By cristy cardinal“An army of lovers cannot lose.” –from “Queers Read This!,” a 1990 manifesto by ACT UPThe picture of the flagpole, bent at a ninety-degree angle, and the small scrap of fabric, edges frayed where the flag ripped apart, snapped me back to reality–the reality where our state governm
By JD Stillwater“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” —Jane GoodallI remember the moment. I shuffled out of my Plant Biology class feeling adrift, feeli
By Erika A. HewittContent warning: racism“So much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” —Adrienne Rich, “Natural Resources”“I don’t know who to vote for,” the woman said over the phone. “My daughter
By Melissa Jeter“Healing doesn’t just occur in the present. When you heal a soul wound, you heal the people who came before you.” ―Resmaa Menakem, in My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and BodiesThe leaves are falling, but I live in what seed companies c
By Karen G. Johnston“Don't fear your mortality, because it is this very mortality that gives meaning and depth and poignancy to all the days that will be granted to you.” –Paul TsongasHow much notice would I want ahead of time before I die?Is it six minutes? Six days? Six months? There are wise one
By Laura Shay“I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.” ―Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things"When my spouse decided to raise Monarch Butterflies, I thought she had gone a bit overboard in her search for meaningful retirement activities. Althoug
By Ndidi Achebe“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than they love themselves.” —Josh Billings (adapted)Frieda was my baby. I remember when, as a puppy, she looked into my eyes the first time I picked her up. She was an old soul who taught me many valuable life lessons from 2005 un
By Meg Barnhouse"Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it." —Haruki Murakami, in Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 StoriesI was at the bedside of a man in my congregation. He was dying. “I don’t know how to do this,” he said. He had been a professor, a scientist. He’d been mean to his wif
By Heather McDuffee"Don't come out unless you want to. Don’t come out for anyone else’s sake. Don’t come out because you think society expects you to. Come out for yourself. Come out to yourself. Shout, sing it. Softly stutter. Correct those who say they knew before you did. That’s not how sexualit
By Shaya FrenchAnd some kind of help / Is the kind of help / That helping's all about. And some kind of help / Is the kind of help / We all can do without. —from “Helping,” by Shel Silverstein, featured in Free to be You and Me (YouTube)It’s Day Twenty-three of summer and my friend still does not h