By Karen G. Johnston“And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and I thought, this is the world I want to live in. The shared world.… This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.” —Naomi Shihab Nye, in “Gate A-4”A few years before this pandemic, I flew to Chicago to visit my m
By Katie Romano Griffin“Don’t touch the walls! The oils on your hands will leave marks!” —Mamá RomanoFor most of my childhood, my mom was a stay-at-home mom. She focused on managing our household and raising two rambunctious children with passion and verve. And our house? When I think back to those
By Martha Durkee-Neuman"All that you touch you Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God is Change." —Octavia Butler, Parable of the SowerLast fall, I had been thinking a lot about the end of the world. The apocalypse. The time when the world we know to be true
By Tuli Patel“It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism.” —Angela Y. DavisSince Christmas, our washing machine has been burping, spitting, and generally coughing. We are often witness to puddles on the floor of the laundry space. All four of us—ranging in age from early f
By Nathan Ryan“Maybe the purpose of being here, wherever we are, is to increase the durability and occasion of love among and between peoples.” —June JordanI don’t have any particular affinity for school buses. I don’t hate them; I just don’t feel any way about them.My toddler, on the other hand, L
By Erika A. Hewitt“Unfortunately the place was practically empty due to Coronavirus fears. I had the swordfish special with lime cilantro butter. I couldn’t taste either the lime or the cilantro. I give it a B+.” —a review written by “LewisF" for Manhattan’s Grand Central Oyster Bar on March 12, 20
By Rachel Lonberg“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts... Practice resurrection.” —Wendell Berry, in “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”In the church that raised me, there was a woman named Gussie. Gussie was eighty-one years older than me. I considered her a special friend.
By Shari Woodbury“… simply by recognizing what’s happening we can nip aggression or craving in the bud—our own and that of others. As we become more familiar with doing this, our wisdom becomes a stronger force than [the impulse to react]… Our training is to acknowledge when we’re hooked...” —Pema
By Jessica Clay“Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart." —Václav Havel, paraphrasedEvery year the dark-eyed Junco returns to my bird feeder when the ground gets cold and the wind has made the trees bare. The dark-eyed junco visits Cape Cod in winter, and flies north to co
By Anthony Cruz“Who, me confused? Ambivalent? Not so. Only your labels split me.” —Gloria Anzaldúa, in "La Prieta"This past summer, I was the only “out” Queer and Afro-Boricua chaplain intern at a hospital. Our frenzied daily routine included taking a wellness survey and donning face shields. Like
