Since it’s Halloween, it seems appropriate to talk about “Bare Bones Spiritual Practice.” It’s been my experience that, while there are aspects of any spiritual or religious tradition that can be endlessly fascinating – stigmata are one of those things for me – that, despite the fact they are the kinds of things we might take to a desert island with us to keep ourselves entertained, aren’t really essential to our day-to-day lives. Looked at another way, I have never in the midst of crisis thought about stigmata – they aren’t even on the radar. That doesn’t mean stigmata aren’t important, it just means they are mostly important when I am feeling pretty secure and wanting to ponder things esoteric. For me, bare bones spiritual practice includes those things that remain important when the shit hits the fan. If tomorrow I find myself without arms and legs laying on your front porch, what will sustain me when you open the door and say, “Hi, Matt!”? That’s bare bones, that’s the foundation of practice, and it makes sense to periodically identify what those aspects of our practice are and pay attention to them regularly so they are strengthened and ready for us when the feces hit the Dyson Air Multiplier (TM).