments change. Industries vanish. Storms happen. We get older. Relationships end. History can disrupt our plans.

As I get older, I think spiritual maturity isn’t about getting rid of uncertainty, but about learning how to live well with it.

The Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön once wrote that we spend much of our lives trying to find “ground beneath our feet,” only to discover that uncertainty was never the problem. Our resistance to uncertainty was the problem.

There's an old Yorùbá saying: "The earth is not a inheritance from our ancestors, but a loan from our children." What if our economic anxiety is partly the weight of knowing we've spent principal we were meant to hold in trust? Now we hold guilt and grief. And grief, when metabolized in community, becomes compost for new ways of living.

The mystics understood this. The prophets understood this. Jesus certainly understood it. They didn’t find a way to avoid uncertainty. Instead, they found something deeper to rely on. They grounded themselves in community, prayer, generosity, purpose, service, and love. They invested in things that could last through market crashes, political turmoil, sickness, aging, and loss.

Maybe that’s why today’s economic anxiety feels so revealing on a spiritual level. It shows us where we’ve put our trust.

Some of what we're feeling is about money. Some of it is grief: grief for promises that didn't hold, for parents who followed the rules and still struggled, for children facing climates and economies we helped break. Some is just exhaustion. Some comes from realizing that many promises about security were never completely true.

This isn’t an invitation to stop saving money or planning for the future. It’s an invitation to remember that the deepest kinds of security have never been things money could buy: Love. Friendship. Meaning. Integrity. Faith. The ability to stay present even when life is uncertain.

These are treasures of a different kind.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. When you feel anxious about money, what are you most afraid of losing?

2. What forms of security have proven most reliable in your own life during difficult seasons?

3. If someone looked at your calendar, bank account, and daily habits, where would they conclude you have placed your trust?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For the Things Money Cannot Buy

God,

We live in a world that tells us security can be purchased.

We are taught to build bigger accounts, stronger portfolios, and safer futures. Yet many of us still carry anxiety about what tomorrow may bring.

Help us distinguish between resources and trust.

Teach us to be responsible without becoming consumed by fear.

When uncertainty arrives, remind us that our lives are worth more than our productivity, our savings, or our possessions.

Root us in friendships that sustain us, communities that support us, work that gives us purpose, and a love that cannot be measured by markets or economic forecasts.

Give us the courage to live generously, even when we feel vulnerable.

And when the future feels uncertain, help us remember that we belong to something larger than our fears.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Taking Inventory

Today, spend fifteen minutes taking inventory of the forms of wealth that do not appear on a financial statement.

Make a list.

• Who are the people you can call when life falls apart?

• What communities would show up for you in a crisis?

• What skills have you developed that no market fluctuation can take away?

• What experiences have shaped your character?

• What relationships give your life meaning?

• What practices help you remain grounded when the world feels unstable?

When you finish, sit and review the list. Notice how many of the things that matter most cannot be bought, traded, inherited, or invested. Then offer a simple prayer of gratitude for these treasures.

The market may rise and fall. These are the forms of wealth that endure.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 2, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 8, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

June 8, 2026, 12pm ET - My friends at the Franciscan Federation are launching a new online community called “The Piazza.” This is a place for all Franciscan-hearted people to gather, connect with one another and build community together. They are launching the community on June 8. I hope you can be a part of their launch event. I will be there, for sure!

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

The Trump administration has launched a new government website called “Aliens.gov.” The site is…awful. Truly beyond words. It features an interactive map of immigration arrests across the United States and asks people to report information about undocumented immigrants. The language on the site describes people as threats among us. Honestly, when I saw it, I thought it had to be fake. It isn’t.

As I thought about this, a rabbinic story came to mind.

A student once asked his Rabbi, “How do we know when night has ended and day has begun?”

One student answered, “When you can look into the distance and tell the difference between a sheep and a dog.”

Another answered, “When you can distinguish a fig tree from an olive tree.”

The Rabbi shook his head.

“No,” he said. “Day begins when you can look into the face of another human being and recognize your sister or your brother. Until then, it is still night.”

Most of us believe we know what darkness means. We often see it as ignorance, danger, or simply the lack of light. But the rabbi teaches darkness starts when we can no longer see ourselves in each other.

The immigration debate in the United States (and around the world) is real. Nations have responsibilities. Borders matter. Laws matter. Reasonable people can disagree about policy. But racism has never depended on policy arguments alone.

Racism begins when people stop being people. It starts when people are seen as categories. Those categories turn into threats. Threats become statistics. Statistics then become problems to fix.

We have lived this so many times before. The words may change over time, and so do the targets. First, people are made to feel distant from each other. Then fear grows. Finally, some are convinced that certain lives deserve less care, dignity, protection, and belonging than others. Eventually people stop seeing neighbors and begin seeing enemies. This gives rise, in our case today, to concentration camps, separated families, destroyed lives.

The Trump administration did not create a website called Neighbors.gov. It did not create a website called Families.gov. It did not create a website called HumanBeings.gov. It chose the word alien.

Legally, that word has been part of immigration law for generations. But in our culture, it dehumanizes a category of people and makes it easier to see someone as outside the circle of belonging.

This is where I think about the Good Samaritan. Today, most of us miss the real meaning of that story because “Good Samaritan” is now a compliment. In Jesus’ time, the phrase would have sounded almost impossible. Samaritans and Jews had a long history of hostility, suspicion, and division.

When Jesus tells the story, the Samaritan is not just helping someone in need. He is crossing a line that society expected everyone to keep.

A wounded man lies beside the road. Religious leaders pass by. They see him. They keep moving. The Samaritan sees the same man and stops. The priest and Levite see only a category. The Samaritan sees a person. At the end of the story, Jesus does not ask, “Who followed the rules correctly?” He asks, “Who proved to be a neighbor?”

How can we not feel that question weighing on us today? Who do we recognize as our neighbor? Who remains inside our circle of concern? Who receives our compassion before they receive our judgment?

Every society eventually answers these questions. The answers say much more about the society itself than about the people being judged.

Ibram X. Kendi recently pointed out that this new website follows the same logic as what scholars call the Great Replacement Theory.1 This is the idea that powerful groups are secretly replacing one population with another. That conspiracy theory has fueled white nationalist movements worldwide for years. Its power comes from fear. Fear limits our imagination, shrinks our sense of belonging, and convinces people that compassion is weakness while exclusion is strength.

The Gospel points in the opposite direction. Jesus always moved toward the people others were told to fear: Samaritans, tax collectors, foreigners, lepers, and outsiders. His whole ministry challenged the human habit of dividing people into worthy and unworthy.

The rabbi was right. Day begins when we can look into the face of another person and recognize our sister or brother. Until then, it is still night.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. Who has been moved outside your circle of concern without you fully realizing it?

2. Where do you see fear shaping the way people talk about immigrants, refugees, political opponents, or other groups perceived as different?

3. What would change in your life if you intentionally practiced seeing every person first as a neighbor rather than a category?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For the Faces We Have Forgotten

Loving Spirit, 

We confess how easily fear narrows our vision.

We sort people into groups.
We reduce lives to labels.
We accept stories that make some people seem less worthy of dignity, protection, or belonging.

Forgive us.

When power teaches us to fear one another, teach us to see more clearly.

When political leaders profit from division, strengthen our commitment to compassion.

When we are tempted to look away from the suffering of others, keep our hearts open.

Help us recognize your image in every face we encounter.

Help us remember that no human being is an alien to you.

And help us build a world where fewer people must live in fear of being treated as strangers in the communities they call home.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Expanding the Circle

Today, pay attention to the language you hear and use. Notice how often people are described as categories rather than human beings.

Immigrant.
Liberal.
Conservative.
Foreigner.
Refugee.
Homeless.
Elite.
Criminal.

