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December 2025

December 08, 2025

Prayer as Heartful Listening: How Music Awakens Love and Awe

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” —Berthold Auerbach Rethinking What...

August 2024

August 27, 2024

When I Encountered the Spirit of a Loved One

Roughly seven years ago; late-summer day under a New Mexico sky, the blue of which...

April 2024

April 24, 2024

Reverend Taylor and the Church of Swifties

For many millennials (not to mention others), Taylor Swift is a religious experience. One such...

April 03, 2024

Why Humans Do Ritual: Finding Meaning in Everyday Practice

I didn’t intend to become a spokesperson for tradition. Of those who know me best,...

March 2024

March 27, 2024

How Animals Teach Us to Love

Of late, some of my closest companions are animals—several cats and one dog. With...

October 2023

October 09, 2023

Why Stewarding our Talents Starts with Gratitude

Whenever I talk about parables, I include the same reminder: a parable is a snapshot,...

September 2023

September 29, 2023

When I Encountered the Spirit of a Loved One

Roughly seven years ago; late-summer day under a New Mexico sky, the blue of which...

September 12, 2023

We Are All Ministers: Reflections on My Anniversary of Ordination

Last Sunday marked the anniversary of my ordination to the Episcopal diaconate in a pandemic,...

September 05, 2023

What Does it Mean Today to ‘Take Up Your Cross’?

What does it mean in our context to “take up one’s cross”? And how is...

August 2023

August 29, 2023

Sharing Your Gifts is Essential to Human Flourishing

In last Sunday's gospel lectionary passage, Mt 16:13-20, we read about Peter receiving the “keys...

August 23, 2023

When Joy is a Field of Wildflowers: Adopting a Perspective of Abundance

Over half of my life I operated not from a perspective of abundance but scarcity....

August 16, 2023

Why it Matters that Mary was Like You

This week, our farm acquired a rooster needing a home. He is big and bantam,...

August 09, 2023

’32 Flavors and Then Some’: On the Benefits of Being a Generalist

In talking about his book Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialist World, David Epstein...

August 04, 2023

When Unmoored, You Search for Moorings: Why We Are All Religious

For six years in my mid-30s, I stopped attending church. I thought the only way...

July 2023

July 26, 2023

How Stories Use What You Already Know

Let me tell you a little parable. The kingdom of God is like this: A...

July 13, 2023

On Succession, Flannery O’Connor, and the Thrall of Rotten Characters

I am currently in the thrall of Succession, the HBO series that recently ended (and...

July 05, 2023

Reverend Taylor and the Church of Swifties

For many millennials (not to mention others), Taylor Swift is a religious experience. One such...

June 2023

June 29, 2023

What Did Matthew 10:40-42 Mean in Jesus’ Culture?

Understanding the culture behind the scriptures helps much with certain passages. This week’s lectionary gospel...

May 2023

May 31, 2023

Why We Go to the Desert

{These questions—written during the Pandemic—seem as timely as ever.} Sprawled on handmade quilts in a...

May 23, 2023

What is Kabbalah and Why Did Madonna Convert To It?

Though I am no expert on the path of mystical Judaism called Kabbalah, my thinking...

May 04, 2023

What Happens When Americans Pray

Recent research shows Americans pray in droves! I don’t know about you, but I am...

May 03, 2023

Why We Are More Like Animals Than Not

She was nose down in dense clover, tail feathers up and wings askew like an...

April 2023

April 05, 2023

When You Walk Slowly: The ‘Wolf at my Door’ Series

{For the beginning of this series, click HERE} A Buddhist friend once shared a technique...

April 01, 2023

The view from my window: The ‘wolf at my door’ series

{Read the beginning of this series HERE} My bed now faces the large window. The large...

March 2023

March 29, 2023

‘The wolf at my door’: Chronic illness and its spiritual dimensions

My chronic-illness crash came the day my husband fell. Three days earlier we’d driven to...

March 21, 2023

‘God is in the Obstacle’: Hope in struggle

There is something archaeological about moving—the artifacts of past lives and forgotten experiences we unearth,...

March 14, 2023

Even the Right Path can lead through Darkness

“The psalmist doesn't try to explain evil. He doesn't try to minimize evil. He simply...

February 2023

February 27, 2023

Acceptance Lets Us Speak Truth in Love

I keep stumbling upon the necessity of social connection. In news stories on children’s mental...

February 21, 2023

What we look for when we look for love

At times my response to music is Pavlovian. Particular songs can evoke a reaction in...

October 2022

October 08, 2022

“Wade in the Water”: On Trouble, Vision Quest, and the Spiritual Life {Part Two}

These days, many in the US and globally see our collective, national waters as troubled....

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