Yesterday, to my surprise, an aloe-vera plant showed me how to practice being human! He just sits there rooted in his pot, on my counter, in my kitchen. And in the midst of his rootedness, all his branches reaching toward the window- his green arms striving toward the light. Even though he never leaves his pot, never leaves my kitchen, He is always reaching to the sun.

Like the plant, every human spirit is designed to reach- we are actually made to reach-out to the spiritual sun through all that we do. We are not actually meant to touch the Son, or be the Son, for we would not be able to bear His heat and light. Like the plant, every human spirit is also called to practice accepting the pot and the room and the window that we have been given, always turning to The light from where and what we are.

Dear friends, inner peace is the art and practice of imitating an aloe-vera plant near a window on a bright afternoon- letting go of our desire that our pots should be different, that our windows are not big enough, and learning to love the reaching- in all that we do- always reaching for the warm healing Christ-Light of the world.