Enjoy this in-depth conversation with Naturopathic Doctor Jaden Hawkinson, as we explore what it means to live a balanced life of spiritual, emotional, and physical wellness through the lens of "holism".

What if we saw our health and wellbeing as more than just symptom management, but as a holistic system where diverse parts interact and work together? What if we pursued "side benefits" instead of simply tolerating "side effects?

Learn more or work with Jaden:

https://www.jadenhawkinson.com/

https://genesisnmc.com/

This Pride Month, we’re reflecting on what true inclusion means—not just in theory, but in practice, in our communities, and within ourselves. This message explores the sacred value of belonging, especially for those who have historically been excluded from spiritual spaces. Inclusion isn’t just a feel-good idea—it’s a necessary foundation for healing, identity, and even survival.

We dive into the complexities of creating safe spaces, acknowledging the layers of trust and vulnerability needed before genuine self-expression and love can emerge. You’ll hear reflections on how inclusive communities like Aldea have had to take bold stands in the face of resistance—and why that fight still matters.

Ultimately, this is an invitation to each of us to examine our internal and external “tables”: Who do we welcome? What parts of ourselves have we yet to embrace? And what might it look like to move toward a deeper, more expansive love—for ourselves, for others, and for the world?

Quotes: 

1. Kevin Garcia

   “I’m telling you my story because not everyone has survived to tell theirs… bad theology kills… I attempted suicide twice… spent most of my life hating myself and abusing my body with drugs and alcohol… bad theology is killing all of us.”

2. Dr. Thema Bryant

   “You cannot heal in a space that is unsafe. Safety is not a luxury; it is a necessity for wholeness.”

3. Brené Brown

   “We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known. And that can only happen when we are safe.”

4. Kevin Garcia

   “Inclusion isn’t about tolerating difference—it’s about celebrating the divine in every expression of it.”

5. Ram Dass

   “Treat everyone you meet like God in drag.”

6. Barbara Brown Taylor

   “The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self—to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince, or control, but simply as someone who can spring you into spiritual reverence.”

7. Brian McLaren

   “Why would I trust a God who is less merciful than I am? If I can imagine a more loving God than the one I’ve been taught, maybe that’s the Spirit inviting me to grow.”

8. Desmond Tutu

   “Inclusive, good societies try to accept people as they are—even those whose acceptance of others is still evolving.”

9. Richard Rohr

   “True inclusion doesn’t just welcome the outsider, it calls everyone into deeper maturity, including those who resist it.”

Join us for the first part of a powerful 3-week series leading up to Easter, where we explore the deeper meaning of resurrection—not as a destination or dogma, but as a universal pattern found in nature, in our lives, and in our spiritual evolution.

Through stories big and small, we’ll trace the arc of transformation: death, grief, and the often-unrecognizable rebirth that follows. Using the image of the caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, we’ll explore the hidden potential that emerges when we allow the familiar to fall away.

This series is an invitation to examine what’s dying in our individual and collective lives, and what might be trying to be born. We’ll reflect on the moments that force us into cocoons—loss, identity shifts, and life transitions—and what it takes to come out the other side with wings.

It’s a spiritual take on transformation for anyone who’s ever asked: Is there more than this? Could something better be waiting on the other side of this pain? What if the breakdown is actually the beginning of becoming?

In this message, we touch on psychology, mysticism, nature, and personal growth—honoring voices from Christianity, Buddhism, mystics, and even pop culture. If you’re in the in-between, the not-yet, or the breaking open, this message is for you.

Quotes: 

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” — Richard Bach

“If you wish to escape from prison, the first thing you must realize is that you are in prison. If you think you’re free, no escape is possible.” — G.I. Gurdjieff

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

“The caterpillar dies and the butterfly is born. Death and resurrection are two aspects of the same process. To die is to be reborn, to die to the old is to be born to the new.” — Osho

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” — Mary Oliver

Check out the finale of "The Great Beyond" with a message addressing the question, "is there life after death?"

