Fear not, the angels would text me. Hallelujah, I’d write back.

God of our ancestors, may we find the ways in which we can connect across generations.

We hold space for all that Father's Day may mean to us.

We have a holy obligation to bring about paradise on this earth; each generation helps us do that.

May we forever perceive the ways we can empower others.

Happy kids are safer kids, because happy kids have adults they can ask for help.

Every time someone showed up for me, I learned that love is greater than skin deep.

Acknowledging that our dream was not happening didn't end the grief, but it did offer closure.

We light this chalice today to illuminate our way toward Love.

Sometimes it feels like Father’s Day is more about enshrining a myth than it is about facing the realities of fatherhood.

Spirit of Life, remind me to release that which no longer serves me so that I may be present to joy.

Sometimes love is simply letting someone else like what they like.

We cannot begin to find ourselves without love.

Can I do it again? Do I even dare? Do I have the strength? Because the cradle might be empty—again.

This year, the Advent season seems particularly seized by a spirit of the expected, the longing.

In these days of so much uncertainty, may we choose honesty over comfort, love over complacency, and truth over convenience.

One day, I’ll have to care for my mother as she once cared for me. I’m not ready to handle the truth that our relationship must change.

This is a prayer for working parents zooming another meeting with a little face joining in; for new parents, waiting for new life without support; for the single parents, doing all this alone.

What once seemed certain is now unpredictable, even dangerous.

Our conversations about the history of our country—the actions of our ancestors—can be made new and relevant and understandable. We can and must have these conversations.

an original retelling Daedalus was a brilliant inventor, and he had made a career, even a legend of himself for being able to create the seemingly impossible. So when he decided to escape from his tower prison by flying over the ocean like a bird, his son, Icarus, had no doubt he would do it. It...

With a single generous gesture from my older child, her sister's belief in Santa stayed intact that year.

Sometimes grief sends notice ahead of time; sometimes, it shows up as an unwelcome, uninvited guest.

I was a foster parent long before I was a mom, and an inside look at families "in the system" reveals pretty quickly that love and parenthood are two different qualities, and the relationship between them is neither straightforward nor guaranteed....

Who are you going to be, today? And tomorrow? Who are we all becoming, together?

We can’t always predict which choices will wind up having a huge impact on us, whether it's bringing home a stuffed animal or taking a particular train to Oxford Circus.

Traditions and habits can be changed or broken and that’s not always bad. It doesn’t mean we didn’t learn or like what we did in the past, it just means that we moved on to something else and that’s okay too.

What, exactly, are we doing when we invite love into our lives? Surely we know that it's much tidier without it, when things stay at a distance.

A white woman pulled over and ran over to me with a shopping bag. As I looked down at the bag, I had very mixed emotions.

Our family prays at mealtime to practice gratitude in our lives. I love that my children are taking it as their own, finding their own meaning.

This is a story of in-the-middle for those wondering how their story ends.

Black people are so accustomed to being ignored and invisible that a simple acknowledgement—a simple I see you—from a peer goes a long way.

As the child leaves the doorstep, the parent prays: Please, keep my child safe, And give me the courage to let them go out to explore the world. The child prays, Watch over my parents while I’m gone, And help them believe that I really do know what I’m doing. The grandparent prays, Thank you for...

For all the mothers and mother figures The grandmothers, aunts, and extended family members who mother The soon-to-be mothers, the wish-they-were mothers, the never-wanted-to-be mothers, the “it’s complicated” mothers The birth mothers, foster mothers, adoptive mothers, stepmothers The “used...

I’d gotten in the habit of keeping my head down and hardly noticing where I was or who was around me. On this day, I decided to greet the world differently.

Tell me the story of my birth, and help me understand how you were changed the day I entered the world. Help me know love, deep in my bones.

My heart broke the day my son stood in the bathroom crying. He handed me a pair of scissors and told me to just cut it. I told him how beautiful his hair was and how sad I would be to see him cut it.

Being faithful doesn’t mean endless work. It also means attention to the movement of spirit that can appear as an hour of sleep, the truth of a toddler, or a donut in the middle of the day.

"We want our children back. There are too many gone too soon." In December 2017, Rev. Jason Shelton was invited to lead singing at the fifth anniversary of the Newtown massacre, at a vigil in front of the headquarters of the NRA. He wrote this song of lament for the occasion, because he couldn’t...

I spent time feeling embarrassed—that somehow I had failed—because I had filed for divorce. It’s been over nine years now, and I wake up every single day happy with my decision.

"When it comes to our children, we do not have the luxury of despair. If we rise, they will rise with us every time, no matter how many times we've fallen before. I hope you will remember that the next time you fail. I hope I will too. Remembering that is the most important work as parents we can...

Once upon a time, a baby was born. Even before that baby was born, there were people waiting and wishing and hoping for that baby. The people who were waiting and wishing and hoping for that baby didn’t know exactly what that baby would be like. And so, they wondered: Would the baby have a smile...

My oldest child was confused: why would no one stop and help us? Even though people weren’t stopping to help us, my son said, he wanted to be more like me and stop to help someone anyway.

“It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a child with autism to raise the consciousness of the village.” —Elaine Hall, educator and parenting coach My three-year-old is almost completely nonverbal. Every day when she gets off the bus, I ask her the same question: I ask her how her day...

We, the willing, follow the threads to one another; past rightness and quips and tweets. We will find one another and persist past sunrise.

"Fear's pronoun is singular: I've got to watch out for me and mine. Love's pronoun is plural: we're in this together, and together we can grow things that will blossom even in a time of drought." —Kathleen McTigue My son, Caleb, and I went to Starbucks on a recent Saturday morning. We often do...

What DO we do in the face of evil? Anything. Everything. Pray, protest, bake, hug, grieve, wail, laugh, explain, linger, research, fight, cry. What we absolutely must not do is ignore it.

Dear Moppies, Maddies, and Babas; men who have given birth, women whose children still call you Daddy, queer parents of all genders and none, There isn’t a holiday set apart for us. We’re reminded of that twice a year. But I see you. I see you next to your wife’s hospital bed, snuggling your...

I believe in the radical idea that men have the full human capacity to nurture.

Today—and on all other days—may we give thanks for the fathers, papas, pop-pops, dads and daddies who represent for us the steadfast presence that holds us in love and launches us into the world, whether we encounter it when we are small or already grown. May we be mindful of those for whom this...