If I were asked to choose a personal theme for this past year, mine would be The Naming of Things. Over and over, this theme has presented itself within and around me, and this push to name what I am learning and experiencing has led to life-changing transformation. In late 2020, I sought out an ADHD assessment, after identifying lifelong patterns that had gone misunderstood and unaddressed. I kept thinking, I wonder if there is a name for what is happening in my brain and body? Rather than feeling constricting, being offered a name and a paradigm freed...
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I am incredibly privileged to be asked to be on our church's committee to help guide our reparations initiatives. Each member of the Reparations Committee has been asked to share with the congregation about our ongoing conversations, and I get to go first. So I thought I’d start at the inevitable beginning, the first questions we asked ourselves in the committee, the first questions anyone asks when we talk about reparations. What are we seeking to repair? Why is it our responsibility to repair it?
“My...
We now welcome back to the blog our occasional guest, the chicken. (By the way, for those concerned, our backyard birds are just fine. They don’t mind the cold.)
I recently cracked open the book Why Did the Chicken Cross the World: The Epic Saga of the Bird That Powers Civilization, by Andrew Lawler. I was especially drawn to the chapter about chickens in early America. It turns out this is especially pertinent in this month of honoring Black history. It also has connections with our ongoing conversation about reparations.
British settlers brought chickens to...
Junior youth made soft pretzels today. We learned a little pretzel history while we worked. Here are a few photos.
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Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Our worship theme for this season is Repent. Repair.
Repentance is a perennial feature of Lent. Like any word that’s been tossed around for centuries, it’s helpful to return to its root meaning to remember what we’re talking about.
The Old Testament Hebrew word for repent means to turn or return. The imagery is of someone, or an entire people, walking in a certain direction, then doing a 180 and walking in the other direction. In light of Sunday’s wonderful children-centered worship service...