Our human story began long before this Shattering of glass, metal, and human lives known by its date: September 11, 2001. We do a deep disservice to those lost and those forever transformed by what they took into their bodies and psyches, if we start the story on that tragic morning or we fall prey …
Do not be alone right now. Gather together. Gathering together grows courage: in ourselves and in others who see the numbers swelling. It is a small thing, but it is a thing. Right now, it is an important thing. Great sources of wisdom remind us: just because you cannot stem the tide of all hate, …
June 14, 2016 Shriver Job Corps Devens, Massachusetts I am sad. I am mad. I am afraid. These small words keep repeating in my head and heart. We are here to give voice to our grief because of the lives stolen in Orlando: gay and lesbian and trans lives. Latino and Latina lives. Beloved, cherished …
The blessing for this work is inspired by the poem, Kindness, by Naomi Shihab Nye: Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go …
January 3, 2016 I voice this prayer of thanksgiving and lament. I lift my eyes to it all: bright mornings, cloudy afternoons, disorienting twilights, darkened nights, and dawns of exquisite splendor: for what was I made? In this world where twelve year olds die from impulsive bullets shot from the barrel of a police gun …
What have you longed for with the intensity of homesickness? Of heart-sickness? Of both? Like a child who yearns for home but is at sleep-away camp for the very first time. Like a fleeing refugee, surrounded by the unfamiliar, by chaos, by sounds and smells of some-place-else. When have you longed for a world made …
These are the gifts of this season, let us open our hearts to them: A joyful, hopeful conclusion to waiting and yearning A welcoming of the refugee seeking shelter amongst us Unexpected light in darkness May these be the presents we give and receive May love among all the people and all of nature be …
Inspired by the words of Robert McAfee Brown and Sean Dennison What to do with beauty? or joy, for that matter — in the midst of tragedy, of violence, of cruelty? What do we do with the living? Give each their due. Do not lose ourselves in any of it, but find ourselves …
We gather at this time 3:30, November 22, because Tamir Rice’s family, and our own sense of integrity and justice, calls us to do so. In their grief and outrage, they call us to be our best selves, in the wake of their beloved 12 year old, shot and killed one year ago. …
At my children’s elementary school, there was an annual Solstice pageant. One of my favorite parts was when someone read an adaptation (by Monique Bourgeois) of Judy Bressler’s Servant Candle, which I offer here, in part: A candle alone is a small thing. But one candle can light another -and see how its own light …
Being Servant Candle: Strongest When We Help Each Other Read More »