Categories are sometimes necessary. But they can also become shortcuts that prevent us from seeing the complexity of a person’s life.

Choose one group of people you instinctively place at a distance from yourself. Spend a few minutes learning a real story from someone in that group. Read an interview. Listen to a podcast. Watch a conversation. Learn their name.

The goal is not agreement. The goal is recognition.

The rabbi in the story taught that day begins when we recognize our sister or brother in another human being. Practice bringing a little more daylight into the world today.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 2, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

TODAY! June 1, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

There is an old story from the Jewish mystical tradition about the Baal Shem Tov, an 18th-century spiritual teacher and healer who helped found Hasidic Judaism in Eastern Europe. The stories about him focus less on academic theology and more on how everyday people stay connected to the sacred during hard times.

One story says that whenever great danger threatened the Jewish community, the Baal Shem Tov would go to a certain place in the forest. There he would light a sacred fire, pray a particular prayer, and somehow the danger would pass.

Years later, his successor faced another crisis. He no longer remembered how to light the sacred fire, but he still knew the prayer and the place in the forest. So he went there, spoke the prayer, and somehow that was enough.

Another generation passed. The next rabbi no longer knew how to light the fire or recite the prayer. But he still remembered the place in the forest. So he went there and said, “I do not know the fire. I do not know the prayer. But I remember the place.” And somehow that too was enough.

Eventually, another generation came along. The rabbi no longer knew the fire, the prayer, or even the place in the forest. All he could do was sit in his chair and tell the story.

And the story itself became enough.

Many people I know feel spiritually lost right now. I hear it from clergy who are unsure how to guide their congregations through so much political hostility and distrust. I hear it from parents trying to raise children in a world shaped by algorithms they barely understand. I hear it from older adults who once believed that democratic norms, international alliances, scientific institutions, and basic constitutional protections were more stable than they seem now. I hear it from younger people who cannot imagine owning a home, retiring securely, or trusting that the climate will stay livable.

We are holding, often in isolation, a deep grief. Many of us no longer trust the institutions that once helped give life meaning. Congregations, universities, journalism, government, and medicine all feel less reliable. Even the idea of objective truth is now questioned in ways that would have seemed impossible a generation ago.

Some people try to bring back the past just as it was. Others leave it behind completely. Many feel stuck in the middle, holding onto pieces of traditions they still care about but no longer fully trusting the institutions that once supported them.

This old Hasidic story, at least for me, is an odd comfort because it refuses nostalgia without surrendering wisdom. People forget things. Traditions change. Institutions grow weaker. Languages shift. Communities break apart. History keeps moving. None of this is new. The Jewish people who shared these stories survived exile, persecution, displacement, and political collapse many times over the centuries. They knew how fragile civilizations can be. But they also understood that the sacred sometimes survives inside memory long after institutions lose their coherence.

I think many people believe spirituality is mostly about certainty or keeping traditions exactly the same. But wisdom traditions tell a more human, complex story. Again and again, people lose their way, let go of old structures, forget parts of rituals, and still find the Sacred in surprising ways.

The Buddhist tradition teaches that impermanence is at the heart of reality. Everything changes and nothing lasts forever. Holding on too tightly to forms brings suffering because no structure lasts. This idea might sound negative at first, but I think it actually calls us to a deeper kind of spiritual maturity. It asks if we can stay compassionate and aware even as the world shifts around us.

Even with all of the disruption and disorientation we live with today, people still gather at hospital beds when someone is dying. They still light candles after tragedies and sing at funerals. They still look for words big enough to hold grief, beauty, fear, love, and wonder. They still long for community, meaning, and a sense of something greater than just buying or achieving things.

The forms change. The longing remains.

Maybe that is part of what this story is trying to teach us. The sacred has always been more resilient than the structures carrying it. That does not mean institutions are not important. Rituals, communities, stories, and memories all matter. But maybe spiritual maturity is about learning to tell the difference between the container and the fire inside it.

Some of the vessels are clearly cracking right now. I think we all know that. But I am not convinced the fire has gone out. Sometimes I wonder if times like these make us rediscover what truly matters beneath all the systems and old certainties: Compassion. Presence. Courage. Reverence. Truthfulness. Caring for those in need. Community. Love. Those things survive longer than empires do.

The final rabbi in the story could no longer perform the ritual correctly. All he could do was tell the story honestly. Somehow that still opened a path toward the sacred. I find that strangely comforting right now.

Many of us do not know what comes next. Some of the old guides no longer help. Some of the old words do not feel right anymore. Some of the old certainties are gone.

But perhaps the work now is not pretending certainty we no longer possess. Maybe our task now is to stay faithful enough to keep sharing the story with each other until the fire shines again.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

• What spiritual “fires” or practices from earlier seasons of your life do you still carry with you today?

• Where do you notice grief arising as familiar institutions or certainties begin to crack?

• What parts of your tradition, community, or inner life still feel alive and essential beneath the changing forms?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For the Fire We Cannot Fully See

Loving Spirit, 

many of us feel like people carrying fragments.

The old certainties no longer hold the way they once did.
The institutions we trusted feel fragile.
The future feels difficult to imagine clearly.

Still, something sacred continues moving beneath the surface.

Help us remain faithful to the deeper fire when the vessels around us begin to crack.

Teach us how to live without pretending certainty we no longer possess. Keep us tender in a world growing harder. Keep us truthful in a culture increasingly shaped by performance and fear.

And when we no longer know the right prayer, the right ritual, or the right words, remind us that even the honest telling of the story can still open a path toward you.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Remembering the Fire

Today, spend some time reflecting on the spiritual practices, stories, songs, or rituals that shaped you earlier in life.

• What still carries life for you?

• What has fallen away?

• What feels performative now?

• What still feels true in your bones?

If possible, light a candle. Sit quietly for a few minutes without needing to solve anything. Let yourself grieve what has been lost without rushing to certainty about what comes next.

Then consider: What fire are you still being asked to carry forward?

You do not need to possess all the answers to remain faithful to the journey. Sometimes remembering the story itself is enough.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 2, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

I’ve been thinking a lot about the primary election results this week, especially Ken Paxton’s win in Texas.1

Ken Paxton has spent years surrounded by scandal. He was impeached by his own party, faced criminal charges and corruption claims, and his wife recently filed for divorce, calling it “biblical grounds.” Still, Republican voters chose him by a wide margin.

I keep asking myself the same question that many others are asking right now: What happened to the moral language that used to be the calling card of the conservative movement? What happened to “family values,” law and order, and personal integrity? It’s easy to call it hypocrisy, but I think something more complex is going on beneath the surface.

I don’t think most voters are ignoring corruption anymore. Instead, it seems like the idea of corruption has been redefined.

When people believe the whole system is rigged, corruption doesn’t disqualify a candidate anymore. Instead, it becomes a sign that someone knows how things really work. The question changes from “Is this person ethical?” to “Whose side are they on?” That’s a major moral shift.

In a culture like this, even the idea of truth starts to change. Loyalty matters more than facts, and evidence matters less than whether a story fits the group’s beliefs. People stop asking if something is objectively true and instead ask if it matches the story they believe about the world.

Once that shift happens, politics stops functioning as democratic discernment and starts functioning more like identity protection. The “other side” starts to feel like an existential threat. Loyalty is seen as the most important value. People distrust institutions unless they help their own group. Corruption is tolerated if it protects “our people,” and cruelty is excused if it hurts the enemy.

I wonder if Americans realize how spiritually dangerous this moment is. This is no longer simply about partisanship. We are watching the gradual collapse of a shared moral reality. History shows us where these patterns can lead.

