author, writer, editor
Barbara 
From Opening Hearts, Chapter 5’s Five Cardinal Rules for Healthy Living – Rule 1 Nutrition When we consider all the gifts and resources we have available to us, we begin to understand that our food choices have spiritual as well as health consequences. Mindfulness and intentionality are just two of the spiritual aspects of … Read more
Recently I had the great honor of being a guest on Connie Whitman’s internet radio program, Architect of Change to talk about Opening Hearts, the book I co-created with the amazing cardiovascular surgeon Lester R. Sauvage, MD (1926-2015). Connie and I discussed the advice Dr. Sauvage shared about how to nurture the body as part of living a healthy … Read more
So far we’ve been exploring small towns in Costa Rica’s Central Valley, ones we might like to settle in one day. Of course, getting lost is part of the fun. Sometimes. Last week on our hunt for the quickest way to Puriscal, Google maps took us on a mountainous route through the little town of … Read more
Social faux pas are an unavoidable part of international travel. And adventures, by their very nature, are unpredictable. Our first week in Costa Rica included social faux pas but our adventures were OBE (overcome by events). Friday and Saturday found us settling in, grocery shopping, and visiting a couple of local eateries. Sunday morning, we both … Read more
Hi family and friends: Today our Central America adventure began :-). The flight out of Orlando this morning was beautiful flying over the Florida Keys, then Cuba, then Nicaragua, and finally into Costa Rica. The landing was different than any other I’ve experienced since the San Jose airport sits in the middle of a valley … Read more
Our Novena of Peace concludes with the realization that peace is the fruit of love. Love is expressed so many ways large and small. Love is mercy, gratitude, vulnerability, forgiveness, responsibility, awareness, and all the habits we consciously choose that reveal our belief in the sacredness of all life and of our world. It gives … Read more
Like peacemaking, mercy is a habit of being. Conscious choice is the key to creating any new habit. Habits are the things we do repetitively. They are helpful to our being (such as exercise or meditation) or harmful (substance abuse or smoking). Habits are conscious or unconscious. To create peace we have to consciously choose … Read more
Mercy flows from response-ability; the ability to respond. This story illustrates how we are intrinsically hardwired to respond to each other: Once there was an elderly couple who delighted in the little boy who lived across the street. They loved his daily visits to play on the tire swing they had put up for their … Read more
Peace is impossible without truth and reconciliation. On December 29, 1890, soldiers of the US Army’s 7th Cavalry massacred 300 Lakota Sioux (including women and children) near Wounded Knee creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Tomorrow, December 29, 2015, Lakota elders who are descendants of the original seventy-five survivors (known as Takini) … Read more
Here, then, is the reason for the Jubilee: because this is the time for mercy. It is the favorable time to heal wounds, a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and to touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer … Read more