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Dr. Tom has been sharing refreshing, insightful essays on his Sunday Morning Café blog since 2009. Each Sunday, he brings his extensive experience from resilience research, counseling, and consulting to help you find more connection, meaning, and joy in life. We're so glad you're here to grow with this community!
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The Cost of Creativity
The creative life begins with hard work, ends with hard work, and somewhere in the middle there is more hard work. This reflection explores the stamina and obstacles that come with a creative calling.
Dr. Tom Wagner
6 days ago5 min read
Friendship Across the Divide
You may not be able to resolve every disagreement, but you can choose how you meet each other in the middle of it. A reflection on friendship, politics, and seeking first to understand.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Sep 275 min read
Through the Temple Gate
Where have you found spiritual fruit—and what keeps you from returning there? This reflection explores the experiences, practices, and communities that help us nurture what is deepest within us.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Sep 206 min read
A Supernatural Delight
What if some of your deepest experiences of God happen outside the places you expect? This reflection looks for the Sacred in joy, music, love, and a crowded dance floor.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Sep 134 min read
A Wedding Reading
Love may be as simple and difficult as this: bearing witness, helping each other carry what we can, and keeping the promise again and again. This reflection shares the readings Lisa and I proclaimed at our son’s wedding.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Sep 64 min read
Warts & All
What if the parts of yourself you’d most like to hide are the very places calling for loving acceptance? This reflection explores ego, the false self, and the freedom that comes from learning to sit with yourself—warts and all.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Aug 304 min read
Making Space for a New Couple
If resilient marriages are as unique as fingerprints, perhaps they need room to become what only they can become. A reflection on marriage, family, and the gift of making space.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Aug 234 min read
Sousousiance
There’s a difference between keeping quiet and being quiet. This reflection explores what butterflies, Benedictine monks, and a week of silence taught me about going deeper.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Aug 165 min read
Co-habitating with Cobras & Other Common Human Experiences
How do you co-habitate with a cobra and not get bit? Discover spiritual reflections and practices for life’s toughest moments.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Aug 95 min read
The Boundary of Freedom: Acceptance
Ever been stuck wishing life was different? A sick trip to Ireland, the adventures of a marital counselor, and a monk’s unexpected wisdom all point to one powerful truth. What if the thing standing between you and peace… is your refusal to accept what is?
Dr. Tom Wagner
Aug 25 min read
Intimacy with Self as Prerequisite for Intimacy with Another
Real intimacy with another—whether a friend, a spouse, or even God—requires deep self-knowledge that includes self-love. This article explores how coming to know your own signature stories and their impact can deepen intimacy with yourself.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Jul 261 min read
Lightening the Load: The Healing Power of Self-Forgiveness
Are you warming yourself by the fires of regret or moving toward the warmth of forgiveness? This reflection explores how self-compassion can lighten the load you carry.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Jul 192 min read
The Universal Call to Creativity
Creativity doesn’t belong only to musicians, artists, or geniuses. From a musician’s fifteen-hour creative days to a mother’s gift for gathering people, this reflection explores the many ways the human spirit answers the call to create.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Jul 124 min read
The Beauty That Surrounds Us
What if Beauty is not waiting in some far-off sacred place, but standing in front of you at the checkout lane, behind the coffee bar, or in the people you pass every day? This reflection invites you to notice the people who sanctify the ordinary.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Jul 55 min read
Awe!
Awe can’t be scheduled, but we can cultivate a discipline of noticing beauty. This article is an invitation to slow down, pay attention, take in beauty, and practice wonder.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Jun 286 min read
Soul Mates
What if a soul mate isn’t just “the one,” but one of the many people who help you feel at home in your own life? This reflection explores the sacred gift of the soul mate pod.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Jun 216 min read
“Look Harder”
A well-written song takes you deeply into the experience of its author while awakening something familiar in your own. In this week’s article, Dr. Tom’s tender and deeply human reflection on his mother’s life invites us to remember the people whose love, laughter, and presence have shaped us.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Jun 148 min read
Presents in Wrinkled Wrapping Paper
What if the path to intimacy with the Sacred runs straight through the lives of the sick, the frail, and the aging? This reflection explores how love reshapes itself when strength gives way.
Dr. Tom Wagner
Jun 75 min read
“I Shall Die, but That Is All I Shall Do for Death”: The Sequel
Could years of small surrender prepare you for the hardest letting go? This reflection explores Mary’s story of illness, recovery, contemplative prayer, and the kind of peace that does not arrive by accident.
Dr. Tom Wagner
May 3112 min read
“I Shall Die, But That Is All I Shall Do for Death” (Part One)
What allows a person to face the possibility of disability or death and still say, “I am at peace”? Keep reading for a reflection on mortality, courage, acceptance, spiritual grounding, and what resilience looks like when life becomes most fragile.
Dr. Tom Wagner
May 249 min read
Explore the full archive of Sunday Morning Café blogs from 2009 through 2024.
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