By Vanessa TitangNovember 12, 2025“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” —James BaldwinThe day after the 2024 election, the impact on those in marginalized positions—myself included—hit hard. The winning campaign had been fueled by hate, promis
By Rina ShereNovember 5, 2025“The violence of combat assaults psyches, confuses ethics, and tests souls…These compromises and violations are not generally discussed and their impact on a warrior’s mental health and soul is minimized, or even ignored entirely, not only by current military training bu
By Rina ShereOctober 29, 2025“Please swallow your pride / if I have things you need to borrowfor no one can fill / those of your needs / that you won’t let show. Lean on me…”—Bill Withers, “Lean on Me,” a song used to help veterans talk about trust in Chaplain Rina’s moral injury groupI often encoun
By Rina ShereOctober 22, 2025“The biggest thing that [the veterans] told me was that they’re carrying around this horrible idea that they are bad people because they’ve done something bad and they can’t ever tell anybody about it—or they don’t dare tell anybody about it—and may not even be able to a
By Rumni SahaOctober 15, 2025“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” —Lilla WatsonI grew up in India—a complex and richly layered society—where I was persistently reminded that my ka
By Helen “HP” RiversOctober 8, 2025“Peace means far more than the opposite of war.” —Fred RogersIn a moment of stillness, I sip coffee on my back porch, admiring the wildflowers I planted a few months earlier. They were never for me; these flowers are for the bees and other pollinator friends.Among
By Sue Oshiro-ZeierOctober 1, 2025The right time to act is always now, the most important person to focus on is the person you are with, and the most important task is to do good to others.—the moral of Leo Tolstoy’s “The Three Questions”Many years ago, as a Registered Nurse, for several weeks I too
By Kimi Floyd ReischSeptember 24, 2025“The garden year has no beginning and no end.” —Elizabeth Lawrence, A Southern Garden, 1942When I lived in Minnesota, my garden was a living pantry. I planted in the rich soil of old farmland. Each spring, I knelt in that black dirt with my seeds, already imagin
By Clint NicelySeptember 17, 2025“Art is not a thing, it is a way.”—Elbert HubbardAge 6, Christmas: I received a Paint by Number art kit. I was experienced with crayons, and I colored outside the lines sometimes. But Paint by Number presented a more serious challenge, and I made an extra effort to r
By Samara PowersSeptember 10, 2025“Becoming ourselves is a collective journey.”—Alok Vaid-MenonI was on a phone call with a friend who’s trans, listening to her dread and sorrow about the political developments here in the U.S. She paused for a moment, reflecting on my cis-passing privilege and my w
