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…
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.
Be Bold and Strong, Banish……
When I was a little girl, my mother developed a "secret code" for anyone who might have to pick me up from school instead of her. This was at the height of the "stranger danger" period, and it reassured her to know that there was a plan. The whole idea freaked me out. I was…
The Face in the Mirror
What’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning? Whatever it is, it’s probably either the same thing, or pretty close to the same thing, every day. We all have our own morning rituals. Maybe you have a cup of coffee before you can do anything. Maybe you hop out of…
A Tale from Arcadia, Revisited
“I wont…Kansas….cold button red venne-mutton.” Word Salad. This was how we referred to the speech patterns of the people in the unit who can no longer make meaningful sentences out of words. From 2011 until 2014, I worked in a locked unit for dementia patients who were no longer able to care for themselves. I…
Trumpets in the Cemetery
Because of the jobs I’ve had, I’ve lived in some pretty…interesting…. places. I’ve lived walk up apartments in the city, townhouses in the suburbs, basement studios in small towns, in a yurt [which was WAY too close to roughing it for my liking], and once, in an actual house, in the city of Flemington, NJ.…
With a Capital T
When I was a kid, I used to walk a mile each way to the elementary school I attended. I’d walk down Hasler Lane to Spruce St, turn right, go down Spruce, turn left onto Elmwood Ave, walk all the way down Elmwood Ave to Maple Street, where I’d turn right and go three more…
A Beatitude for Today
Blessed are the brown people The shithole countries The refugees and the homeless Blessed are the immigrants For they remind us of the ‘dream’ Blessed are the Muslims And the disabled And the working poor And blessed are those who march Who call out injustice Who fight in the trenches Who write, and tweet, and…
Clearing the Slate?
They say that your skin – your epidermis – completely regenerates itself every 27 or so days, so technically, I'm a different person than I was a month ago at this time. I’ve always found that little tidbit fascinating, and frankly, kinda gross and creepy, in a weirdly cool way. But under my new-every-27 or…
Losing Christmas, Finding Peace
What happens when you realize that Christmas just might not be “your” holiday anymore? This question has been tumbling around in my head since mid-November, and I’ve begun to write about it half a dozen times, only to delete everything and close the computer in frustration. It isn’t often that I find myself unable to…
VoyagersHeart 