Quotes from this message ---------------

Gladiator (Film): “What we do in life echoes in eternity”

Alan Cohen: “The most important thing to know about the afterlife is that there is no afterlife. There is only life. Nothing can come after what always is. The forms through which life expresses change, but the energy that expresses through them is unchangeable and eternal”

Ram Dass: “In our Western culture, although death has come out of the closet, it is still not openly experienced or discussed. Allowing dying to be so intensely present enriches both the preciousness of each moment and our detachment from it.”

Carlos Castaneda: “When you need an answer, look over your left shoulder and ask your death.”

Buddha: “The trouble is, you think you have time.”

Inscription on St. Paul's Monastery on Mt. Athos: “If you die before you die, you won't die when you die.”

John 12:24: “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.”

Check out the second message in our "The Great Beyond" series as we ask the question: "are we alone in the universe?" 

Quotes from this message---------------------------------------------

World Economic Forum 2020:

“We humans view ourselves as separate, dominant and superior to nature. We see nature as a commodity to buy, sell, extract and exploit for our own interests. For well over a century, academics, thought leaders and indigenous leaders have warned against the commodification and exploitation of nature, and yet this attitude persists. We have developed a dualistic view of our existence on this planet – one that blinds us to our interdependence and interconnectedness with nature, and which has also created enormous divides in our society and across humanity… shift to ecocentric ..

The environmental crisis is in fact a deeper spiritual crisis. We must shift the way we view and relate to nature, and understand that it is a single living organism which is inextricably interconnected. We must adopt an ecocentric mindset whereby we are grateful to and revere nature, rather than consider ourselves superior to it”  

Genesis 22:17-18:

"I will make sure your descendants are as many as the stars of the heavens and the grains of sand on the shores. I reaffirm My earlier promises that your descendants will possess the lands and sit in the gates of their enemies, and from your descendants all the peoples of the earth will discover true blessing." 

Matthew 5:43-44:

"You have been taught to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you this: love your enemies."

Rainn Wilson: 

“What may be most important about Star Trek is that the human race has worked out its problems on planet Earth through both science and an emotional wisdom comprised of restraint, reason, and maturity. This spiritually and intellectually awakened humanity then seeks to spread and share its evolved nature while exploring the galaxy in a peaceful manner” 

Check out the first part of our new series "The Great Beyond" as we explore the mystics, the power of myth, and the relationship between science & spirituality. 

Quotes from this message -------------------------------------------

Zen Proverb: “Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.” 

Richard Rohr: "Mystery is not that which is unknowable but that which is endlessly knowable” 

Parashara: “In the leaf, there are innumerable components. It has a boundary, a colouring matter, a sap inside and they are not visible to the naked eye.”

Joseph Campbell: “Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth--penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words.”

Attributed to the Buddha:  “Imagine someone is trying to show you the moon by pointing at it…don’t mistake the finger for the moon” 

Rumi: “You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop”.

Richard Rohr: “When God is no longer out there or over there, we have begun the mystical journey”

Joseph Campbell: “People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” 

Alan Watts: “The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.” 

Frederick Nietzsche: ”Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.” 

Matthew 10:39: “To find your life, you must lose your life”

Check out our question & response message where our panel tackles various topics such as mental health, the ego, grief & the state of the world. 

Listen to this Father's Day message on healing across generations + reuniting the masculine & feminine within.

For the finale of "The Art Of...." we look at the literal and symbolic "tables" in our lives and how they can be a tool for inclusion and self-acceptance.

Join us as we hear from Michelle Curcio on the power of intention & our limiting beliefs as she explores some themes from Marie Forleo's "Everything Is Figureoutable". 

Join us for part two of our "The Art of...." series as we look at what happens when we begin to see the timeline of our lives from an expanded perspective. 

Join us for our brand new series "The Art of....." as we start by looking at the "lenses" through which we experience life, such as religion, culture, and of course, love. 

On Mother's Day we broadened our understanding of what it means to be a mother and learned from three unique moms!

Check out Sunday's message on our connection to the planet!

As spring emerges and the Earth wakes from dormancy, we’re invited to awaken, too—not just to warmth and light, but to a reconnection with something we’ve long forgotten: our bodies and the Earth itself.

