Our Writings
We have found that the pathways to finding meaning in our lives flow through and are woven together through these the elements of spirituality, story, and music.

Spirituality
Discover the meaning of our life

Story
Explore the story of our life

Music
Find the music of our life
A more complete list and text of writings is available on request from nking@uwindsor.ca.
Gratitude flowing into kindness and compassion
In speaking of kindness last week, a quotation from the late educator, John Holt, came to mind. I looked it […]
Kindness and Compassion: the Real Revolutionary Qualities
We have most recently spoken of vulnerability and of healing. Vulnerability involves an awareness of the possibility of being hurt, […]
Healing as Move Toward Wholeness
As you know, I am fascinated with the etymology or roots of words, one of which is healing, the counterpart […]
Vulnerability as Openness to Grow
Last week we wrote about fear and anger, and how beneath them are the deeper realities of our longing for […]
Beyond Fear and Hostility to Meaning and Relationship
This week I would like to consider the experiences of fear and anger and suggest possible ways to respond to […]
Life Unfolding from Within
I have been speaking lately of a way of interpreting our life experience as a gift and call to bring […]
Life as Gift and Call: a Few More Thoughts
Last week, in light of the story of The Old Man and His Grandson, we suggested a way of interpreting […]
Experience as Gift and Call to Life-Giving
I mentioned before that I have been teaching a five-week class on folk tales. This past week we looked at […]
Listening from the Heart
We have been speaking of words, especially in images and stories. We have mentioned how these speak to our heart. […]
Stories, Our Story, and Transformation
During the last two weeks, I have been teaching a course of folk tales which, like the ancient mythologies, draw […]
Achieving a New Vision and Wholeness
We have often spoken of story and retold many stories in our weekly reflections. We might recall again that, in […]
Naming with Wonder and Love through Story
Last week, I referred to an interview in which children’s book author, Kate DiCamillo said that life is chaos and […]
Removing Veils to Awareness and Remembering
Last week, I spoke, in part , of the meaning of the Greek word, alethia, and the Latin word, revelatio. […]
Remembering Who We Are: Our Sacred Worth
The long months of the pandemic have not only been an unfamiliar experience for many, but have often created a […]
The Heart as Home: Heart Is Where the Home Is
We spoke last week of the notion of home as a place, chiefly within the heart or sacred core of […]
Being a Home and at Home to Self and Others
We have spoken many times of the notion of home, and that it essentially means being at home to ourselves […]
Freedom as Gathering and Gift of Self
In the Greek myth of King Oedipus, as portrayed in the play by Sophocles, there is a moment when a […]
Finding A Home for Our Personal Story
We have often spoken of our story and last week spoke of our inner story, the inner world of our […]
The Inner Beauty of Our Real Story
I listened this week to an interview with the late John O’Donohue, who was a poet, philosopher, and theologian, who […]
In Touch with and Entrusting Rather than Inflicting Our Sorrow
This past week I heard an interesting interview, made some years back, with Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, who […]
Care of Self: Gratitude Flowing into Generosity
I heard an interesting broadcast from the BBC World Service this week. It featured the response of a Buddhist nun, […]
Longing with contentment and hope
The last time we mentioned how the beauty of a work of any art, from story to sculpture, or the […]
Our Life as Work of Art
The poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, wrote a poem about contemplating a statue of Apollo, the ancient Greek god and symbol […]
The Toxicity of Hatred and the Re-Understanding of Love
As we mentioned previously, the story of Snow White raises the question of how we respond to the red emotions, […]
Inner Growth as “Shedding Shells”
The last time, at the winter solstice, we spoke of light and darkness. While light usually is treated as more […]
Light and Darkness
“There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” This is one of my favourite […]
A Sense of Worth and Belonging
We have spoken often of our unique identity and of the sacred worth of each person and all that is. […]
Finding Our Own Voice with and for One Another
Last week, we spoke of our unique identity, using the image of the unique song that is each of us. […]
What is Our Song
We spoke last week about beauty, the beauty that is found in nature, in the arts, in the inner core […]
