By Rev. Jason Carson Wilson We’re all fabulous creations of God--made in their wondrous image. The Creator, who many know by many names and worship in many ways, sees us all as sensational gifts. How do I know? I know through Jesus, sent to remind us that we are all fabulous in our own ways and that oppressing others is the real abomination. Sadly, so-called Christians--followers of Jesus and God--dismiss God’s love and Jesus’ fight for justice. They have the audacity to twist words no divine entity ever said to dehumanize and demoralize the people those alleged Christians deem less than....

By Anna Blaedel This Lent, I’m lighting candles in a bowl cupping ashes, tulsi, soil, and salt. Elemental. Death mingling with life. The remnants of fire, holding the beeswax that becomes flame. Holy basil, cleansing and healing. Soil, where life begins and ends. Salt of the earth. Salt of our tears. Salt that keeps our glorious, aching hearts beating. I know a poet who recently proclaimed she’d given up Lent for Lent this year. Last year, this year, "it’s enough," she said. And my God, yes. And yet, while she may have given up Lent, she is living the liturgical season. Repentance....

By Stephanie Dorsey *Content Information* - this post writes in the context of a behavioral health hospital and includes references to significant depression. It is January 22. I have just been admitted to the behavioral health hospital. A few moments ago, I was weeping. I am a transgender woman, and among the many hoops I had to jump through for admittance was a "skin test." This is a nice way of saying, "stripping down to your bra and underwear in the presence of two nurses." This I dutifully did; with wet eyes I stood before then, my bulge, which I carefully kept hidden underneath my...

By Anna Blaedel “Having tasted beauty at the heart of the world, we hunger for more,” wrote Nobel physicist Frank Wilczek. I heard these words of poetic truth while shoveling, after a storm covered everything in my little corner of the world with a thick layer of snow. I was savoring the beauty, even though the work of scooping and clearing had me sweating through the cold, my muscles aching. The beautiful hush. The morning light, refracting through light snow, still falling. The tracks left by deer, and other creatures. The anticipation of scooping up a bowl-full and drizzling it with maple...

By Nikkeya Berryhill Here we are, 2021. While we wrapped up December, I watched my friends post on social media how relieved they were to be DONE with 2020. While I did not feel a sense of relief. I thought to myself, “Just because the calendar is changing, doesn’t mean we are leaving behind 2020.” I wanted to be hopeful. As I heard of my physician sister getting the Covid vaccine. As I saw friends of mine, other frontline workers, being vaccinated as well. As I reminded myself we were entering a new presidency. A new era. Where people who look like me might actually have a chance to...

By Rev. Anna Blaedel One of the lovely happenings that has found its way into my life during these last pandemic-months-years-what-even-is-time has been a Czech cooking class that I have taken, on zoom, with my mom. Throughout my life, my mom has relished celebrating our Czech heritage, and passing it on, especially through food. My great-grandparents came here young, and my grandma was born in the house where I now live, a house her father built himself. My grandma grew up in this eastern Iowa Czech enclave, learning English only when she went to school. During the almost 101 years of her...