We had about a minute in, when, June? when we in congregations thought we were on the path to pandemic freedom. I don’t know about you but I definitely was imagining A Return To Normal Church.

This summer has seen a number of natural disasters that have affected millions of individuals and some of our congregations.

When I think about covenant making, I think of Kintsugi.

Back in 1999, each June my family of four would load up our van with a tent, sleeping bags, camp stove, dishes, food and more and head out for wherever that year’s General Assembly was being held….

I keep hearing the word “resilient” and keep wondering what people mean by it. From a trauma-informed lens, resilience doesn’t mean we aren’t impacted. People who go through trauma are changed. Just as all of us have been impacted over the last year.

Last fall I wrote a blog post about bringing my plants inside and setting them up to survive the dark, cold, dry months of winter. I debated whether it was worth the effort to buy lamps and humidifiers or if I should “let the leaves fall” as it were. Here’s what I learned.

When I was a child, I was fascinated by terrariums. There can be something alluring about creating miniature worlds. It’s a chance to observe a world under glass.

By now you’ve probably already seen notice of the New Day Rising National Conference coming to a virtual screen near you on February 27th.

As we enter year two of the pandemic, I and many others are dealing with loss and some degree of broken-heartedness. A trip through my local drugstore reminds me that Valentine’s Day is nigh, and I find myself pondering, are there Valentine’s for the broken hearts among us?

In an end-of-the-year meditation over the holidays, the teacher suggested that we students take what we were grateful for and what we had learned and what had made us stronger in 2020 and bring all of that into 2021, leaving the rest behind.