Posts Tagged ‘patheos blog’

2014-01-02 There was a time I thought I was in hell. It was Texas. I had dropped out of school and worked stocking bulk at a grocery store. As part of the job, before dawn once a month, they made us show up to get our morale boosted, which was seen as directly related to…

2013-11-21 A group from the local Hindu temple recently contacted me about jointly celebrating the 150th birthday of Vivekananada, the Hindu priest who took the World Parliament of Religions by storm back in 1893 and introduced Vedanta Hinduism to the Western Hemisphere. Vivekananda spoke at the congregation where I serve as senior minister, the First…

2013-11-10 You’re wanting to know about the crucified squirrel. But first, here’s what happened to my Christmas lights. I lived in Iowa City, in a second-floor walk-up over Iowa Ave. Without any warning, November was here. Late fall in the Midwest is like if the planet Venus ends up shoved to the back of the…

2013-08-02 At 7:44am, one year ago today, our Little Bean finally came out into the world, with what felt distinctly like a “plop!” From that moment on, things have felt like they are both, at one-and-the-same-time, in slow motion, and speeding by. The first six months sometimes included what felt like the longest days I…

2013-06-14 I am going to have to go back to work eventually. I mean, two women and a baby can’t make ends meet on one part-time income in Washington D.C. forever, even with a lot of family and denominational support. I’ve been aware of this since before R was born, thinking about it, trying to…

2013-03-11 There is growing attention within Unitarian Universalism to the calls for justice coming from behind prison walls. There are a growing number of UU ministers and congregations getting authentically involved in the work to put an end to the New Jim Crow, a framing popularized by Michelle Alexander. Many congregations across the US are…

2012-11-22 Somehow the Thanksgiving plans turned out different than we expected. Like most folks in the US, my images of Thanksgiving include big tables groaning with food surrounded by family and friends. That’s not just a Norman Rockwell fantasy for me. My family both gets along well and cooks well, and Thanksgiving dinner is always…

2012-11-28 We have, at last, come off of a whole string of days officially or unofficially designated to tell us what to do with our money. There was Black Friday, when we were supposed to go shopping; and Buy Local Saturday when we were supposed to spend more money, but this time with local merchants…

2012-12-06 We’ve reached the season of the Christmas list. Children far and near are making careful notes as to what exactly they would like Santa to bring them. While these lists contain an amusing variety including the improbable (a pony!), the impossible (a griffin!) and the heartbreaking (a military parent home for Christmas) as well…

2012-12-16 Tomorrow morning in the congregation I serve, we will open our worship for all ages with these words: There are a lot of good and beautiful things in our world. There are a lot of scary things in our world. Sometimes we feel great joy and a lot of hope. Sometimes we are brokenhearted…