In a world dominated by screens, data, and disembodied living, many of us have lost touch with the very ground we stand on. This message explores how our physical bodies are miracles of connection and intelligence, how the Earth mirrors that same wisdom, and how remembering our place within the web of life can be both humbling and liberating.

We look at the cost of disconnection—from spiritual illness to ecological collapse—and what it means to come back to a sense of belonging. You’ll hear reflections on indigenous wisdom, body intelligence, and the deep ecology of our being. Not just as individuals, but as vital cells in the Earth’s body.

Join us on a journey home—back into your body, back to the Earth, and forward into a more connected way of being.

Quotes:

Alan Watts:

“We do not ‘come into’ this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.”

Bruce Lipton:

“Your body is a community of 50 trillion living cells, all working together in harmony. This is the power of a single consciousness guiding them.”

Thomas Berry:

“Our challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human, in the presence of an Earth community.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti:

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

Cree Proverb:

“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.”

Bill Plotkin:

• “Eco-awakening is the process of shifting your identity from that of an isolated human individual to that of an ecological being interwoven with the community of life…An eco-awakening means seeing yourself as a participant in the natural world rather than a detached observer or exploiter.”

• “When people no longer understand that they belong to the Earth, they become dangerous to the Earth.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer:

“Let us walk through life in the humble knowledge that we are not the masters of creation, but part of its great dance. May we know the quiet dignity of mosses and the fierce grace of the river. May we listen to the stories the land tells us, and may our lives become a prayer of gratitude to the living world around us.”

Our very own Kathleen Roberts takes us on a journey through the body's experience of non-duality, some ways of stimulating the brain throughout history, and her own experiences of ritual. 

Join us for Part 3 of our series on Non-Duality, "The Field", as we explore what it looks like to say "Yes" to life, what it means to "argue with reality", and a closer look at the story of the Prodigal Son.

For part two of "The Field", our series on non-duality, we looked at the experience of seeing Earth from outer space known as the "overview effect", our lizard brains, and indigenous spirituality. 

Check out the first installment of our series "The Field", as we explore non-duality, the wisdom of the Tao, and an alternate take on the Garden of Eden story.

Check out our Easter message, where we look at resurrection as more than just a singular moment or event, but a whole new way of seeing & being in the world. 

Join us for part one of our two-part Easter message, as we explore the cycle of death and rebirth as it appears in nature and in our lives.

Join us for this message from March 26, 2023, as we explore the spirituality of serving others from the lens of various religions and wisdom traditions.

For this installment of "Aldea at the Movies", we looked at 2023 Best Picture winner "Everything Everywhere All At Once", exploring its spiritual themes such as self-acceptance, nihilism vs. optimism, and being present. 

We were fortunate to hear from Kimberly Parker, an artist & hearing wellness educator, who shared an incredible story about moving from isolation to participation by embarking on a transformative wellness journey. 

Join us for the series finale of "The Village" as we look at Charles Eisenstein's "New Story", the unique resistance of the Civil Rights movement, and Jesus' parable of the Mustard Seeds.

Tune in as we reflect on the Spring Equinox, exploring themes of balance, light, and dark, both in nature and within ourselves. We discuss how the equinox symbolizes the coexistence of opposites and encourage embracing both light and dark aspects of life. We also delve into the concept of balance in relationships, spirituality, and personal growth, reminding us that finding harmony often involves navigating tension and paradox. We hope that this talk allows you to recognize your own journey toward wholeness and inner balance.

Quotes:

“The equinox is the moment when the Earth’s tilt lines up with the Sun, giving us nearly equal day and night everywhere on the planet.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Light and dark are not enemies; they are halves of the same whole, meeting in perfect union at the equinox.” — Thích Nhất Hạnh

“I’d rather be whole than good.” — Carl Jung

“The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.” — Alfred Adler

“Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” — Leonard Cohen

“Life is a balance between holding on and letting go.” — Rumi

“It is not a matter of choosing between the spiritual and the material but of learning how to live in both.” — Thomas Merton

“Spiritual growth is not about changing who you are, but about discovering who you have always been.” — Deepak Chopra

“Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, ‘You owe me.’ Look what happens with a love like that, it lights the whole sky.” — Hafiz

Check out Week 2 of "The Village" as we explore topics such as projection, our deepest potential, and seeing God in everything. 

