Aldea Spiritual Community

December Lights (Part 3): A Star in the Eastern Sky | Jake Haber

For the third installment of our "December Lights" series, we re-examined the story of the Magi—commonly known as the "Wise Men"—and how the deeper context of their tale illustrates a unique spiritual truth about following the nudges of our soul. 
 
Quotes: 
 
Matthew 2:1-12:
"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village—a band of scholars (magi or seers) arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on pilgrimage to worship him.” When word of their inquiry got to Herod, he was terrified... (He) arranged a secret meeting with the scholars from the East. Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth-announcement star appeared. (He) said, “Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I’ll join you at once in your worship.” Instructed by the king, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time! They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh.  In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they worked out another route, left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country."
 
Craig S. Keener:
“The Magi were astrologers, likely from Babylon or Persia, where astrology was a developed science. Their interpretation of the star as heralding a Jewish king fits with the popular association of celestial events with royal births.” 
 
Deepak Chopra:
“Listen to the whispers of your soul. Trust them as you would trust the map of a navigator.”
 
Matthew Fox: “The Magi teach us that truth and wisdom are not confined to one tradition. Their journey celebrates the sacredness of seeking and the holiness of encounters acrossboundaries. It is a story of trust in the mystery that transcends cultural and religious differences.”
 
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
 
Rumi:
“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”
 
Sri Aurobindo:
“Faith is the soul’s witness to something not yet manifested but felt as real, a hidden reality awaiting birth.”
 
 

December Lights (Part 2): Yuletide | Jake Haber

For Part 2 of "December Lights", we looked at the ancient celebration of Yule—its influence on Christmas and its focus on the solstice. How can we draw inspiration from Yule as we create our own unique holiday traditions?
 
Quotes:
 
Dorothy Morrison (Yule: A Celebration of Light and Warmth:)
“Yule is the season when we celebrate the rebirth of the sun and the return of light to the Earth. It’s a time of hope and renewal, reminding us that no matter how dark times may seem, light and warmth will return.”
 
Susan Pesznecker:
"The magic of Yule lies in its duality: while the world outside is dark and cold, the inner spirit is lit with the fire of hope and renewal....Yule teaches us that even in the coldest, darkest times, light and warmth are just around the corner."
 
Sara Rae Hoagland:
"At its core, Yule is a day in which to proudly stand within the darkness, knowing in our souls that the light will be triumphant."
 
 

December Lights (Part 1): Rededication | Jake Haber

For the first installment of our new holiday series "December Lights", we explored the profound origins of Hanukkah & Kwanzaa, and how we might be inspired to rededicate ourselves to our spiritual path this holiday season. 
 
Quotes:
 
Abraham Heschel:
“Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time. Time is the heart of existence.” 
 
Richard Rohr:
“Daily contemplation is an act of surrender, a deliberate choice to reconnect and realign with the divine flow. It’s how we rededicate ourselves to the work of transformation.”
 
Mahatma Gandhi :
“To pray is not to ask things of God, but to rededicate ourselves to the service of life, truth, and love.”
 
Pema Chödrön :
“Meditation is a constant process of starting over. Every time you return to your breath, you are rededicating yourself to the path of wakefulness.”
 
Dr. Maulana Karenga:
“Kwanzaa was created to introduce and reinforce the importance of African heritage and culture. In the wake of the Watts uprising, it was clear that what was needed was a cultural foundation on which we could rebuild and reaffirm our identity, purpose, and direction as a people.”
 
Reverend Al Sharpton
“You can’t fight for anybody if you don’t fight for everybody. I cannot fight for Black rights if I don’t fight for Jewish rights … because then it becomes a matter of self-aggrandizement rather than fighting for humanity.”

Gratitude & Grief | Jake Haber

As we gear up for Thanksgiving Week (and the holidays as a whole), we stop to create space for the variety of emotions that we may be feeling – grief right along with gratitude.
What if gratitude and grief are not so different & distinct? What if finding a connection between the two holds a key for a deeper spirituality and more authentic human experience?
 
Quotes:
 
C.S. Lewis:
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. To live fully is to accept the trade-off of safety for the unpredictable and unknowable nature of love and life.” 
 
Haruki Murakami:
“You should not strive to eliminate your pain but to feel it, give it meaning, and see it as part of your evolution.”
 
Rainer Maria Rilke:
“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Gratitude is being able to stand in that storm and recognize it as part of the whole tapestry of living.”
 
Joan Halifax:
“When we sit with the dying, we are invited into the heart of life itself. In grief, we find the seeds of gratitude—not for the pain, but for the reminder of how fleeting and precious life is.”
 
David Steindl-Rast:
“The root of joy is gratefulness… It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful. Even in moments of pain or grief, gratitude allows us to stay connected to life’s deep and mysterious beauty.”
 
Anne Lamott:
“Gratitude begins in our hearts and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides. It means we allow ourselves to see the terrible beauty of the life we have—not the life we thought we’d have, but this one, full of pain, and yet still luminous.”
 
