Spirituality: The great balancing act
When we open the ancient overflowing tool box of our Catholic spiritual tradition, we find nestled within many reliable implements that have stood the test of centuries of use in the work of creative inner integration and soul crafting.
What are some of those ancient tools? Patience, silence, incubating darkness, the wonderful yeasting action of prayer, wise and careful discernment, the adventure of striving for simplicity, meditation techniques, centering prayer, the not-so-easy art of letting go, the simple craft of mindfulness, the call to the death-rebirth dynamic of the cocoon, the cultivation of a deep contemplative attitude, fasting, and the endless and arduous mystery of forgiveness.
Once we have these tools at hand, where can they be put to work? Where else but in our everyday life?
which is actually not a constellation but what is called an "asterism," a configuration of stars that look like something, is down on the northern horizon. The Big Dipper is part of the greater constellation called Ursa Major, the Great Bear. Native peoples say its on the horizon now because it has come down to wash its paws in the deep lakes before they completely freeze over. 
was. Thoreau-like, they sought to pare life down to its essence, and in the silence and emptiness be able to know something of the divine presence, the tangible murmurings of eternity that penetrate when all distractions are swept away.
A full-grown chickadee weighs little more than half an ounce, about the weight of a few pieces of paper. Inside that tiny feathered frame is a heart that beats close to 700 times a minute, so fast that through a stethoscope its sound is just a busy buzz. Its body temperature ranges around 105 degrees, which explains the frenzied beating of its heart. On cold winter nights, these birds reduce their body temperature by up to 10-12 °C to conserve energy.