Join us for Part 1 of "The Village", our new series on reclaiming what it means to be a spiritual community by focusing on what YOU bring to the table. 

For the series of "Own Your Story", hear the story of an inter-spiritual relationship, reminding us of the power of our differences to actually connect and grow us. 

Listen as Chuck shares his story of "pretending to believe", to facing the realities of human suffering, to reconnecting with the "unimaginable You".

Tune into Kathleen's journey which includes being raised in a strict religious environment, finding her own spirituality, and learning to embrace the lessons in each moment. 

Hear Sylvia's powerful story of her evolving faith as she helped lead Aldea with her husband Kevin for 25+ years. 

Join us for Week Two of Own Your Story, as Pastor Jake Haber shares more of his personal story and journey with faith.

Check out our first in-person service of 2023, and the beginning of our series "Own Your Story" as we hear from Olivia Girard.

Listen to our online-only New Year's Day Message! 

Listen to the online version of our Christmas Eve Message! 

Small gestures of kindness—whether a smile, a kind word, or a simple act of generosity—carry more significance than we often realize. While major events and grand actions get attention, the quiet, everyday moments of care and compassion shape lives in lasting ways.

In Michelle's talk, she reminds us that many spiritual traditions emphasize the power of small acts, recognizing that their impact extends beyond what we can immediately see. However, people often hesitate to act due to distractions, self-doubt, or the belief that their efforts are insignificant. Psychological studies reveal that even minor acts of goodness create ripple effects, influencing others in ways we may never fully understand. By focusing on what we can do in our sphere of influence—helping where possible, doing things with care, and fostering relationships—we contribute to a larger movement of kindness. The world is changed not just through massive efforts, but through the accumulation of countless small actions done with love and intention.

Quotes:

Matthew 25:40:

 “Whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.”

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ:

 “Do not belittle any good deed, even meeting your brother with a cheerful face.”

Desmond Tutu:

 “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

Mother Teresa:

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

Galatians 6:9:

“Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Charles L. Allen:

 “When you say a situation or person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God.”

 Richard Rohr:

 “How you do anything is how you do everything.”

Dalai Lama:

 “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”

Hear about Jean's most treasured Christmas memories, and most valuable life lessons,  rom our 12/11 Service.

Join us as we begin the Christmas Season with a talk on how our beliefs evolve and change, whether it's Santa Claus or the Nativity Story.

Give to Aldea at: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=E79XD47A5DWJ2

Join us for part 4 of our "Bloom" series, as we talk about being grateful in all circumstances. Unfortunately, Jake tested positive for COVID so this message was delivered via Zoom.

Join us for Bloom Part 3, as we explore what makes us truly happy.

Join us for part two of our series, "Bloom", as we explore how to fully embrace who we are.

We begin our new series "Bloom", looking at our interdependence as human beings by taking inspiration from trees. 

Join us as we explore the spirituality of Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos.

Check out this interview with Doug Hammack, the founder of a progressive spiritual community in Raleigh, North Carolina called Common Thread Church. In this wide ranging conversation, Doug and Jake explore the possibilities of the future of faith, why our current religious institutions are failing, and how to create healing amidst the political divide.

On Sunday, we hosted special guest Pastor Devin Wright of Missiongathering Bellevue, and he and Jake tackled your big questions about faith, spirituality, and navigating the complexities of today’s world. From deconstructing religion to understanding Christian nationalism, from engaging activism to supporting loved ones on different spiritual paths—we dove deep into the topics that matter.

Listen now for an open, honest, and thought-provoking conversation!

In this powerful conclusion to the Holy Shift! series, we explore paradigm-shifting ways of seeing ourselves and the world, culminating in a profound reflection on love and belonging. Over four weeks, we’ve examined the Stages of Faith, Religious Renewal, and Spiral Dynamics, tracing the expansion of our capacity for care—from self-care to planetary and universal care.