Authoritarian movements rarely begin by convincing people to abandon morality altogether. They begin by reorganizing morality around loyalty, grievance, and fear. The tribe becomes sacred. The leader becomes savior. Critics become traitors. Truth becomes whatever preserves cohesion inside the group.

The Hebrew/Old Testament scriptures recognize this pattern better than we might think.

One of the most haunting stories in the Bible is about the golden calf. When Moses goes up the mountain and uncertainty spreads, the people panic. They don’t stop being religious; instead, they reshape what is sacred around their anxiety, group unity, and the need for certainty they can control.

In scripture, idolatry is rarely about not believing in God. It’s about putting fear, power, identity, or security at the center of what gives a group meaning.

The Buddha talked about something similar, though in different words. He taught that people get trapped by attachment and aversion. We hold tightly to our identities, beliefs, desires, and fears because they make us feel stable, even if that stability is fragile. When these attachments become too strong, our view of reality gets distorted. We stop seeing things clearly because protecting ourselves or our group becomes more important than the truth.

I think we’re seeing this happen on a large scale right now. Many voters feel disoriented, economically vulnerable, culturally displaced, and psychologically overwhelmed. Those feelings are real. But unresolved fear creates enormous vulnerability to narratives that promise belonging, certainty, enemies to blame, and strongmen willing to fight “for us.”

Modern media makes all of this much more intense. What frightens me most is not just misinformation. Human beings have always struggled with propaganda. What feels different now is the way entire informational worlds separate from one another. People slowly prune relationships, institutions, journalists, experts, clergy, and even family members who no longer reinforce the tribe’s reality. Over time, the social ecosystem seals itself shut.

The silence does much of the work. People stop challenging each other because conflict feels tiring. Communities stop correcting lies because staying united seems more important than honesty. Institutions become cautious. Fear changes how we talk long before any laws do. Eventually, people can’t tell the difference between loyalty and integrity anymore.

That’s why we need more than just outrage right now. We need spiritual clarity.

Democracy can’t survive if people stop caring about truth beyond their own group. Communities can’t stay healthy if loyalty matters more than honesty. People can’t stay free if fear shapes how we think about right and wrong.

I’m not saying this to shame or judge anyone. Many Americans are truly hurting, scared, and looking for stability in a world that feels more and more unstable. But pain doesn’t always lead to wisdom. Sometimes it just makes us more vulnerable to manipulation.

Spiritual traditions keep coming back to the same hard lesson: learning to stay truthful even when the truth threatens our identity, our group, or our sense of certainty.

That work is really hard.

But civilizations depend on it.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. Where do you notice loyalty competing with honesty in your own community or relationships?

2. How do fear and uncertainty affect your ability to perceive reality clearly?

3. What practices help you remain grounded in truth rather than tribal reaction?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For Clear Seeing

Loving Spirit, 

we are living in a time of confusion.

Fear reshapes truth.
Loyalty replaces integrity.
Power disguises itself as righteousness.
And many of us no longer know who or what to trust.

Keep our hearts from hardening into tribalism.

Give us courage to remain honest, even when honesty costs us belonging. Teach us how to love people without surrendering reality itself. Help us resist the temptation to make fear, ideology, or political identity into something sacred.

Protect us from the comfort of certainty when certainty requires us to stop seeing clearly.

And in a culture flooded with noise, propaganda, and performance, help us remain people capable of humility, discernment, compassion, and truth.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Interrupting the Tribal Mind

Today, pay attention to how quickly your mind categorizes people into “us” and “them.” Notice what happens in your body when you encounter political opinions, headlines, or conversations that threaten your existing worldview. Observe the impulse to immediately defend, dismiss, react, or withdraw.

Do not shame yourself for these reactions. Human beings are tribal creatures. The goal is not perfection. The goal is awareness.

Then try one difficult thing.

Read something carefully from a perspective different from your own without immediately preparing a counterargument. Listen long enough to understand the emotional world underneath the belief. Ask yourself what fears, losses, hopes, or identities may be shaping the other person’s reality.

This does not mean abandoning truth or accepting harmful ideas. It means refusing to let fear narrow your capacity for discernment and humanity.

The spiritual traditions teach that freedom begins when we can observe our attachments rather than being controlled by them.

That work is slow. But it may be one of the most important forms of resistance available to us right now.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

June 2, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on praciting eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

As I noted in yesterday’s meditation, Pope Leo XIV released a powerful encyclical on artificial intelligence this week.1 Today I would like to continue our meditation on what he lays out as core concerns and responsibilities of people of moral imagination and faith.

In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo warns that AI systems are shaping people “at the deepest level of communication and consciousness,” especially the young. He also points out that having information is not the same as having wisdom. This difference feels more urgent now, as our society is flooded with data but lacks real understanding.

As I read, I keep thinking about our children.

Children today are not just growing up with technology. They are surrounded by systems of behavioral conditioning that are more advanced than anything before. Algorithms figure out what grabs attention, sparks emotions, increases insecurity, and keeps people engaged. AI can now mimic companionship, affirmation, emotional responses, and even intimacy. For young minds, it is getting harder to tell the difference between real relationships and performances.

This leads to a bigger question than just whether AI is helpful or harmful. The real issue is what kind of awareness these systems are shaping.

In Buddhism, attention is seen as important for both moral and spiritual reasons. What we focus on shapes how we see the world. Over time, the mind becomes what it practices. Buddhist psychology teaches that suffering comes not just from outside events, but also from habits like craving, distraction, restlessness, and attachment that make the mind uneasy and dissatisfied. That idea feels more relevant now than ever.

Modern digital systems are not neutral. They train our minds to become scattered. These systems reward quickness instead of depth, excitement instead of thoughtfulness, and reactions instead of reflection. The result is not just distraction, but a slow loss of inner stability.

The Buddha once said the untrained mind is like a monkey jumping from branch to branch, never settling down. What might he say about children growing up with endless scrolling feeds designed by huge companies fighting for their attention?

Pope Leo seems to see that this is about more than just new technology. He keeps coming back to how people are being shaped. What habits are we building? What desires are growing stronger? What abilities are fading? What happens to a society when silence is no longer bearable and our attention is taken over?

Many adults already notice these changes in themselves. Deep reading is harder. Silence often brings anxiety instead of calm. People grab their phones as soon as they feel bored, lonely, unsure, or uncomfortable. Their attention breaks apart. Their thoughts become quick and reactive. Their bodies stay tense almost all the time. Children are growing up in this world before they are mature enough to understand it critically.

At the same time, AI brings real opportunities. It could help children learn in new ways, make things more accessible, speed up science, and expand education worldwide. Pope Leo clearly sees these benefits. His letter is not against technology. He is worried that our technical skills are moving faster than our moral wisdom. That difference is very important.

A society can become very advanced but still be emotionally immature. Intelligence by itself does not create compassion, self-control, or clear ethics. History shows this again and again. People have built modern societies and also created concentration camps and nuclear weapons. Technology has never guaranteed spiritual growth.

I think this is the real worry beneath everything right now: We are developing systems capable of imitating human capacities while simultaneously weakening some of the very qualities that make us most human: sustained attention, contemplation, patience, vulnerability, presence, and the ability to remain fully encounterable to one another.

The old spiritual traditions understood that human beings are shaped by practice long before they are shaped by belief. Monastic traditions structured silence intentionally. Meditation trains attention deliberately. Prayer interrupts compulsive thought patterns. Ritual slows perception enough for awareness to deepen. None of these practices are efficient, but all of them help build inner freedom.

This may be why Pope Leo’s letter feels important even outside the Catholic Church. He is asking if people can still have an inner life in a world built around constant stimulation, prediction, optimization, and influence.

Children are at the heart of this question. They are not just users of technology, but people whose minds and spirits are still developing. Maybe the most important thing we can give children now is not endless connection or constant improvement, but habits that help them stay truly human. Silence. Wonder. Deep reading. Boredom. Friendships that are real. Time outside. Prayer. Art. Free play. Places where they can relax enough to remember who they are.

