Dear Meli, My wife and I recently met some new friends at a party. They are about our age and live nearby. They are kind, friendly, and fun to be around. There’s just one thing that I’ve been grappling with. They’re atheists. They don’t believe...
“Be nice.” “Be polite.” “Put others needs above your own.” As someone who was socialized as female in this society, messages like these were baked into my consciousness from the time I was small. This isn’t to say that all female people have these messages baked into...
Dear Meli, How important do you think consistency is? I ask because I have been practicing meditation for several decades now. However, I change my meditation practice quite often. Whenever I hear about a new form of meditation, I’m always intrigued and have to...
Dear Meli, One of the hardest things for me on the spiritual path is comparing myself to others. I seem to do it all the time: How I compare to others spiritually, how I compare to others in my physical fitness, how I compare to others in how much money I have....
Dear Meli, I’m having some conflict with my best friend. We recently went on a vacation together. We had an itinerary planned, but when it came time to do everything, I just couldn’t do it. My friend is a lot more extroverted than I am, and she...
I once had a minister tell me that every time they did a talk about the Dreaded Practice, fewer people would come to church that Sunday. What on earth could be that Dreaded? Meditation? Journaling? Taking a spiritual inventory? No, my friends. It’s something much,...
