I would have loved it as a kid to have a church that encouraged us to listen to our heartfelt yearning of self.

Our family secret is soul-sucking depression.

I never heard the word abortion in church when I was a child.

I named the truth as I perceived it, because it didn’t feel like there was any other option.

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

The harder things are to say, the more necessary they are to say.

It often feels like we’re shouting into the void. It was a gift to be reminded that sometimes someone is listening.

If we aren’t willing to ask the important, uncomfortable, and even scary questions, we won’t get to larger and deeper truths.

I come from a long line of strong Black women. My grandmother used to share stories about how she caused “trouble” in town when a white man hired her to put up the displays in his store window. At that time, all the Black women in town worked as domestics in the homes of white ladies, or in the...

Coming out to my family was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. I realized that my choice was one of life and death, and I needed to let my secret out in order to continue living, and to do so authentically.

America has not yet faced our history of slavery, nor the malicious colonization and oppression of the Indigenous peoples.

Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not, God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is...

We seekers are on a quest: A quest to discover truth and meaning. Sometimes we think we’ve found it— Wrapped up, glimmering with newness Straight off the intellectual assembly line. All the answers right here for us And others, if they’d only listen. But truth has a way of coming in disguise,...

Liking somebody, even loving somebody, is not enough to protect them from shade that you cannot even see, much less understand.

We seek our place in the world and the answers to our hearts’ deep questions. As we seek, may our hearts be open to unexpected answers. May the light of our chalice remind us that this is a community of warmth, of wisdom, and welcoming of multiple truths.

Spirit of Compassion, help us draw strength from all that we are. Give us new language with which to claim our wholeness, a new litany of joy built out of words that wounded.

"How complicated it is to break silence: to open all of the secrets in all of our broken hearts. But silence does break; truth seeks the light. We're unraveling silence because we have determined that our power with one another is greater than the power someone once had over us."

"Suffering doesn't always mean something's gone wrong; it just means you're living a life." —from the Dear Sugars podcast, Sept. 2, 2017.

[Touch hands to your own forehead, if it feels natural] May you be blessed with wisdom, knowledge and understanding. May your intellect take you far on your journey. You have been blessed with reason and free will, it is your call every day to use these gifts. [Throat] May you be blessed with voice.

Our light is the light of the sun, keeper of all we love; our light is the light of the earth, provider of sustenance; our light is the light of all living things, life precious like our own....