John Cali

Since I’ve been here in New York with my family these past several weeks, I’ve been paying more attention to beliefs and relationships. Specifically, my beliefs, and my relationships with my family.

As some of you know, I was born and raised a Roman Catholic in a family of Sicilian immigrants. I no longer practice Catholicism or any other traditional religion. But most of my family are still practicing Catholics.

Before I came to New York toward the end of last month, I was a bit apprehensive about being here so long — I’m not going back to Wyoming until mid-January.… Read more

John Cali

As most of you will recall, I’ve been in New York now for several weeks. This is the first time I’ve left Wyoming in almost a year, and my first visit to a big city in almost a year. I guess I’d forgotten what city life is like.

People here — not all, but certainly most — are living fear-filled lives. In Wyoming we have all the same problems of places with far more people. But the energy, the feeling of Wyoming and the rural Far West is much different, more positive and upbeat.… Read more

John Cali

Those of you who’ve been with us a while know how Spirit loves to go on and on about joy. Perhaps, given the way he uses the word and concept, the “j” ought to be capitalized.

On my own personal journey over the years Spirit has always urged me to look for the Joy in all circumstances, in every experience, in every relationship, in every place.

In the beginning that was a daunting assignment. But with his gentle, yet stern (stern in the way of a loving father) manner, I endured.… Read more

John Cali

I had the strangest experience not long ago. I’ve had lots of weird experiences in my life, but never anything like this.

I was driving from my house to a destination ten miles away. Since I’d travelled this route many times, I knew the exact distance. And since I almost always drive at the speed limit, I knew how many minutes the trip took.

As I left my house, I checked the clock in my car. When I arrived at my destination, I checked the car clock again.… Read more

John Cali

A couple days ago, I was walking into the post office. There was a couple standing at the entrance. As I passed them, I overheard the woman say to the man, “Wouldn’t it be nice not to have any stress?”

That got me to thinking what a stress-filled world we live in. Or do we?

There are certainly lots of stressed-out folks — even out here in this remote part of the northern Rocky Mountains. We don’t have the usual stresses of a metropolitan area — too many people, too much pollution, too much traffic, too much angry politics.… Read more

John Cali

Earlier this year, I had to buy a new computer. My old one was no longer able to handle everything I needed it to do. So I bought an expensive replacement with lots of “bells and whistles” — it seemed perfect for my needs.

Since I have only a bit of technical expertise (basically, only what I need to know for my work with Spirit), it was a daunting task to get everything transferred over to the new computer.… Read more

John Cali

This morning I was reading an article in the Washington Post on the high price of gasoline. Among other things, the article talked about the big gas guzzlers like the Hummer.

A bit later, I saw a Hummer on my way to the post office. They’re very rare in this small mountain town. In fact, I’ve seen only one other in all the time I’ve lived here. A couple minutes later, still on my way to the post office, I saw another Hummer.… Read more

John Cali

As many of you know, I normally don’t pay much attention to the mainstream news media. But I have during this very difficult time in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

We’ve all heard many stories of the human horrors left festering in Katrina’s wake. And we’ve heard people in positions of responsibility, folks who should know better, pointing fingers and finding blame everywhere except in themselves.

CNN host Howard Kurtz exclaimed, “Good God, what is wrong with these people?… Read more

John Cali

When my son John was growing up, he, his mother Theresa, and I used to vacation in the northern Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It’s a gorgeous area and, to this day, I have many warm memories of our time there.

On one of our Colorado trips, we heard an intriguing story about Lulu City. But we could find only sketchy information on it. Apparently, Lulu City had been a gold and silver mining camp in the early 1880s, but was now a ghost town.… Read more

John Cali

A few weeks ago, I was jogging up in the foothills south of my home. It was a typically beautiful Wyoming summer morning after a rainy night — clear blue sky, a few puffy white clouds, and a cool breeze bearing the intoxicating scent of sagebrush still wet with raindrops. But my mind was elsewhere, on the newsletter I had to publish later that morning.

As I was working on the newsletter after jogging, my mind began wandering back to the foothills where I had been earlier that morning.… Read more

John Cali

There are two sleek, soft-eyed, lovely ladies from my neighborhood who visit me almost every day. And often at night too.

Have I got your attention?

Good.

So let’s get on with this tale of two ladies.

Andora and Marla are their names. The one thing they share is their great beauty. But that’s where the similarity ends.

Andora knows who she is. Marla is confused.

Andora is not only pretty, but also poised and personable. She knows who she is and radiates a powerful presence, confident and secure in her being.… Read more

John Cali

Spirit — and other spirit teachers — have often said time is an illusion. Not in the sense it’s not real, at least to us humans. But in the sense it’s not a “fixed” commodity, inflexible and unchanging.

Spirit

Time, in fact, is very flexible. Almost everyone has had experiences where time seems to “drag.” Or where it seems to “fly.”