Pope Leo writes, “ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human.”

I think that sentence will become even more important in the years to come.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. What practices are currently shaping your own attention and inner life?

2. Where do you notice technology strengthening human connection, and where does it weaken it?

3. What would it look like to help children cultivate depth, silence, and interior freedom in this cultural moment?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For the Minds of Our Children

God, 

our children are growing up inside systems we barely understand ourselves.

Their attention is being studied.
Their desires are being shaped.
Their fears are being monetized.
Their imaginations are being competed for.

Teach us how to protect what is tender and human within them.

Help us raise children who can still sit quietly beneath trees, read deeply, listen carefully, and recognize beauty that cannot be purchased or optimized.

Give them minds capable of wisdom, not simply information.
Give them hearts capable of compassion, not merely stimulation.
Give them souls grounded deeply enough that they are not swept away by every algorithm, ideology, or manufactured desire.

And help us remember that formation happens slowly, through ordinary acts of love, attention, patience, and presence.

May we remain profoundly human together.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Reclaiming Attention

Choose one hour today to intentionally interrupt the systems competing for your attention.

Put your phone in another room.
Turn off notifications.
Sit outside without consuming anything.
Read something slowly.
Pray.
Meditate.

Watch how restless the mind initially becomes. Do not judge yourself for that restlessness. Simply notice it.

Then ask gently: Who or what has been shaping my attention lately?

If you have children or grandchildren in your life, spend time with them without screens mediating the interaction. Tell stories. Walk together. Cook something. Make art. Sit in silence long enough for conversation to emerge naturally.

Attention is not merely a mental resource. It is one of the deepest expressions of love we possess.

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Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

TODAY! May 27, 2026, 12pm ET - FREE WEBINAR - I will be hosting an online experience titled “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination: A live experiential webinar with Jackie Sussman." Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

June 2, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

Yesterday, Pope Leo XIV published his first major encyclical focused on artificial intelligence, titled Magnifica Humanitas.1

For centuries, encyclicals have responded to the major moral challenges of their eras, such as war, industrialization, labor exploitation, colonialism, and ecological destruction. Now, the Catholic Church is making it clear that artificial intelligence is part of that discussion as well.

After reading the document, I was not left with fear of technology. The encyclical is thoughtful and balanced. Pope Leo acknowledges the remarkable opportunities AI could bring to medicine, education, research, accessibility, and communication. Still, the document expresses a deeper worry about the kind of civilization we are creating and the people we are becoming within it.

At one point, the Pope warns that having access to information is not the same as having wisdom. That idea stuck with me because it describes something many of us sense. We have more information than any society before us, but less wisdom to know how to apply it. We know more but understand less. We talk all the time but still find it hard to connect. We take in endless content but still feel spiritually empty.

The real crisis is not about technology. It is about us as people. AI is coming into a world already shaped by loneliness, environmental collapse, political extremes, economic inequality, and general exhaustion. We are bringing these systems into a culture where many people already feel distracted, isolated, overwhelmed, and disconnected from meaning.

Technology always reflects and strengthens the values of the society that uses it. A healthy culture can use technology to support learning, healing, creativity, and care. But if a culture is focused on taking, speed, profit, surveillance, and power, its technology will show those values too.

I think many people already feel that something important is changing in us, both mentally and spiritually. Our attention spans are getting shorter. Silence is harder to handle. People find it difficult to stay present long enough to pray, read deeply, or keep strong relationships. Young people are growing up in systems built to profit from distraction and control attention.

Now, AI can take part in activities that once seemed unique to humans. It can write, create images and music, sum up research, mimic emotional closeness, and even act as an intellectual companion. Some people see AI as a new kind of partner that could help us tackle big problems like disease, climate change, scientific discovery, accessibility, and preventing conflict. I believe those possibilities are real.

That is what makes this moment so morally complicated. Every powerful technology shows the true character of the society that uses it. Nuclear fission can either power cities or destroy them. Fire can warm a home or burn it down. AI will probably strengthen whatever values are already at the heart of our society. Right now, I am not sure we have the moral maturity needed to use this kind of power wisely. That might be the main worry behind Pope Leo’s encyclical.

In Genesis, people are made from dust and breath. This image is grounded, connected, vulnerable, and dependent. In the Christian tradition, wisdom has never just meant collecting information. The Desert Fathers chose silence because they knew noise could harm the soul. Thomas Merton warned years ago that modern people risk becoming so distracted by the outside world that they lose touch with their inner life.

Pope Leo seems to be asking a similar question today. Can a society built on speed, automation, and efficiency still see the sacredness of each person? Modern life often teaches people to see themselves like machines. Many now think of themselves as brands, productivity systems, audiences, consumers, or just streams of content. Human value quietly becomes linked to output, visibility, performance, and usefulness.

But the most important parts of being human do not follow the rules of efficiency. Love grows slowly. Grief takes its own time. Wisdom develops over time. Friendship cannot be made more efficient. Moral courage cannot be turned into a process.

Maybe that is why the encyclical moved me so much. In a world that is more and more fascinated by artificial intelligence, someone finally spoke up to say that humanity is still sacred. We are fragile, full of contradictions, able to be violent and gentle at once, and still deserve dignity beyond what we can produce or achieve.

I believe many people need to hear this message today.

We live in a culture that is always trying to turn people into something that can be measured and sold. But you are more than something to be optimized. You are a living soul, shaped by your memories, relationships, struggles, hopes, wonder, and love. Protecting this truth may become one of the most important spiritual duties of our time.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. In what ways do you feel pressure to become more efficient rather than more fully human?

2. Where do you notice technology deepening connection in your life, and where does it diminish it?

3. What practices help you remember your own sacredness beyond productivity or performance?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For Our Humanity

God, 

we are surrounded by machines that speak, predict, calculate, imitate, persuade, and optimize.

Sometimes we marvel at them.
Sometimes we fear them.
Sometimes we barely notice how deeply they shape us.

Teach us not to lose ourselves.

Protect the tender and human things within us:
our capacity for wonder,
our ability to listen,
our courage to love,
our grief,
our creativity,
our moral imagination.

Keep us from organizing life entirely around speed, profit, efficiency, and control.

Remind us that wisdom grows slowly.
That relationships cannot be automated.
That dignity cannot be quantified.
That souls cannot be engineered.

And as the world changes around us,
help us remain unmistakably human.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Recovering the Human

Today, intentionally do one thing inefficiently.

• Write a handwritten note.

• Cook slowly.

• Sit with someone without checking your phone.

• Read poetry aloud.

• Take a walk without listening to anything.

• Pray without multitasking.

• Have a conversation that is not optimized for productivity.

Notice how uncomfortable slowness may initially feel. Then notice what begins returning to you underneath the noise.

The wisdom traditions remind us that human beings are not machines designed merely for output. We are creatures made for relationship, meaning, beauty, and love. Protect that part of yourself carefully.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

May 27, 2026, 12pm ET - FREE WEBINAR - I will be hosting an online experience titled “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination: A live experiential webinar with Jackie Sussman." Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

June 2, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

One of the first things pilots learn during turbulence is not to overcorrect the aircraft.

When the air gets rough, new pilots often react to every bump and sudden movement. They hold the controls too tightly and make quick corrections. But the more they fight the turbulence, the less stable the plane becomes.

Experienced pilots handle things differently. They make small, steady adjustments. They trust their instruments, stay focused, and do not let fear take over.

This part of my aviation training came to mind this week while I was in Maine, working with a group of leaders who were trying to figure out how to lead well right now. Our conversations kept coming back to the same point: the biggest challenge we face is not just about strategy. It is also spiritual, psychological, and relational.

