6. Honor the sacredness of all life. This is reverence, says author Gary Zukov. "As you acquire a sense of reverence, you develop a capacity to think more deeply about the value of life before you commit your energy to action," he writes in The Seat of the Soul. Zukov believes that "the decision to become a reverent person is essentially the decision to become a spiritual person."

7. Honor the Sabbath. Jewish mystic and scholar Joshua Abraham Heschel wrote: "The meaning of the Sabbath is to honor time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation, from the world of creation to the creation of the world."

We Are Becoming a More Spiritual Nation
A Gallup Poll taken in November 1999 reported that from 1994 to 1998, the number of people reporting that "spiritual growth" was a very important part of their lives increased from 59 percent to 84 percent.

"Everywhere you go, there is a conversation about spirituality," observes author Marianne Williamson, who is spiritual leader of the Unity Church in Warren, Mich. She sees this spiritual renaissance in all walks of life — business, education, relationships and politics. "People are beginning to have a higher level conversation with themselves and others. Even in world events, despite terrible violence and problems, we see efforts to move toward a more just and loving world," she says.

Williamson recently invited 40 contemporaries to contribute essays to a new book on topics ranging from education and community to sex and the soul. The result is Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century.

"We live in extraordinary times," says Williamson. "I think there is a global resurgence of spiritual forces; at the same time, there is a heightened chaos — we are living in a very divided world. One world is falling apart, and one world is being born. One world is closing the heart ever more tightly, and another world is racing open-hearted and ever more passionately toward love."

Each of us moves a little closer to that ideal when we choose optimism over cynicism, action over passivity, hope over despair. As Williamson says, "Every moment we're cynical, we could have been helping. I think being optimistic is a moral imperative.

"I think the way we help the world choose love is by recognizing that our personal world is a microcosm of the whole world, and that when we choose love, we help the entire world choose love."