Love yourself and attend current relationships

For Belieftnet, Thomas Moore answers a question from a lesbian in an unfilling relationship, who has fallen in love with a married woman. Kim writes, "I really just don't know what to do with these feelings and how to be happy again. There's an emptiness that I can't seem to fill."

In his response which may be helpful to others too, regardless of sexual orientation, Thomas Moore says,

"At one time in our lives, most of us feel the pain of loving someone who is not available or who doesn't have the feelings for us we wish they had. You probably understand that it is self-centered and usually futile to force you attentions on such a person. The most difficult lesson in love is to protect the freedom of the one you love."

Moore then recommends approaches for Kim to generate love in her life, albeit in ways that may expand the initial response to her sense of emptiness.:
1. Attend to your friends, especially those whom you have neglected.
2. Reflect on your work: Is it fulfilling? Are there outlets for creativity?
3. Care for your body and your home.
4. Offer volunteer services to your community.
5. Look at thoughts with a little distance: Consider your current relationship before embarking on a new one.
6. Focus on yourself as your own person, not necessarily as a partner in a twosome.
Beliefnet readers are encouraged to post their own reflections.

Moore invited to write for photography exhibit

"Heroines' exhibit honors breast cancer survivors," featuring the work of Jila Nikpay, appears in today’s Twin Cities' Pioneer Press.

In her review, Rhoda Fukushima writes, "Nikpay uses photography and poetry to profile 21 Minnesota women who have had breast cancer. Her goal was to illustrate women transformed... She also invited Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, to write an essay aimed at the newly diagnosed."

According to Nikpay, "Breast cancer challenges women to think of their sexuality and body image... In a conventional way, it would be very depressing. I was interested in finding women who had the courage to bypass this definition and create their own sense of identity."

Nikpay “has exhibited her work regionally, in Philadelphia and in her native Tehran, Iran.”

What: Portraits from "Heroines: Transformation in the Face of Breast Cancer"
Where: Open Book Gallery, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis.
When: March 28-April 15. Reception 7 p.m. April 8.

Why physical pollution matters to the soul

Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul column for Spirtuality & Health's January-February 2006 issue is available in the magazine site's archival area. Theology and Ecology addresses the spiritual lessons we can learn from nature.

"A forest, a mountain, the sea — they are still the haunts of healing, humanizing spirits. Why else do people flock to Cape Cod and the Rockies and the red mesas of New Mexico? These spirits are not supernatural, science fiction, or superstitious beings of belief. They are felt presences emanating sensually and spiritually from specific forms of nature itself. To an imagination steeped in sacredness, there is no separation of spirituality and physicality.

We need access to clean rivers to remember that our lives continually flow on. We need a virgin forest to remember that in a deep place our souls are untouched and untutored. We need a beautiful lake to remember that the spirit thrives in nature's beauty. If we continue to interfere with nature's job to teach us how to be spiritual, all of our labyrinths and zendos and yoga studios and Bible classes will become hollow and ungrounded."