Essential Energy Blog

A few days ago, my precocious nine year-old looked at me and said, “Mom, without music the world would be a really sad place.” This comment needs to be taken…

September, the back-to-school month, leaves me breathless, jagged, and clamoring for a vacation. By October, I’ve figured out that the alleged, hoped-for “spring break” is at least six months away…

When kids pack up their backpacks, it’s time to get serious about life again. No matter how hard we think we’re working during summer, we’re really not. There’s something about…

Despite their ten-plus-year difference in age, my two sons agree on a couple of topics, one of them being that they hate my singing. Oh, and my taste in car…

Since I was a small child, I’ve treasured freedom more than anything else. Perhaps it’s because I was born on the Syttende Mai, Norway’s Independence Day. Being all-Norwegian, it was…

A few days ago my son Gabriel, who has advanced to age nine chronologically but at least forty-two spiritually, made a remark about my cooking. I don’t mean to mislead…

I have always loved May. It’s really the only time of year in Minnesota that is fairly predictable and pleasant, an oxymoron if there is one. The “I can’t believe…

Spring has a magical quality, probably the reason we invest it with almost supernatural powers. The grey and soggy grass (or in the case of Minnesota, blackened snowbanks) yield to…

Two eclipses invite an astounding opportunity. What if you could see the world—and yourself—through the eyes of the Divine? I can testify to the revelatory nature and joyful outcome of…

What inspires you? To be inspired means to be “in the spirit,” or filled with your own spirit. Many of us are able to accomplish numerous feats of labor, every…

One of the most challenging actions is non-action, the ability to trust that doing nothing is better than doing something. We’re not raised to think that we’re supposed to sit…

Who wants to read a column that says that Death is on the horizon? Hopefully, you do—or will, once you see the benefits of letting Death move out the old…

Doctors insist that up to 80 percent of life’s problems, including physical illnesses, are caused by stressed. It’s true, but receiving that diagnosis is about as helpful as saying that…