At its core, love—or care—is the through-line of our lives, shaping our sense of belonging and our connection to the world. We begin with the fundamental need for self-care and expand outward: relational love, tribal/community care, world care, planetary care, and universal care. Each stage builds on the last, mirroring humanity’s evolution of consciousness.

But love isn’t always easy. We confront the failures of love, the struggles of embracing those who challenge us, and the tension between instinctual survival and radical compassion. Ultimately, this is a blueprint for spiritual growth—an invitation to break beyond conditional care and step into the interconnection of all life.

As we navigate a time of global transition, may we recognize that discomfort is the threshold to transformation. This is our collective rite of passage, a moment of expansion amidst contraction. Love will always find its way—our task is to align ourselves with the flow of reality and embrace the holy shifts that call us forward.

Quotes: 

Carol Gilligan: “The progression in the development of the ethics of care is marked by a shift in the focus of responsibility: from caring for the self (preconventional), to caring for others at the expense of the self (conventional), and finally to a balanced responsibility that integrates care for both self and others (postconventional).”

• Richard Rohr: “The moment we make God a tribal deity, we have made an idol. The divine is not contained within borders, flags, or a single nation’s cause.”

• Martin Luther King Jr.: “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

• Metta Sutta: “As a mother would protect her only child with her life, even so let one cultivate a boundless love toward all beings.”

• Albert Schweitzer: “Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.”

Groucho Marx: “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member.”

• Albert Einstein: “I love humanity, but I loathe people.”

Dan Millman: “Every positive change–every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness–involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception.”

• Abraham Maslow: “At any moment, you have a choice: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.”

• Thich Nhat Hanh: “Because you are alive, everything is possible. The entire cosmos has come together to make your existence possible. You are not a separate entity; you are the universe itself.”

This series has been about expanding our circles of care, deepening our capacity for love, and embracing the evolutionary call toward greater consciousness. The journey of growth is never easy, but every holy shift is a step toward a world where love leads the way.

In this week’s message, we explore the lenses through which we see the world—how they shape our spiritual journey and understanding of reality. We take a deep dive into Spiral Dynamics 2.0, reframing stages of development as different lenses through which we experience life.

From the earliest human survival instincts (Beige) to ritual and tribe (Purple), through power (Red), order (Blue), innovation (Orange), and compassion (Green), we see how each stage shapes society and spirituality.

But what happens when we step beyond personal enlightenment and into a collective awakening? We explore the Second Tier of consciousness—Yellow and Turquoise—where complexity meets integration, and love expands to universal levels. This shift is profound, disorienting, and yet deeply necessary as we move beyond black-and-white thinking into a space of wisdom, fluidity, and interconnection.

Are we evolving? Where is this all headed? The next leap isn’t just about you—it’s about us.

Join us as we explore the edges of human thought, spirituality, and evolution.

Quotes:

Jon Kabat-Zinn:

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

Deepak Chopra:

“Awakening is not changing who you are, but discarding who you are not.”

Ken Wilber:

“What’s so interesting about the Second Tier is that it doesn’t just see other worldviews—it understands why they exist, what their function is, and how they can be integrated into a greater whole…. First Tier consciousness is locked in ‘either/or’ thinking, believing its worldview is right and others are wrong. Second Tier transcends this battle and sees that all perspectives have a role to play in evolution…. The emergence of Second Tier is the greatest revolution in human thought, one that moves beyond ideology into functional wisdom.”

 Walt Whitman:

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.”

Richard Rohr:

“Maturity is the ability to live with ambiguity.”

Thich Nhat Hanh:

“The next Buddha may not be an individual but a community.”

Jean Gebser:

“Enlightenment is not just a personal experience, but a field of collective resonance.”

Michael Beckwith:

“You don’t have to convince people to evolve. You just have to live your truth so fully that it calls to those who are ready.”

As we continued our "Holy Shift!" series, we dove into a framework called Spiral Dynamics—a lens for viewing human development that is very useful in making sense of our ever-changing world. Check out this message to explore how Spiral Dynamics can be a tool for compassion, empathy, and understanding—for others and for yourself. 