Mumford & Sons ("Not With Haste"):
“I will love with urgency but not with haste”

Pledge Sunday: Resilient | Jake Haber

As we reached the midpoint of our 2025 Pledge Campaign, we explored the deeper meaning behind our theme "Resilient", the resilience story of Aldea, and how being resilient doesn't always returning to the way things were, but adapting to a new normal. 
 
Quotes:
 
Viktor Frankl:
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
 
Pema Chödrön:
“Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.”
 
Brené Brown:
“You can’t get to courage without walking through vulnerability. Period.”
 
John O’ Donohue:
“May you have the courage to live the life that you would love to claim as your own.
May you have the wisdom to ground yourself in the grace of the present moment.
And may you have the strength to rise again, no matter how many times you fall.”
 
 

POLITIKÁ (Part 2): After | Jake Haber

What happens now?
 
Quotes:
 
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross:
“Anger is really just fear, sadness, or hurt covered up by aggression. Behind all anger, there is a vulnerable heart.”
 
Eckhart Tolle:
“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.”
 
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
 
Richard Rohr:
“We Christians are such a strange religion! We worship this naked, bleeding loser, crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem, but we always want to be winners, powerful, and on top ourselves . . . at least until we learn to love the little things and the so-called little people, and then we often see they are not little at all, but better images of the soul.”
 
Vivan Greene:
“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain.”

POLITIKÁ (Part 1): Before | Jake Haber

As we count down the hours until Election Day, we reflect on the spirituality of politics, how to heal a divided nation, and the true meaning of "apocalyptic". 
 
Quotes:
 
Brian Zahnd:
“Jesus wasn’t about creating an alternative political regime, but rather, he offered an alternative vision for how human society should function—one rooted in love, compassion, and justice.” 
 
Buckminster Fuller:
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
 
Mother Teresa:
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
 
Joseph Campbell:
“Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon, but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end.”
 
Marianne Williamson:
“You must go through a period of emptiness to become full, through suffering to find peace, through confusion to discover clarity. The breaking apart is part of the journey to wholeness.”
 
 

Ghosts, Ghouls, and Goblins | Arlene Marko

Join us for this insightful talk from Arlene - as she explores the connection between our perceptions and stress, drawing from her own story and experiences as well as her background in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction! 

Our Interfaith Future | Jake Haber

Check out our exploration of the concept of "Interfaith" and how it relates to human development and spiritual evolution. We talk about food courts, bumper stickers, clay pots, mystics, soup, and more. 
 
Quotes:
 
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:
“Interfaith dialogue doesn’t mean that we have to agree on everything. It means we commit to a conversation, to listening, and to learning from one another.”
 
Yuval Noah Harari:
(Religion) enabled large numbers of strangers to cooperate effectively. But why should they do so? Why should an individual in a group of 100,000 people be willing to do things for the benefit of strangers? The answer is that large-scale human cooperation is based on our unique ability to believe in shared myths. This is the foundation of religions… This system establishes norms and values for cooperation and morality in human societies, which are crucial for keeping large groups together.”
 
Rumi:
“The lamps are different, but the Light is the same.”
 
Karl Rahner:
“The Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all” 
 
Martin Luther King Jr:
“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now. Interfaith dialogue helps us navigate the waters of our shared existence.”
 
Desmond Tutu:
“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together. Interfaith dialogue helps us find this common humanity, even amidst our differences.”
 
Swami Vivikenda:
“if there is ever to be a universal religion, it would be one which embraces every aspect of humanity and recognizes every path to truth as valid.”
 
Matthew 7: 16-18:
"But you will recognize them by their fruits. You don’t find sweet, delicious grapes growing on thorny bushes, do you? You don’t find delectable figs growing in the midst of prickly thistles. People and their lives are like trees. Good trees bear beautiful, tasty fruit, but bad trees bear ugly, bitter fruit. A good tree cannot bear ugly, bitter fruit; nor can a bad tree bear fruit that is beautiful and tasty."
 
Karen Armstrong:
“No one faith has all the answers, but together we can learn to live harmoniously, with respect and compassion for one another.”
 
Ilia Delio: 
“The Religion of Tomorrow… celebrates the idea that individuals can contribute to creating a sustainable and interconnected world, guided by love rather than rigid dogma.”
 
 
 
 

ZOE (Part 4): Living With Death | Jake Haber

For the finale of our ZOE series, we had a conversation about death, and how an awareness of death can actually help us live a meaningful life - referencing Celtic & Indian wisdom, the science of our bodies, and the beauty of Autumn.
 
Quotes: 
 
Rupert Spira:
“Each night, we practice a little death in sleep. We let go of the mind and body and fall into the quiet stillness of pure being. Death is no different—it is simply the final surrender.”
 
Adi Shankara:
“You are not the body. You are the consciousness which witnesses the coming and going of the body.”
 
Celtic Proverb:
"Death is the middle of a long life”
 
Rupert Spira:
“What we fear in death is the loss of everything we have identified with. But what we truly are can never be lost.”
 
Ram Dass:
“When someone dies, the love that you shared is the space they opened up in your heart, and that space never goes away. The love remains, because love is who we are, not who we were.”
 
Rupert Spira:
"Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive—the risk to be alive and express what we really are".
 
Mono No Aware: Japanese concept around appreciating the beauty of the transitory nature of life.