"Silence is Surrender", reads the sign of a local protester When we think of motherhood, our minds can drift to images of snuggling with infants, hosting kid’s birthday parties, and high school graduations. These are some important expressions of Mother Love. However, there is another side to this experience which is just as important. There is a fierceness to mothering that is Divine. This strength could only come from our souls. Mother Love, like Grace, comes from the Highe

So… this has been a year. In the darkest times, light shines the most brightly. Here is a list of my Top 10 sparks of illumination for 2025: Art 1.     Anoushka Shankar’s exquisite EP “Chapter III: We Return to Light” . This is musical joy. Check out “We Burn So Brightly”,  from the release, and this live performance: KEXP . 2.     Grand Egyptian Museum   opened in August 2025 in Cairo. As a child, I visited the British Museum and saw the extraordinary artifacts stolen away f

It took years to become a chaplain. It was a commitment.  However, some days, I ask myself, why am I doing this? This is really hard. The pay is modest for the skill-level, and the burn-out rate is high. The answer is this work takes me closer to the human condition and closer to God. It’s compelling. The part of the job that brings me closer to the human condition is what causes burn out. My hospital, like many, seems to have too many assaults on staff, patients who go AMA (

Humans are not the independent, solitary islands of individuality that we have imagined ourselves to be. We are a unity of beings. I know this because of how good it feels to belong- and how every person I have encountered yearns for connection. I witness the tension, violence, and discord in our nation in 2025, and the suffering and grief they bring. It no longer matters how we got to this point it, only matters that we have. This is the moment when we learn to be one people

When I worked in the nonprofit sector, I learned how hard it can be to do good things in this world. I advocated for arts and...

Like most American women, I was raised watching Disney princesses. Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, and Belle were the architypes, the...

I was at a neighborhood meeting the other night, after finishing my work day. A neighbor noticed my blue necklace, which has a couple...

It must have been nearly ten years ago now that I met with my family doctor at Kaiser for the results of an MRI. The super-charged x-ray...

The day I write this is Juneteenth, a celebration of the liberation of the last humans held as slaves in the United States. June 19, 1865...

St. John Cassian, an early fifth century monastic who studied with the Desert Fathers of Egypt, wrote of eight vices. These vices make...

Alice Walker wrote “Resistance is the secret of joy” in her novel Possessing the Secret of Joy . I was a senior in high school when I...

The American Dream is a simple narrative: people from all corners of the world come to our shores looking for a chance at a better life...

Image from https://jesusbin.blogspot.com/2016/11/pope-francis-wallpaper-free-download.html Pope Francis was laid to rest this past...

Love is at Hand I hear it every day: the fear of people. We all have fear in our lives, but what I am speaking of is a shared-fear of the...

Georg Pencz | Christ Healing the Leper, from The Story of Christ The first patient I ever met with as a student chaplain had leprosy....

My fortieth birthday hit hard. I wasn’t a young thing anymore. I hadn’t achieved the accomplishments in art and writing that I had...

The new light reflected off the clouds and waves this morning. It was an orange crush sunrise. I walked along the little road next to the...

The rain in Olympia feels endless this time of year. This past week it actually was, save for a few moments, truly endless. I took a walk...

Emotions are running high in the U.S.A.; like a tsunami of satisfaction on the Red-side and despair on the Blue-side. Make no mistake,...

I watched a father and his three-year-old daughter walking into Costco today. The little girl was pointing at people passing by, saying...