Category Grief & Loss
Lament of a Campus Minister
Do you remember last week when we complained about welcome events in August heat & humidity? I standby it was miserable for a good cause, but can we go back to that? Can we please go back to swag bags & stickers, QR codes & melted popsicles, bug spray & Liquid IV? Do you remember […]
Blue Christmas & Longest Night Prayer
Emmanuel, God with us, hear our prayers: For those who cannot bring themselves to sing with the choirs of angels this year, For those for whom there is still no room in any shelter, For those who long for an angel to appear in their dreams instead of PTSD flashbacks, For those who have no […]
Welcome to Blue Christmas
A meditation given December 21, 2020. Blue Christmas services are gaining popularity this year, as the world collectively grieves so very much. Yet for some of us, this service has always been sacred. Much like Good Friday services, it’s often one of the smaller ones, a more intimate one, one for those well acquainted with […]
For Those Who See Amy Cooper in the Mirror
Last week a white person asked if my “still being angry about Ahmaud was because I used to be married to a black man.” And I’m so privileged I was shocked they asked, and appalled at the notion that horror over the loss of his life should have a time limit. I replied, “I think […]
Wilderness Improv
The Qwest West 2020 staff was originally planning to meet at Edisto this week to choreograph our May wilderness canyons trip for beloved college students. However, out of adoration for healthcare workers & each other, we are home working on our improv in this current wilderness instead. This photo is from December 2018, when that […]
Birthdays Where the Lost Things Go
It’s been six years since my mom died on my dad’s birthday and a week before mine. We celebrated her life at a memorial service worthy of her faithfulness and flair the Wednesday between our Sunday birthdays. That first birthday and one week anniversary is a blur, though amazing friends tried their best to help […]
Journeys of the Janky Van
“Travel brings power and love back into your life.” I’ve often found this to be true, yet the last seventeen days, Rumi’s words were more viscerally prevalent than ever. While it is impossible to fully express what leading a group of 21 college students on a spiritual journey through the American West entails, here is […]
Gratitude, Grief & Gumption
On November 23, 1982, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since that gut-punch Tuesday, Thanksgiving in our family has been forever different. Years like that, shock and fear greatly outweighed the size of the turkey. And years like that, we wanted to hold each other close and curl up under […]
Unplanned Community at Planned Parenthood
Yesterday I was asked how I can support Planned Parenthood as clergy. I don’t speak for all clergy, but here’s my story: After I learned of my clergy spouse’s affairs, I called my OBGYN and requested an appointment ASAP. Since we had been seeing her for infertility, she enthusiastically returned my call thinking I wanted […]
And Some of the Words are Theirs
Today would have been my seventh wedding anniversary. Instead, it’s the second anniversary marking that our lives no longer one. In many ways, I’ve already given today its due during the eighteen days I was recently in Montreat. He and I worked together on Montreat Summer Staff as college students. He proposed at a dear […]
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