How do we remain steady in a world engineered to keep us reactive?

How do we stay human in an age of acceleration?

Modern life rarely rewards taking time to reflect. Instead, it values speed, instant results, productivity, being seen, outrage, and always being available. The faster we go, the more valuable we seem. Even our attention is bought and sold by systems that benefit from keeping us overstimulated and off balance.

Today, many of us take in more information in one day than people used to see in weeks or months. Our minds and bodies were not made for this. We live at a speed that scatters our attention, makes it hard to reflect, and slowly pulls us away from our inner lives.

The desert mothers and fathers knew something we are just starting to remember. Almost seventeen hundred years ago, they left behind the fast pace and ambition of the Roman Empire, not because they hated the world, but because they feared losing themselves in it. They saw that constant noise makes it almost impossible to find clarity.

Thomas Merton once wrote, “The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence.”1 I think he was right.

Violence is not always physical. Sometimes it shows up as feeling scattered, worn out, constantly distracted, unable to rest, or missing silence. Over time, we can lose our ability to feel beauty, grief, compassion, or wonder.

That is why taking time for reflection is so important right now. It is not about escaping or putting on a show of being spiritual. It is about resisting the pressure to become like machines ourselves.

While we were together in Maine, we talked openly about how we need to change our lives. We need to bring back regular habits of prayer, meditation, study, meaningful work, friendship, play, and rest. We need to stop seeing exhaustion as a sign of importance and remember that wisdom rarely comes from a frantic mind.

As I get older, I am more and more sure that these habits are not just nice extras. They are ways to survive.

The Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh often warned that without mindfulness we become carried away by our fears, anger, and despair.2 Howard Thurman similarly wrote that we must learn to center down because there is “something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself.”3 That line has stayed with me for years. The sound of the genuine.

Under all the noise of the world, under the constant push to react, and beneath the swirl of headlines, technology, and worry, there is still a deeper wisdom inside us that wants to be heard. But we cannot hear it unless we get quiet enough to listen.

Maybe this is part of what we are being called to do now, not just decide what we believe, but change how we live so that wisdom has space to grow in us.

We do not have to react right away to every moment. Not every rough patch needs a big correction.

Sometimes our job is simply to stay steady, to breathe, to pray, to rest, and to move slowly enough to notice the beauty in the world that God has given us.

Maybe that is a kind of courage, too.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. What rhythms in your life help you remain grounded and internally ordered?

2. Where has acceleration, exhaustion, or overstimulation begun to shape your spirit?

3. What would it look like to re-pattern your days in a way that helps you stay fully human?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For Living in Turbulent Times

God of still waters and steady skies,

Teach us how to live with wisdom in turbulent times.

When fear tempts us to overcorrect,
when exhaustion clouds our judgment,
when noise drowns out the deeper voice within us,
help us return to what is real and life-giving.

Give us the courage to slow down enough to notice beauty,
to rest without guilt,
to pray without performance,
to listen beneath the noise of the world.

Help us remain human.
Help us remain tender.
Help us remain awake to one another and to You.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Slow Your Roll

Today, choose one hour to step out of acceleration.

Turn off notifications. Put away the news. Take a slow walk, sit in silence, read something nourishing, pray, garden, cook, breathe, or share an unhurried conversation with someone you love.

Notice what begins to return to you when the noise quiets.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

May 27, 2026, 12pm ET - FREE WEBINAR - I will be hosting an online experience titled “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination: A live experiential webinar with Jackie Sussman." Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

June 2, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

There are moments when a spiritual path calls not only to the mind, but to the body, the voice, and the ancient memory carried deep within us. This summer, internationally acclaimed folk artist and teacher Alessandra Belloni is leading a pilgrimage along the Amalfi Coast centered on the Black Madonna, sacred chant, ritual drumming, and devotional dance rooted in centuries-old traditions of Southern Italy. Participants will visit ancient sacred sites, learn healing rhythms and chants passed down through generations of women, and explore the wisdom of the Divine Feminine through music, movement, and ritual. If this stirs something within you, you can learn more at Alessandra Belloni’s official website.

My colleague, Dr. Tim Eberhart, is offering a summer course that I wish I could take! Regenerative Mission & Ministry: Ecological Practices for Land Repair is a 7-week course for those seeking to integrate eco-theological reflection, earth-based spiritual wisdoms, and regenerative design principles for land repair. Participants will journey as a community of learners through a cultivated curriculum that incorporates selected readings, video instruction, ecological practices, and more aimed at healing social and ecological relations for the sake of mutual flourishing. It starts on June 3, so sign up soon if you’re interested!

The University of Victoria (UVic) offers an online course, A Meta-Relational Approach to AI. The course is designed for participants who are interested in thinking about AI in ways that challenge modernity’s extractive programming patterns in both humans and machines. The next cohort starts in NEXT WEEK. Registrations are open.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

There is an old Sufi story told by the Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar called The Conference of the Birds.

The world had become dangerous and disordered. The birds were frightened. They felt leaderless. Everywhere they looked they saw confusion, conflict, vanity, greed, and instability. So they gathered together to decide what should be done.

The hoopoe bird, the wisest among them, told the others they must go in search of the great Simurgh, the divine king they believed could save them.

The journey would be difficult. To find the Simurgh, the birds had to cross seven valleys: the Valley of Search, the Valley of Love, the Valley of Knowledge, and the Valley of Detachment. Each valley took away another illusion. Some birds turned back because they preferred comfort. Others were overcome by fear. Some got distracted by beauty or status. Some could not let go of their ideas about themselves.

The journey slowly unraveled them. By the end, only thirty birds remained. Exhausted and transformed, they finally arrived before the Simurgh expecting to encounter a great divine being waiting for them in glory.

Instead, they found a mirror.

In that mirror they saw themselves.

“Simurgh,” in Persian, means “thirty birds.”

The lesson was not that a distant ruler would come to save them. Instead, something sacred had grown within their own community through the hard work of traveling, letting go of illusions, suffering, and staying together.

I’ve been thinking about this story as Pentecost approaches in the Christian tradition. Pentecost is often described as the time when the Spirit came like fire and people began to understand each other across languages and divisions. Around the same time, Jewish communities celebrate Shavuot, remembering the giving of the Torah at Sinai—a story about revelation shared by a whole people, not just individuals. In the Muslim world, pilgrims gather for Eid al-Adha and Hajj, where differences in wealth, status, and nationality are set aside before God. Different traditions. Similar wisdom.

People do not survive by domination alone. We survive through relationships, humility, insight, and the hard work of learning how to belong to each other again.

This feels especially important now because our world is becoming more divided. Algorithms separate us into groups. Politics encourages outrage. Wealth keeps people apart. Fear makes our circle of care smaller. Many people feel spiritually lost, emotionally tired, and very alone.

Beneath all this is the hope that one powerful person will come to save us: the right politician, billionaire, technology, ideology, or strong leader.

But old wisdom traditions point us in a different direction. Real change happens in relationships. The Spirit does not come to people who keep to themselves and cling to certainty. It moves through communities that can listen, grieve, let go, and change together.

That does not mean community is easy. The birds lost a lot on their journey: their illusions, their attachment to status and comfort, their certainty, and their dreams of control. Real change usually costs us something, and sometimes it costs a lot.

Maybe the most important spiritual task right now is not to become more certain. Maybe it is to learn, slowly and imperfectly, how to stay. How to support each other through the valleys, even when we do not know what is waiting at the end.

The thirty birds did not find the world they expected. They found themselves, changed by the journey.

I’m not sure that’s exactly comforting. But maybe it’s enough.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. What illusions or certainties might you be carrying that no longer serve your growth?

