I met with my spiritual director this morning, and we spent a lot of time talking about the guilt I feel for not doing more to resist and oppose the unbelievable wave of toxicity and threat that is sweeping over the US.

( I mean, I am doing things. )

Some of you may remember how, just over a year ago, I won a raffle to choose a sermon topic at my church, and I chose "spirituality of the body, fleshly spirituality." Well, the minister finally gave that sermon this past Sunday! And before it, as part of the service, I read ( a blessing for the body )

I continue to alternate between working my ass off and staring blankly into space when my brain finally completely slips its gears. (With a few other things jammed in there as well, like, Saturday we unpacked Geoff's grandparents at their new home in a seniors' residence. Sad in some ways, but unquestionably the best -- and only possible -- thing ( Read more... )

When I decided to apply to become a lay chaplain for my Unitarian church, which would mean, among other things, performing weddings, I had to spend some time thinking about what I think weddings are for, what I think marriage is for. Is there anything really special or unique about marriage? There are the legal consequences of legal marriage, which ( Read more... )

(Although it's not my primary subject, I do mention suicide in this post; if that's something you'd rather not see mentioned, skip ( Read more... )

I did a funeral today (which is why I haven't responded to any of the comments on my last post - sorry, the call came in an hour after I posted, and there went all my free time for the next two days). I thought I wrote a pretty good service, but I don't think it was my best eulogy; I felt I didn't say enough that was specific and personal, didn't ( Read more... )

I did a wedding recently for a couple with some pagan background and a strong sense of the holiness of nature. The text I wrote and delivered (according to their guidelines) spoke of the garden we were in as sacred ground, of the divine power of love and the divinity that is present wherever people gather for the sake of love, and of the couple as ( Read more... )

At church this past Sunday, one of the speakers said something about how religion aims to ask, to investigate, the big questions, such as "Why are we here?" Which is almost always the example question that gets used in such contexts, isn't it? And I realized that, for me, that question misses the mark. It's not that I think it's the wrong question ( Read more... )

Two days ago I went to a holiday party at a friend's house, where we ate homemade pizza, and ice cream sundaes in commemoration of the solstice, and we sang -- in deference to the resident strong-minded four-year-old -- "We Wish You a Merry Rocketship" and "Frosty the Fire Truck." ("I want a nother song about a 'mergency vehicle ( Read more... )

Last week, while I was crashed on the couch sniffling and wheezing (not that I'm not still), I read through the decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia to uphold Canada's anti-polygamy law as constitutional -- specifically, as not in conflict with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.I'm very disappointed that the judge ruled that ( Read more... )