We all know what it’s like to talk the talk: to speak of love, trust, or faith, but walking the walk is another story altogether. Maya Angelou said, “ Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”  But that’s far easier said (talked) than done (walked). Yet talking is simply where the journey begins. Doing better follows, but only when the knowing is deeply ingrained, embodied in every cell of our being. This is a journey that can span a lifetime—or even...

I was recently honored to join the faculty at Reach Yoga in Glencoe, training future Yoga teachers. One of the areas I was invited to share was Yama and Niyama: the ethical guidelines in yoga philosophy. These are so much more than mere moral concepts; they were intended as the roots of personal responsibility for the practitioners before receiving the spiritual teachings that powerfully enable them to co-create a new reality. As I prepared to teach this material, I revisited each of these...

Several years ago, I met Rebecca, the fifty-something sister of a woman in my community. Rebecca lived with mental disabilities, and...