Late February in Pennsylvania is a cold, grey bucket of suck. It's an identity crisis in real-time. It’s the season where the sky can’t decide between a 50° tease of spring and a snowpocalypse. For me, the atmosphere in late February always feels heavy, no matter what the stupid groundhog and his weather are doing.…
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
If you’re feeling a little spiritually disoriented this week, don't worry. As if watching the fall of the USA in real time, trying to digest the magnitude of the still-not-entirely-released Epstein files, and attempting to push against the growing cloud of despair over our heads [it's not just me, right?] wasn't enough; the celestial scheduling…
Livin’ the Dream
My past weekend was... a lot. I... -closed a show on Sunday night (Dracula, a bloody good time) -attended a funeral -officiated another funeral -and was formally installed as the Affiliated Community Minister of my congregation. On Monday, I went straight into tech week for the next show. In the middle of all this, I’m…
I Still Have to Clean the Kitchen….
Well, It's 2:11 PM.... I Guess We're All Still Here.... So, today was the day. According to a particularly loud corner of the internet, the sky was supposed to part, trumpets were to sound, and the faithful were to be whisked away, leaving the rest of us behind with their empty cars idling on the…
Skinned Knees and Open Hearts
The 1980s. Remember those days? The sun-drenched, unsupervised expanses of a Gen X childhood. We roamed free, fueled by garden hose water and a healthy disregard for tetanus. Skinned knees were treated with a dirt poultice and a shrug. Sunscreen was for wimps. And feelings? Well, feelings were best kept under wraps, thank you very…
Sanctuaries and Citadels
I’m a stained glass artist. When people ask what I do, I sometimes joke that I "play with broken glass." It’s a flip-sounding line for a deeply intentional art form. The truth is, when I break a sheet of glass, I do so with immense care. My cutter, slick with special oil, scores a precise…
The Tyranny of Forever
Have you ever stumbled upon an old journal entry and felt an immediate, full-body cringe? A desperate urge to travel back in time, grab your younger self by the shoulders, and say, "For the love of all that is good, that poet-sleeve blouse is a terrible idea"? I had one of those the other day…
On Usefulness and Belonging
There is an expensive lesson that life offers, and I wish I’d had the currency to afford it sooner. It’s this: it is a profound waste of your finite time, energy, and spirit to court the approval of people who only value your utility. For most of my life, I have existed on the periphery.…
Don’t Be a Santa…err, I Mean, SPIRIT, Spoiler
A few years back, the former minister of my congregation did a sermon series that has really stuck with me. It was called "Words that Unite, Words that Divide," and for nearly half a church year, we wrestled with all the terms that tend to make UUs twitchy. We dug into words like evangelism, holy,…
Tethered to The Rock
There are places we visit, and then there are places we belong. For me, the journey back to Newfoundland is not a vacation; it is a homecoming. I have just returned from my seventh trip to the island, and with each visit, the tether that binds my soul to that rock grows stronger, shorter, more…
VoyagersHeart 