2. Where do you notice the temptation to withdraw from community rather than remain present within it?

3. What would it mean for you to become more capable of relationship in this moment of history?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For the Journey Together

God, 
the world feels fragmented and loud.

Many of us are tired of fear, tired of outrage, tired of carrying uncertainty about the future.

Teach us how to remain together without demanding perfection from one another.

Strip away what no longer serves love.
Loosen our attachment to certainty and control.
Help us become people capable of listening deeply, grieving honestly, and walking gently beside one another through the valleys ahead.

And when we are tempted to wait for someone powerful to save us, remind us that your Spirit still moves through ordinary communities willing to stay open to one another.

Give us courage for the journey.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

The Valley of Detachment

Today, notice one thing you are clinging to too tightly.

Perhaps it is certainty.
Perhaps it is outrage.
Perhaps it is the need to be right, admired, secure, or in control.

Spend a few quiet moments asking yourself: What would become possible if I loosened my grip, even slightly?

Then reach intentionally toward relationship today. Send a message. Share a meal. Listen carefully to someone. Join a gathering. Pray with others. Walk with someone through their grief or uncertainty.

The wisdom traditions remind us that transformation rarely happens alone.

We become more human together.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

May 27, 2026, 12pm ET - FREE WEBINAR - I will be hosting an online experience titled “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination: A live experiential webinar with Jackie Sussman." Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

There are moments when a spiritual path calls not only to the mind, but to the body, the voice, and the ancient memory carried deep within us. This summer, internationally acclaimed folk artist and teacher Alessandra Belloni is leading a pilgrimage along the Amalfi Coast centered on the Black Madonna, sacred chant, ritual drumming, and devotional dance rooted in centuries-old traditions of Southern Italy. Participants will visit ancient sacred sites, learn healing rhythms and chants passed down through generations of women, and explore the wisdom of the Divine Feminine through music, movement, and ritual. If this stirs something within you, you can learn more at Alessandra Belloni’s official website.

My colleague, Dr. Tim Eberhart, is offering a summer course that I wish I could take! Regenerative Mission & Ministry: Ecological Practices for Land Repair is a 7-week course for those seeking to integrate eco-theological reflection, earth-based spiritual wisdoms, and regenerative design principles for land repair. Participants will journey as a community of learners through a cultivated curriculum that incorporates selected readings, video instruction, ecological practices, and more aimed at healing social and ecological relations for the sake of mutual flourishing. It starts on June 3, so sign up soon if you’re interested!

The University of Victoria (UVic) offers an online course, A Meta-Relational Approach to AI. The course is designed for participants who are interested in thinking about AI in ways that challenge modernity’s extractive programming patterns in both humans and machines. The next cohort starts in NEXT WEEK. Registrations are open.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

There is a story from the Islamic tradition about the Prophet Muhammad (blessings be upon him) after the death of his young son, Ibrahim.

The child died as an infant. Some traditions say the Prophet kissed him, wept over him, and stayed close to him until the child’s breathing stopped. Those around him seemed unsettled by the depth of his grief. They imagined holiness should somehow rise above sorrow, as though spiritual maturity meant remaining untouched by loss. But the Prophet Muhammad simply said, “The eyes shed tears and the heart grieves.”

That story has been on my mind since the shooting at the Islamic Center in San Diego.

Three people lost their lives at the mosque. One was Amin Abdullah, the security guard who reportedly warned teachers to lock the school doors before he was killed. Mosque leaders named the other victims as Mansour Kaziha, 78, and Nadir Awad, 57.1

Kaziha, known lovingly as Abu Ezz, was described by Imam Taha Hassane as “everything” to the Islamic Center. He repaired things, cooked meals, carried boxes, checked locks, and helped hold the community together. Every congregation has someone like this, the person who arrives early, stays late, and whose care becomes part of the life of the place itself.

Awad lived across the street from the mosque. His wife teaches at the school there. I keep thinking about that ordinary detail: across the street. The kind of closeness that means this was not simply somewhere he attended. It was woven into the geography of his daily life. A place where children learned. A place where people knew his name.

And then there was Amin Abdullah. Somewhere in the middle of terror and confusion, his instincts moved toward protecting children.

Violence always threatens to turn people into abstractions. Victims. Statistics. Headlines. But these were human beings inside a beloved community. Men with routines, friendships, responsibilities, histories, and people who loved them. Now there are empty chairs where they used to sit.

To the wider community, the mosque is meant to be a place where people take off their shoes, wash their hands, bow their heads, and remember God together. Parents bring their children, trusting they will be safe. Families come to pray, learn, share meals, celebrate births, and bury their loved ones. Now that space carries blood and trauma alongside memory and prayer.

I think many Americans have become psychologically numb to mass violence because it happens so often that it overwhelms us. Synagogues. Churches. Mosques. Schools. Grocery stores. Temples. Nightclubs. We move from one tragedy to the next before we can even process the last one.

Our numbness comes with a cost: if we stop grieving, we also stop loving fully.

Islamic tradition recognizes something important about grief. Tears are not seen as weakness or failure. Grief does not mean a lack of faith. Instead, it shows that the heart was open to begin with.

We feel a temptation in Western culture to rush to explanations. People want to know motives, make political arguments, analyze ideologies, or assign cultural blame. Some of that is important. The rise of Islamophobia matters. Online hatred matters. The spread of dehumanizing language matters. But before all of that, there is something more human we have to face.

Amin Abdullah is dead.

Mansour Kaziha is dead.

Nadir Awad is dead.

Children ran from gunfire inside a mosque.

Families will never again experience ordinary life in quite the same way.

The Sufi tradition teaches that the heart should stay “broken open.” It should not be shattered by despair or hardened by indifference, but open enough to keep feeling compassion in a violent world.

I think this may be one of the hardest spiritual practices there is. Violence tempts societies to close off in fear. It makes us want to retreat into our own groups and become suspicious of others. It can cause us to see fewer people as fully human.

But every wisdom tradition I know encourages us to move in the opposite direction. Jesus tells his followers to love their enemies. The Buddha teaches compassion even toward those trapped in hatred and delusion. Islamic teaching says that to kill one innocent person is as though one has killed all humanity. These traditions are not naive about violence. They refuse to let violence define who we are in the end.

Still, I do not want to rush too quickly toward resolution. Three men are dead. Now, an entire community carries trauma inside a place that once felt safe. It deserves our broken-hearted lament.

Maybe our prayer starts there today, with the willingness to keep our hearts open long enough to mourn what should never have happened.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. Where do you notice yourself becoming emotionally numb to violence or suffering?

2. What helps your heart remain open without becoming overwhelmed?

3. How might grief itself be a form of love and solidarity?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For the Wounded Heart

God, 
we do not know how to carry so much grief.

Holy places become crime scenes.
Children learn fear where they once learned prayer.
Families wake up ordinary and go to sleep shattered.

Today we remember Amin Abdullah,
Mansour Kaziha,
Nadir Awad,
and all those whose lives now carry this wound.

Keep our hearts from hardening.

When violence tempts us toward hatred,
toward suspicion,
toward numbness,
teach us another way.

Let our grief remain tender enough to protect our humanity.

And for those whose bodies still shake with fear tonight,
for parents holding frightened children,
for communities trying to pray through trauma,
draw near.

The eyes shed tears.
The heart grieves.

Receive both.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Remaining Broken Open

Today, resist the temptation to consume tragedy only as information. Before moving on to the next headline, pause long enough to honor the humanity of those who were harmed. Say their names aloud if you are able:

Amin Abdullah.
Mansour Kaziha.
Nadir Awad.

Then spend a few moments in silence.

Notice what happens inside your body when you allow grief to be present without immediately trying to explain it away or solve it.

