By AnonymousMay 20, 2026“Return to the holy intimacy of being alive.”—John RoedelAt the end of a church meeting, a handful of people lingered in our conference room when someone relatively new to our congregation took a deep breath and a big risk—because he didn’t know many of the people present. He
By Antoinette HollamonMay 13, 2026“Hold me accountable so I may bring honor to you, amplify love and compassion to those around me, and make the way easier for those yet to come.”–Rev. Tandi Rogers, in “I Call Upon You”“When will you start your ministry?” they always ask with excitement. This is usu
By Joy BerryMay 6, 2026My heart is moved by all I cannot save: / so much has been destroyedI have to cast my lot with those / who age after age, perversely,with no extraordinary power, / reconstitute the world.—Adrienne Rich, from Dream of a Common Language (1978) and #463, Singing the Living Tradit
By Melissa JeterApril 29, 2026“From the body’s viewpoint, safety and danger are neither situational nor based on cognitive feelings. Rather, they are physical, visceral sensations. The body either has a sense of safety or it doesn’t.”—Resmaa Menakem, in My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and
By Karen G. JohnstonMarch 18, 2026“This is the world I want to live in. The shared world….This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.” —Naomi Shihab Nye, “Gate A4” from HoneybeeI have heard that the Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzburg has a spiritual practice when she flies. Waiting to boar
By Mary SheldenMarch 11, 2026“How easily my life becomes a list—a long scroll of duties …”—Gunilla Norris, “Planning the Day,” in Being HomeLong ago, when my beloved and I were newly dating, her housemate—social worker, blackbelt, and general wise woman, Cathy Corl—suggested to her a new daily pract
By Becca MorseMarch 4, 2026“We honor the interdependent web of all existence. With reverence for the great web of life and with humility, we acknowledge our place in it.” —Bylaws of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Article 2, section C2.2We’re sitting at the kitchen table, where my niece is t
By Takiyah Nur AminFebruary 25, 2026“I find, in being Black, a thing of beauty: a joy; a strength; a secret cup of gladness.” —Ossie DavisMy family taught me that I come from a legacy of Black agency and excellence. They didn’t sugarcoat our history: I was well aware that, as a descendant of chattel
By Lauren SmithFebruary 18, 2026“We are our grandmothers’ prayers. We are our grandfathers’ dreaming.” —Ysaye M. BarnwellI am the grateful beneficiary of my ancestors’ imagination. Their courage blesses my life and the lives of my children.My great-great-grandparents lived in Wilmington, NC during t
By Ali K.C. BellFebruary 11, 2026“We are powerful because we have survived, and that is what it is all about—survival and growth.” —Audre LordeThriving is deeply embedded in the DNA of my family. My great-great-great-grandma Melinda Benton, on my mother’s side, walked out of slavery in Arkansas a