The dragging and the flying are far closer to the truth of what time really is than what your world imagines it to be — “a fixed commodity, inflexible and unchanging,” in John’s words.… Read more

John Cali

Since we’ve been talking about death in several recent newsletters, I thought we’d take a parting shot at this thing so many dread more than any other human experience. Next week, we’ll move on to “lighter” subjects.

Way back when I was a young pilot, I had a close encounter with death I’ll never forget.

I was ferrying a small plane from Pennsylvania to Virginia one hot summer afternoon. There were thunderstorms in the area, but I couldn’t see them.… Read more

John Cali

Spirit and I have talked about death in many newsletters over the years. We did an article on suicide in a 2004 newsletter. And we’ve talked about death in a more recent newsletter.

Some of our readers have written us recently on the subject of suicide specifically, and death in general. Something that seems to be more on people’s minds today than ever. Understandably so.

So we’ve decided to revisit suicide.

The other day, “coincidentally,” I was listening to National Public Radio.… Read more

John Cali

Spirit often speaks of God as “all that is.” If God (or the Great Spirit, or Goddess, or whatever term you prefer) really is all that is, does that mean our human imperfections are also part of God?

A reader asked us this question recently. Here’s his letter:

Greetings,

I have a question for Spirit.

If we are having a physical experience for God’s benefit, how can it be then that God only sees us as perfect?

If we are each an aspect of God and are in this physical form for Him to experience Himself, to know Himself more fully, are our imperfections also His since He is All That Is?… Read more

John Cali

With summer beginning (at least for those of us north of the equator), people’s thoughts turn to summer vacations. When I was younger, one of my favorite summer pastimes was fishing.

In the Washington Post the other day, I saw an interview with a local fisherman. The man said he didn’t care if he caught anything or not. He just wanted to get away from his stress-filled everyday life as a trainer of firefighters. Fishing, he said, was a great way to do just that, and to relax and daydream.… Read more

John Cali

As you may recall, we’ve dealt with the subject of death many times in past newsletters. In response to one of those newsletters, a friend sent us some intriguing comments and a question.

Here are excerpts from her letters:

This week’s topic (When Bad Things Happen to Good People) made me remember the question I sent you some time ago, because it deals with us who are left behind.

The other topics (in past newsletters) have all been about leaving life on earth, mainly to help overcome the fear of death.… Read more

John Cali

A few days ago I received a letter from a close friend who’s dealing with several life-changing challenges. He talked of how it helped to reach out to other people in similar situations. Then he said “We support each other as much as we can. We are all in emotional turmoil and pain.”

That reminded me of a radio interview I heard last week with a well known television writer. He’d taken heroin many years ago to help cope with pain in his life, only to find his addiction merely intensified the pain.… Read more

John Cali

Shortly after sunrise today, a phone call roused me out of my usual early-morning quiet time. When I answered, I recognized my cousin’s voice. “Johnny,” she said, and then she started sobbing. My first thought was someone had died.

My cousin and my sister live in the same town in New York State. My sister’s husband had a lung transplant several weeks ago. He was doing as well as the surgeons had expected.

But two nights ago he had a severe relapse at home, and couldn’t breathe.… Read more

John Cali

A long-time friend and reader of our newsletter gave us some thoughtful feedback on last week’s newsletter. She and I had an interesting email exchange over a couple of days. With her permission, I’m including excerpts from that exchange in this week’s newsletter.

Below is the email conversation I had with Alberta (not her real name), followed by Spirit’s thoughts.

Alberta
John — I’d say nothing surprising coming from dear Spirit in this latest message.

But I do pause at the apparent suggestion that we all avoid the diversion of our attention with sex.… Read more

John Cali

Trusting the power within ourselves is often a lifelong challenge for many of us. It took me many years to even begin trusting my inner guidance. Now I trust it completely, and have never looked back.

But our modern world does not support us in developing that trust. Instead, it would have us trust and follow any guidance except our own. In our world’s view, most or all our power is outside ourselves. But just the opposite is true — all our power is within us.… Read more

John Cali

Many of the recent readings Spirit and I’ve done have an increasingly common thread: The people coming to us have a hellishly hard time believing they create their own realities with their thoughts.

This has always been an issue in the readings we’ve done over the years. But today it’s a much more common and difficult issue for many folks. Maybe it’s something to do with the intensifying energies most of us are feeling these days.

But whatever it is, it’s really grabbed my attention.… Read more

John Cali

Last week I was watching wonderful documentary on Ram Dass. What a magnificent man, a gift to us all! A true spiritual pioneer.

In part of the film, he was counseling a young woman whose boyfriend had just been brutally murdered. He mostly listened, and she talked.

When she was nearly done, he said, simply, “The death of a lover is a path.” (Meaning a spiritual path that will ultimately bring much good to the person on that path.)… Read more