If you feel emotionally overwhelmed, place one hand on your chest and one on your stomach. Breathe slowly. Let yourself remember that remaining tender in a violent world is not weakness. It is spiritual courage.

If possible, reach across a line that fear tries to harden. Visit a mosque, synagogue, church, temple, or community different from your own. Offer solidarity. Listen. Learn someone’s story.

Violence shrinks the human circle. Love widens it again.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

May 27, 2026, 12pm ET - FREE WEBINAR - I will be hosting an online experience titled “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination: A live experiential webinar with Jackie Sussman." Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

There are moments when a spiritual path calls not only to the mind, but to the body, the voice, and the ancient memory carried deep within us. This summer, internationally acclaimed folk artist and teacher Alessandra Belloni is leading a pilgrimage along the Amalfi Coast centered on the Black Madonna, sacred chant, ritual drumming, and devotional dance rooted in centuries-old traditions of Southern Italy. Participants will visit ancient sacred sites, learn healing rhythms and chants passed down through generations of women, and explore the wisdom of the Divine Feminine through music, movement, and ritual. If this stirs something within you, you can learn more at Alessandra Belloni’s official website.

My colleague, Dr. Tim Eberhart, is offering a summer course that I wish I could take! Regenerative Mission & Ministry: Ecological Practices for Land Repair is a 7-week course for those seeking to integrate eco-theological reflection, earth-based spiritual wisdoms, and regenerative design principles for land repair. Participants will journey as a community of learners through a cultivated curriculum that incorporates selected readings, video instruction, ecological practices, and more aimed at healing social and ecological relations for the sake of mutual flourishing. It starts on June 3, so sign up soon if you’re interested!

The University of Victoria (UVic) offers an online course, A Meta-Relational Approach to AI. The course is designed for participants who are interested in thinking about AI in ways that challenge modernity’s extractive programming patterns in both humans and machines. The next cohort starts in NEXT WEEK. Registrations are open.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced a $1.7 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” linked to settlements from IRS leak investigations and Trump allies. The fund is meant to compensate people who say they were politically targeted by federal investigations or disclosures. Critics warn that the money could end up going to Trump loyalists and people connected to January 6.

Even writing that sentence feels surreal. This is unquestionably the most corrupt administration in US history.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described the arrangement as “a lawful process for victims of lawfare.” Senator Ron Wyden called it “among the most corrupt acts in American political history.” Both statements show just how divided things have become. One side sees this as normal government action. The other side sees the system eating away at its own ethics right before our eyes.

Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan noted, “Using public money to reward the perpetrators of right-wing violence seems potentially far worse, even, than using it to enrich the president.”1 He is putting words to what many of us feel but can’t quite say.

This isn’t just ordinary corruption or favoritism. It’s something darker: the state starting to reward loyalty to an ideology, and maybe even making political violence seem acceptable.

Representative Jamie Raskin warned that the administration appears to be “figuring out a way to refund the January 6 militia, presumably to get them ready for the next round of battle.”

Let’s stop and think about that for a second.

Imagine a government using public money to pay people linked to an attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. If this happened somewhere else, Americans would spot the warning signs right away.

But part of what authoritarian drift does is slowly erode the public’s ability to recognize danger while living inside it. People acclimate. They rationalize. They adjust themselves psychologically to conditions that once would have felt unimaginable. That’s where much of the grief lives right now, at least for me.

Many Americans genuinely believed certain principles anchored public life. If you were part of the conservative movement, you believed in fiscal restraint. You upheald constitutional order. You advocated for accountability and equal application of law. You held the belief that public institutions existed to serve the good of the whole nation rather than reward tribal loyalty. We are watching those principles fall apart almost in plain sight.

What hurts isn’t just the corruption. It’s realizing those values might not have been as strong as we thought.

Jesus often talked about hypocrisy, but in scripture, it’s more than just being inconsistent. It’s acting righteous in public while using power for selfish reasons. That’s why Jesus spoke most harshly to leaders who used moral words to justify unfair systems.

The prophetic tradition takes it further. In Hebrew scriptures, corruption isn’t just about personal greed. It’s what happens when a society’s talk about justice, faith, and order no longer matches reality, and leaders keep using those words while the system rewards exploitation and loyalty to power. Over time, even the meaning of words starts to break down.

Human beings require some shared relationship to truth in order to live together ethically. Once public life becomes organized primarily around loyalty, grievance, spectacle, and power, moral discernment begins deteriorating alongside democratic institutions.

I think a lot of us feel that decline within ourselves right now. There’s exhaustion, confusion, and a sense that things which once would have shocked the country now seem normal. It feels like nothing breaks the cycle anymore because outrage is everywhere.

That takes a toll on people.

Some people become overly reactive. Others go numb. Some turn to ideology for comfort, while others pull back emotionally because the problems feel too big to handle.

I get all of those reactions. But I don’t think going numb is the answer, at least not spiritually.

Our spiritual teachers remind us that clarity is important, even when it’s painful. The Desert Fathers warned about how distorted thinking can take over. Buddhist teachings say that societies built on craving and fear lose compassion and judgment. The Hebrew prophets teach we have to keep telling the truth about what we see, even when it’s easier to stay quiet.

I won’t give you false hope. These days, hope is often offered too easily.

But I will say this:

It matters that your body senses something is wrong. If you feel anger, grief, confusion, or disbelief, it means you haven’t gone numb. You can still recognize what’s right and wrong, and that’s more important now than we might think.

Just because others are silent doesn’t mean you have to be. Even if institutions fail to show courage, you don’t have to give up your own.

People are still pushing back. Groups like Democracy Forward, CREW, and Public Citizen are already taking these actions to court. Some judges have questioned what’s happening. Maybe these efforts will work. Maybe they won’t stop everything.

But resistance isn’t just about winning. Sometimes, resistance starts with saying no. Say no to normalizing corruption. Say no to losing your sense of what’s right. Say no to letting exhaustion make you give in.

We should also be honest about how much this affects our bodies. Our bodies hold onto what our minds can’t handle. The nervous system takes in all the instability, the outrage, the confusion, and the sadness of seeing public life change so much.

So I want to ask you: What does your body need right now? Do you need rest? Quiet? A walk? To cry? To pray? To talk with someone who understands? Maybe you need to turn off the noise for a while and remember you’re still a living person, not just a nervous system taking in everything that’s happening.

Things feel heavy right now. You don’t have to carry this by yourself. And you don’t have to pretend it isn’t hard.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. What values or assumptions about American public life feel shaken for you right now?

2. Where do you notice yourself becoming numb, overwhelmed, or emotionally detached?

3. What helps you remain grounded in truth without collapsing into despair or cynicism?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For A Breaking Country

God, 
we feel the strain in our bones.

Something precious is eroding around us:
truth,
trust,
decency,
the fragile agreements that let human beings live together without devouring one another.

We are tired of the noise.
Tired of the cruelty.
Tired of watching power feed itself while the vulnerable carry the cost.

Some days the grief arrives suddenly.
Some days it settles like smoke.

Teach us how to remain tender without breaking apart.

Keep alive in us the part that still recoils at injustice.
Keep alive the part that still knows this is not how the world is meant to be.

And when we cannot see clearly ahead,
when the future feels heavy and uncertain,
hold us close to one another.

Because the weight of this moment is too much to carry alone.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Refusing Numbness

Today, notice where you feel emotionally overloaded by the state of the world. Do not shame yourself for feeling angry, discouraged, or exhausted. Your nervous system is responding to real instability. But also resist the temptation to shut down completely.

Choose one practice today that reconnects you to moral clarity instead of endless outrage. Read deeply instead of scrolling endlessly. Have an honest conversation with someone you trust. Spend time in silence. Pray. Walk outside. Journal what you are grieving.

Most importantly, remind yourself that seeing clearly is itself a spiritual discipline.

