Dinner and Divinity - November 5th - "Meditation"

This week's Dinner and Divinity was led by Jessie Klein, a yoga and meditation teacher (and our friend and neighbor). After a filling dinner of lasagna, stuffed shells, chicken, garlic bread and salad, Jessie shared some of the basic concepts of meditation and led the group in a sampling of four different types of meditation: visualization, breathing, sound and reflective. We closed the night with some silence, prayer, singing, and of course - dessert!

Here are some photos from the night. Until next time...

Brenda, Jessie, Marlena

Garlic bread... ^__^

Tanja, Ollie, Chelsea

Tanja's Dad, Paul, who was visiting from Finland and me

Dinner and Divinity - October 22nd - "Coming out Spiritually"

This week's gathering was the biggest Dinner and Divinity we've ever held! 19 people cozily sat on couches, chairs and even the floor! It was a lovely and diverse group of friends.

The conversation was lead by Lisa Sargese, a religious studies professor from Montclair State University, on the topic of "Coming out Spiritually." Before getting to the topic, each participant shared their own spiritual path and where they currently feel they are. Then Lisa started the discussion, asking, "When you declare new beliefs or your interest in a different religion, how do you friends and family react? How do you respond to those reactions?" With heartfelt, honest answers, the group shared their experiences and the discussion carried into the night. The evening was capped off with a prayer for humanity and a series of seven desserts!

One - two - three - four - five ...

... six - seven - eight ...

... nine - ten - eleven - twelve... :)

Goat cheese and pear salad, Wild rice, Chicken cooked with mushrooms and tomatoes, Vegan artichoke baked pasta and a Pasta dish with a tomato and turkey sauce. Yum!

Good food and good company!

Seven different types of dessert!

Pumpkin pie, Cream puffs, Munchkins and four types of cake! (Red Velvet, Peruvian Strawberry Short, etc). Delicious!

John and Nassim having a cuddly moment with our cat Wink.

Dinner and Divinity - October 8th - "We Are God?"

For this week's D&D, a good friend of ours, rockstar / meditation leader - Mark Van Buren, shared some of his insights on the topic "We are God." Over the summer, he completed an independent study focused on the similarities between Buddhism and Christanity and came up with a paper about the need to find inner divinity. For D&D, mark put his paper into a powerpoint presentation and helped us think deeper about the reality of God and ourselves.

As always, we started our gathering with delicious food:

build-your-own Chicken Fajitas with some Potato salad on the side.

the lovely Jessie and Andrea.

Mark sharing his Power Point presentation.

The evening was brought to a lovely end with some lovely songs and drum beats...