The Yearning for Beauty
Whether in flowers, music, painting, story or other expressions, the theme of beauty returns again and again. I think that […]
Unlocking the Garden of the Heart
We concluded last week’s reflection with a story familiar to many of you, called The Gift. I’ll repeat it here […]
Love as Art of Life-Giving
There is one feature that struck me in speaking of the meaning of “heart” as the inmost core or unifying […]
The Heart of Life
One word or image that has recurred over and over again is that of heart, from little emojis to songs […]
Listening from the Heart
Last week, we spoke of compassion as offering to one another not advice, answers, or a defensive wall, but a […]
Compassion for Self and Others
There was a CBC program quite a few years ago, in the Ideas series, that was called The World of […]
Wisdom from Sorrow and Joy
The past five weeks, I have had the privilege of teaching a class on Greek Mythology. This experience followed several […]
Reinterpreting Ancient Stories and Our Own Life Story
In renewing my study of Greek mythology, I tried to discern the experience behind the stories, the basic life questions […]
“The Sound of the Genuine.”
After last week’s reflection on solitude, I came across words of poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, and educator Howard Thurman that […]
A Few Thoughts on Solitude
In preparing the Greek mythology class, as well as readings from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke and other reflections, the […]
Remembering What Is Essential
We have spoken lately of the importance of being in touch with and naming our own deepest experience, especially through […]
Growing from Past Experience
One of the thoughts recently expressed is that we may look at and name or interpret different events in our […]
Reinterpreting Inherited Scripts
We have been speaking of the importance of being in touch with and naming our own deepest experience, and stressed […]
The Fire of Longing
We have been speaking of the importance of being in touch with and naming our own deepest experience whether of […]
Revisiting Familiar Stories to Discover Our Own Script
Last week, we spoke of how important it is to experience and name our real feelings, however varied and even […]
Feeling and Naming our Experiences
I have often spoken of experience, and particularly of the deepest experiences, whether of joy or of sorrow. I’ve also […]
The Light of Darkness
Many authors suggest that out of still smouldering ashes of an old world order, a new world of greater interdependence, […]
The Sadness and Promise of Letting Go
Last week I mentioned how one author, Elena Lasida, thinks that the old order of things is dying and a […]
The Next Steps to a New World, Personal and Social
Last week I heard a talk by Elena Lasida, whose background is in economics and the social sciences, and who […]
The Path to Belonging
I recently heard an interesting interview, on the CBC Ideas podcast, with.George Monbio, a writer for The Guardian newspaper, who […]
Forgiveness as Recognition of Sacredness Deeper than Brokenness
Forgiveness as Recognition of Sacredness Deeper than Brokenness Near the end of last week’s reflection, we added this paragraph. Solitude […]
Gratitude flowing into kindness and compassion
In speaking of kindness last week, a quotation from the late educator, John Holt, came to mind. I looked it […]
Kindness and Compassion: the Real Revolutionary Qualities
We have most recently spoken of vulnerability and of healing. Vulnerability involves an awareness of the possibility of being hurt, […]
Healing as Move Toward Wholeness
As you know, I am fascinated with the etymology or roots of words, one of which is healing, the counterpart […]
Vulnerability as Openness to Grow
Last week we wrote about fear and anger, and how beneath them are the deeper realities of our longing for […]
Beyond Fear and Hostility to Meaning and Relationship
This week I would like to consider the experiences of fear and anger and suggest possible ways to respond to […]
Life Unfolding from Within
I have been speaking lately of a way of interpreting our life experience as a gift and call to bring […]
Life as Gift and Call: a Few More Thoughts
Last week, in light of the story of The Old Man and His Grandson, we suggested a way of interpreting […]
Listening from the Heart
We have been speaking of words, especially in images and stories. We have mentioned how these speak to our heart. […]
Achieving a New Vision and Wholeness
We have often spoken of story and retold many stories in our weekly reflections. We might recall again that, in […]
Naming with Wonder and Love through Story
Last week, I referred to an interview in which children’s book author, Kate DiCamillo said that life is chaos and […]