Authoritarian cultures depend upon confusion, exhaustion, and public numbness.

Protect your capacity to remain awake.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

May 27, 2026, 12pm ET - FREE WEBINAR - I will be hosting an online experience titled “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination: A live experiential webinar with Jackie Sussman." Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on the spiritual, historical, and prophetic meaning of the Black Madonna with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. Together, we will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

There are moments when a spiritual path calls not only to the mind, but to the body, the voice, and the ancient memory carried deep within us. This summer, internationally acclaimed folk artist and teacher Alessandra Belloni is leading a pilgrimage along the Amalfi Coast centered on the Black Madonna, sacred chant, ritual drumming, and devotional dance rooted in centuries-old traditions of Southern Italy. Participants will visit ancient sacred sites, learn healing rhythms and chants passed down through generations of women, and explore the wisdom of the Divine Feminine through music, movement, and ritual. If this stirs something within you, you can learn more at Alessandra Belloni’s official website.

My colleague, Dr. Tim Eberhart, is offering a summer course that I wish I could take! Regenerative Mission & Ministry: Ecological Practices for Land Repair is a 7-week course for those seeking to integrate eco-theological reflection, earth-based spiritual wisdoms, and regenerative design principles for land repair. Participants will journey as a community of learners through a cultivated curriculum that incorporates selected readings, video instruction, ecological practices, and more aimed at healing social and ecological relations for the sake of mutual flourishing. It starts on June 3, so sign up soon if you’re interested!

The University of Victoria (UVic) offers an online course, A Meta-Relational Approach to AI. The course is designed for participants who are interested in thinking about AI in ways that challenge modernity’s extractive programming patterns in both humans and machines. The next cohort starts in NEXT WEEK. Registrations are open.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

Subscribe now

Saturday, thousands gathered in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama to march for voting rights again. They crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, prayed, sang freedom songs, and stood in the shadow of a history that many would rather believe is over. But history is not over.

I live in Alabama, and I love the South. I love its stories, music, hospitality, resilience, and strong sense of place. I love the people here. But I also know the South has wounds that never fully healed. Lately, I’ve seen many of those wounds reopening in ways that should worry us all.

After the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act, aggressive redistricting swept across southern states. In Alabama, maps that had started to give Black communities fairer representation are already being taken apart again. The speed is staggering, and sadly, it feels all too familiar.

People often say we are “going backward,” but I’m not sure that’s completely true. Saying we’re going backward suggests the past went away and then came back. The truth is, some parts of this country never let go of the idea of racial hierarchy. The words and methods change, but the struggle over who truly belongs in American democracy keeps coming back, generation after generation.

In 1965, marchers crossing that bridge were beaten nearly to death by state troopers while asking for something very basic: the right to vote. Rep. John Lewis suffered a fractured skull there. Ordinary people were tear-gassed, trampled, clubbed, and bloodied just for insisting that Black Americans deserved full participation in public life.

Yet they kept marching. That’s the part of the story I keep coming back to now, not just the violence, but the courage. Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s choosing that something else matters more than fear.

I think of the story of Naboth’s vineyard.

In 1 Kings 21, King Ahab wants Naboth’s vineyard. Naboth refuses because the land isn’t just property, it’s inheritance. It holds memory, family, identity, and belonging. Queen Jezebel then arranges false accusations, corrupt testimony, and legal tricks so the king can take what he couldn’t get honestly. Everything about the process looks official. Elders gather, witnesses testify, and a sentence is given. The legal system remained intact, but justice is hollowed out from within. That is often how injustice works. It arrives through procedures, technical language, courts, committees, and maps that appear neutral while quietly protecting power.

Redistricting works like this too. Lines on a map might seem technical, but they can break up communities, weaken representation, and take away people’s real political voice. When Black communities in the South finally gain representation, only to see it taken apart by court-approved maps, it’s more than a political fight. It’s a struggle over belonging, inheritance, and agency.

The deeper question isn’t just whether rules were followed. It’s whose lives are being harmed by how those rules are used.

That’s where Selma still speaks to us.

The marchers weren’t asking for symbolic inclusion. They wanted the real right to help shape the world that shaped them. They knew that democracy without equal participation is just a show of freedom, not true freedom.

When a society uses laws to limit participation but claims to be neutral, it repeats an old pattern from scripture: power taking what it wants and calling the process legitimate.

Still, Saturday gave me hope. Together, we witnessed the walking testimony of people who refuse to give up. We all need that spirit today.

Democracy doesn’t take care of itself. Every generation has to decide if it’s willing to protect it. Protecting it always costs something—time, energy, courage, persistence, organizing, and moral clarity.

The people who crossed that bridge in 1965 understood this. The people who crossed it again on Saturday understand it too.

The question now is whether the rest of us will remember this before it’s too late.

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

1. Where do you see legality being used to protect power while weakening justice?

2. What communities today are still fighting to fully belong within the shared life of democracy?

3. What would courageous participation look like for you in this moment?

A Prayer for the Day

A Prayer For The Courage to Keep Marching

Holy One, 
we confess how easy it is to grow tired.

The systems feel large. The injustice feels persistent. Sometimes it seems as though the same battles must be fought over and over again.

And yet, generation after generation, people continue crossing bridges toward freedom.

Give us some of that courage.

Protect us from cynicism disguised as wisdom. Protect us from the temptation to withdraw simply because the work is difficult.

Help us remember that democracy is not sustained by courts and institutions alone. It survives because ordinary people refuse to abandon one another.

And when fear tells us to stay silent, strengthen us to keep walking toward a more just and generous world.

Amen.

Spiritual Practice

Crossing the Bridge

Today, spend time learning about the history of voting rights where you live.

Read about the people who organized, marched, suffered, and risked their safety so others could participate more fully in democracy. Learn the names of local leaders, churches, organizers, and communities who carried that struggle forward.

Then ask yourself a harder question: What bridge are we being asked to cross now?

Perhaps it is having difficult conversations. Perhaps it is organizing locally. Perhaps it is refusing despair. Perhaps it is protecting the dignity and participation of people whose voices are being diminished.

Before the day ends, take one concrete step toward participation rather than passivity.

Democracy survives because people keep showing up for one another.

Subscribe now

Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.

May 27, 2026, 12pm ET - FREE WEBINAR - I will be hosting an online experience titled “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination: A live experiential webinar with Jackie Sussman." Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.

October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…

I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.

There are moments when a spiritual path calls not only to the mind, but to the body, the voice, and the ancient memory carried deep within us. This summer, internationally acclaimed folk artist and teacher Alessandra Belloni is leading a pilgrimage along the Amalfi Coast centered on the Black Madonna, sacred chant, ritual drumming, and devotional dance rooted in centuries-old traditions of Southern Italy. Participants will visit ancient sacred sites, learn healing rhythms and chants passed down through generations of women, and explore the wisdom of the Divine Feminine through music, movement, and ritual. If this stirs something within you, you can learn more at Alessandra Belloni’s official website.

My colleague, Dr. Tim Eberhart, is offering a summer course that I wish I could take! Regenerative Mission & Ministry: Ecological Practices for Land Repair is a 7-week course for those seeking to integrate eco-theological reflection, earth-based spiritual wisdoms, and regenerative design principles for land repair. Participants will journey as a community of learners through a cultivated curriculum that incorporates selected readings, video instruction, ecological practices, and more aimed at healing social and ecological relations for the sake of mutual flourishing. It starts on June 3, so sign up soon if you’re interested!

The University of Victoria (UVic) offers an online course, A Meta-Relational Approach to AI. The course is designed for participants who are interested in thinking about AI in ways that challenge modernity’s extractive programming patterns in both humans and machines. The next cohort starts in NEXT WEEK. Registrations are open.

If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

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