Ma Li has only one arm. Zhai Xiaowei has one leg. And below is a video of them dancing. They dance into the holes in people's lives. In the wordlessness of their dance, libraries of the soul open and volumes of unutterable wisdom fly off the shelves. A knowing comes forward. We all know this. We recognize the feeling of brokenness. We know what we do not have, will never have. We know that all the pieces in the world are not whole, not complete. We know that we needed, and that we need.

It's a Saturday Night Live skit waiting to happen, right? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets: A service that promises to care for your pet after you have ascended to heaven to join The Almighty. Like the company's co-founder, Bart Centre, I laughed at first. Surely, this can't be for real. But after speaking with Bart, and a few close friends who believe in the Rapture, I stopped laughing and started thinking.

I was thinking about miracles today -- not the big mamma-jamma miracles of the world, but the little ones. I spent some time appreciating the sweet surprises of meaning, the shock of good news, the offer of help when none is expected, the sympathy or kindness of a stranger. These are all the ordinary miracles of a day, moments when the soul is warmed, when the eyes of the heart open wide. I got an email today from a friend I had not heard from for a long time. Oh, yes, a miracle! So I decided to wander about and see what everyone was saying about life miracles.

The Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos ) is a celebration of the deceased which occurs on November 1 and November 2, mostly in Mexico and among Mexican Americans, coinciding with the Roman Catholic celebrations of All Hallows Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. The origins of this celebration can be traced back to the Aztecs and Mayans as long as 3,000 years ago. Then along came the colonizers.

As Dias de los Muertos approaches, or All Soul’s Day, I'm delighted to have blogger Kara Jones from Mother Henna with us to talk to us about creative ways to address and honor our grief.

At a recent sweat lodge ceremony at a "spiritual warrior" retreat offered by new age guru, James Arthur Ray, a score of people fell ill and were taken to a hospital for treatment and three people have since died. The deaths of James Shore, Kirby Brown and Liz Neuman have raised many questions about James Arthur Ray's business and spiritual practices as well as self-help/new age movements more broadly.

There is one hitch. You have to be a disgruntled Anglican who has left the Episcopal church because you object to either women and/or gay/lesbian people in the priesthood. Then, it is OK if you are already married. Let me explain.

Every year, Planned Parenthood offers services to more than five million men, women, and adolescents. In that year, they offer nearly one million Pap tests and more than 850,000 breast exams, provide provides more than 3.3 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, and estimate that their services prevent as many as 621,000 unintended pregnancies. Many locations offer prenatal and postpartum care. In addition, they offer safe, affordable abortions.

Tara is the Goddess of Compassion in Tibetan and Japanese Buddhism. Tara was quite a surprise to me. I had not expected to find a such a feminist among the early goddesses. Tara appeared in Buddhist writings after she had also been a part of Hinduism, after about the year 500.

For years now I’ve worked a non-traditional minister and my speciality is spirituality and the arts. But my best lesson came not from my seminary training, nor from the numerous hours I’ve spent studying spiritual direction. The best lesson I ever learned about art and spirituality came from one of my ministerial partners, Israel Button, who told me: “People intuit truth through art. You have to use art to preach.”

Diwali begins Saturday. This is The Festival of Lights in Hindu, Jain and Sikh (and some Buddhist) traditions. President Obama reached out to the people of these traditions with this address, and a small ceremony at the White House.

It might sound counter-intuitive to say that abortion rights are a maternal health issue - after all, abortion does, in a (contestable) manner of speaking, prevent motherhood.