The Daily Sip – Page 2 – Regular meditations on the spiritual life from Charles LaFond, spiritual companion, potter, consultant, and friend to Kai-the-dog and some humans. Charles Lives on the coast of Whidbey Island at the edge of the world off the coast of Washington State.

A meditation on what’s important

It feels like a million years ago that I was a busy Christian. What do I mean by that term? My worldview was magical. I believed that God literally counted, cared about, and tracked every hair on my head. Nowadays, with substantially less hair, I have begun to rethink this...

Make it, sure… but don’t fake it – a meditation on The Feast of the Innocents.

This is Cedar Lodge. It is so named (recently, and by me) because it sits in a grove of massive cedar trees, near a lake, on an island, in the Salish Sea. And because I like to name a home. My home is tucked away, more a Hobbit house than...

Christmas

This is Sugar-the-dog. She received a toy from my family that had not been wrapped. Under the tree, she spied it and with great and determined stealth, she retrieved it. Early. She seems not to mind much about the decorum of waiting until Christmas Eve or even Christmas Day. She...

Fear (a meditation in honor of my friend Kevin whose courage is amazing)

As a child, I was afraid of God. My mother taught me this horrific thing. She said that we all walk on the razor edge of sin and God's grace. Seriously f..ked up! step one side and you sin, step the other side and you are "in God's good graces...

Make your home, your church, full of human warmth.

Christmas is a difficult time for anyone willing to be honest. One can't heal what one does not feel. Christmas is a season full of expectations. The perfect family event. The perfect meal. The perfect church service. The perfectly sung anthem or carol. The perfect response to a gift given....

The Lusitania Watch

In 1915, at 2:12 pm, the unthinkable happened to a member of my family. The ship on which he was sailing was hit by a German torpedo. Family lore says he was having a late lunch with the captain when he went back to his cabin to get some documents. ...

Christmas ghosts

It is always at Christmas that I am so very relieved not to be going to church. With one notable exception, I have not set foot in one since June of 2017. But it is at Christmas that my love for the boycott is at its zenith of joy and...

On aging

Sugar-the dog is getting old. She is a rescue dog, and her first 7 years were hard on her, tied up and beaten daily - outside a meth trailer - an alarm when intruders approached. A rope. An empty bowl. A skeletal body. A patch of dirt. Frozen nights. When...

A poem sent from a friend at St. John’s Cathedral – stunning!

I want a god as my accomplice who spends nights in houses of ill repute and gets up late on Saturdays a god who whistles through the streets a god who waits in line at the entrance of movie houses and likes to drink café au lait a god who spits blood...

the candy cane

One really must get out of one's own way in order to see the beauty of truth. But then one must summon courage, heart- strength, in order to face the truth and the beauty of it, such that its agony and its ecstasy are both harvested. That is the conundrum....