By Jake Morrill“In time the Rockies may crumble /Gibraltar may tumble /They're only made of clay But our love is here to stay.” —Ira Gershwin, lyricist of “Love Is Here to Stay (YouTube)"One night a few years ago, I lay facing up on the frozen blacktop of a parking lot beside the Grand Canyon, list
By Erica Shadowsong“The reward for attention is always healing.” ― Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher CreativityAs a storyteller, I favor myths and folktales. I’ve never been one to tell personal stories. Then a virtual contest opportunity arose that invited me to confront
By Jami A. Yandle"There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in." —Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"I’ve been rejected so many times, in so many ways, that I started to wonder what was wrong with me. It started early when my mom rejected motherhood (me) and chose alcohol instead. The u
By Elizabeth Stevens“Psychological trauma is an affliction of the powerless. At the moment of trauma, the victim is rendered helpless by overwhelming force. When the force is that of nature, we speak of disasters. When the force is that of other human beings, we speak of atrocities. Traumatic event
By Mariela Pérez-Simons“I wonder if much that ails our society stems from the fact that we have allowed ourselves to be cut off from that love of, and from, the land. It is medicine for broken land and empty hearts.” —Robin Wall Kimmerer During my high school years in Cuba, every student needed to
By Ndidi Achebe“Love is like the sea. It's a moving thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from the shore it meets, and it's different with every shore.” —Zora Neale HurstonAbout two years ago, my hometown of Dayton, Ohio became another city to experience a mass shooting—a very traumatic even
By Kimberlee Anne Tomczak Carlson “[T]ales of natural emergence [are] far more magical than traditional miracles. Emergence is inherent in everything that is alive, allowing our yearning for supernatural miracles to be subsumed by our joy in the countless miracles that surround us.” —Ursula Goodeno
By Takiyah Nur Amin“...and what does the Lord require of you, but to DO JUSTICE, and to LOVE KINDNESS and to WALK HUMBLY with your God?” —Micah 6:8 (NRSV)When President Biden was inaugurated in January, most of my white friends thought everything would be okay. I thought different. “There’s going t
By David Kohlmeier“The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.” —William Blake“You may have noticed my painted fingernails. You can thank Ramona!” I joke to the gathered congregation as they behold via my laptop camera, this “Zoom pulpit,” the sparkly blue glittery mess that my 3-year-old has pai
By Li Kynvi“The practice of love offers no place of safety.” —bell hooks, in All About Love: New VisionsThirty years ago, the pink triangle button pinned on my jacket identified me as queer. My T-shirts said “Silence = Death” and “No on 9.” An evangelical right-wing group had gotten an initiative
