This past week held a profound weight in my spirit, a stark and beautiful illustration of life's wild, circular nature. As the ministerial consultant for my congregation, I often stand in the middle of two very different, yet similar roads: the quiet and solemn space of a memorial service, and the vibrant and hopeful celebration…
Send the Fire
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I was 19 years old and in a ska band. Once upon a time, I played horn in a ska band called Five Bucks Short. Once upon a time, I played horn in a Christian Ska Band called Five Bucks Short, and it was our mission…
Your Meat Sack is a Miracle
Adapted from a sermon preached at UUCV in November of 2022 Your body is a miracle. It’s amazing and beautiful complex and spectacular.....and how many of you are squirming in your seats just having those words said about you? They’re true, and yet, so often they’re difficult to hear. Not one single person is exempt…
A Crash Helmet for Our Souls
There’s a video going around on tiktok right now asking “what are you going to do when it happens?” and the IT they’re referring to is when the current president is….. no longer alive. And while the petty, dramatic part of me wants to answer with “I’m going to dance in the streets and blast “No One Mourns the Wicked” as loud as I can………..there’s another part of me that is deeply uncomfortable with the idea of wishing death on someone - anyone.
I’m Baaaacccckkkk
Hello, friends. Or should I say, hello again. It feels strange, yet strangely comfortable, to be typing these words into this familiar space. It's been nearly five years since my last post, and though I might have gone through a digital silence, in real life, I've been anything but quiet. So much has happened, and…
Keep On Keepin’ On
Sermon preached on the UUCV Zoom Channel during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This morning marks my 51st day in quarantine, and I’ll be honest…this past week has been HARD. It’s been 51 days since I’ve seen my family in person. 51 days since I touched another human being. It is unfathomably lonely, especially living in a…
Sacramental Rebellion
When I was in fourth grade, I stood on a chair in my elementary school cafeteria and gave my first protest speech. We were having a dish called Johnny Marzetti for lunch for the sixth time in a month, and I was NOT happy about it. Did we enjoy having runny-mystery meat -tomato sauce-noodle glop…
It’s a Wonderful Life
December 17, 2010. 11:00 AM. Scranton, PA. It’s 8 days before Christmas. Roughly two weeks before the end of the year. I’m sitting in my office, typing away on my laptop, coffee mug on the warmer plate, listening to the hum of my aquarium filter as my fish swim back and forth in their tank.…
Seen. Known. Loved.
A long time...a lifetime....ago, a piece of spoken word poetry wormed its way into my heart. Not the whole piece, just one line, but it’s stuck with me for decades now. “To be seen is to be known, and to be known is to be loved, and you see me. You SEE me.” That line. …
“Chronic, High Functioning Anxiety”
I had my first full-blown, PTSD/Anxiety induced panic attack in several years yesterday.I mean, I had one after my accident in February, but that was mainly because I hit my head so hard I didn't know where I was or what was happening, and I was in such severe pain that I hyperventilated.No, yesterday was…
VoyagersHeart 