Quotes: 

Herman Hesse:

"We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.”

Roelf Meyer (negotiated the end of Apartheid):

“Don Beck’s work gave us a language to understand what was happening beneath the surface of politics. We weren’t just dealing with laws—we were dealing with deeply held beliefs that had to be shifted over time."

Ken Wilber:

“Transcend and include: You must go beyond your current stage, but never reject it, for each level has truth to offer….The greatest human potential is found not in one stage, but in integrating all stages into a fluid, flexible, whole-system awareness.”

Don Beck:

“People do not move to the next stage because they are comfortable; they move because their old way of seeing the world stops working.”

Don Beck:

“The greatest mistake is to believe that one stage is the ‘right’ stage for all people at all times. Different stages serve different needs.”

Jean Gebser:

“History moves forward not when one ideology wins, but when a new, more comprehensive worldview emerges.” 

Don Beck:

“Evolution is not just about complexity; it is about expanding capacity for compassion, connection, and wisdom—ultimately, about learning how to love more inclusively.”

Holy Shift! Part 2—Stages of Religious Renewal:

What if the breakdown of old systems isn’t the end, but the beginning? In Part 2 of our Holy Shift! series, we dive into the stages of religious renewal—the deep, cyclical pattern where institutions unravel so something new and vital can emerge. What if the crumbling structures around us are making space for the spiritual future the world actually needs? Let’s explore what this means for our shifting religious landscape and where we go from here.

Join the conversation. Be part of the shift.

Quotes:

Pablo Picasso:

"Every act of creation is first an act of destruction."

Diana Butler Bass:

“The failure of religion is not the failure of faith. Instead, it is aninvitation to a spiritual awakening—the end of conventional religion opens the path to a more vital faith….People are not leaving the church because they have lost faith; they are leaving the church to preserve their faith.”

Brian McLaren:

“Many of us feel that the religions we inherited are at a crossroads, and we sense that the road ahead is not simply a repeat of the road behind us….The Spirit is blowing and new forms are emerging, but they are not emerging from the center of institutions; they are emerging from the margins” 

Greek Proverb:

“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.”

Joanna Macy:

“We are making choices that will affect whether beings thousands of generations from now will be able to be born sound of mind and body.”

Phyllis Tickle:

“Every 500 years, the empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity, whatever they may be, become an intolerable carapace that must be shattered so that renewal and growth may occur.”

Anthony Wallace:

“A revitalization movement is defined as a deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture.”

In a time when headlines echo with conflict, uncertainty, and collapse, it can feel foolish—maybe even dangerous—to remain hopeful. But what if optimism isn’t about ignoring reality, but about choosing how we respond to it? In part 6 of ETHOS, we dive into the difference between naïve positivity and what we’re calling Sacred Optimism—a courageous, disciplined, even strategic way of engaging with life.

We explore how your worldview shapes your participation in the world and examine the spiritual, historical, and psychological roots of optimism as a powerful human choice—not a prediction, but a practice. This is for anyone who’s ever felt overwhelmed by the state of things but still senses there’s something worth planting, even if tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

Quotes:

1. James Baldwin

   “I can’t be a pessimist because I’m alive. To be a pessimist means that you have agreed that human life is an academic matter. So I’m forced to be an optimist.”

2. Howard Zinn

   “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion… What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.”

3. Teilhard de Chardin

   “The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.”

4. Martin Luther (attributed)

   “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree today.”

5. Victor Hugo (Les Misérables)

   “There is nothing like a dream to create the future. Utopia today, flesh and blood tomorrow.”

6. Dhammapada 1:1 (Buddha)

   “With our thoughts, we make the world.”

7. Noam Chomsky

   “Optimism is a strategy for making a better future.”

8. Mariame Kaba

   “Hope is a discipline.”

9. Viktor Frankl

   “Everything can be taken from [us] but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

10. John O’Donohue

    “The soul is the place where the eternal and time meet… where the future is still willing to emerge from the unknown.”