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…
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.…
Drag Queens, Unicorn Snot, and Holy Moments
One of the oldest members of our congregation, a wise and wonderful woman in her 90s, pulled me aside after our worship service this past Sunday. Her eyes were bright. “I've always believed the saying that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it ultimately bends towards justice,” she said, her voice steady.…
And the Preacher Said, “Amen.”
Every year, come late May, I get this… twitch. It’s an undeniable, deep-seated urge to purge. Suddenly, my closets look like they’re staging an intervention, the basement is giving me side-eye, and I’m eyeing that dusty box of “sentimental” (read: questionable) belongings with the cold calculation of a seasoned decluttering ninja. For years, I just…
A Great, Wild Mercy
It was one of those Sundays. You know the kind I mean – the ones that feel like a cosmic apology for every Monday morning you’ve ever endured. As a minister who’s also a parent, a true Sunday morning off is a rarer bird than a dodo sighting, so I was soaking it in. There…
The Glorious Art of Napping in a Dumpster Fire
Right? Just… right? If you’ve recently found yourself staring blankly at your phone, possibly wondering if you accidentally subscribed to a 'Daily Dose of Global Despair' newsletter you don’t remember signing up for, feeling like you’ve run an emotional marathon sponsored by existential dread… hello, kindred spirit. Welcome. We have stale virtual coffee and collectively…
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.
VoyagersHeart 