dear students: you who have been working hard, caring fiercely, showing up for each other and for our tender, aching collective; you who are forgoing parties, and bars, and the gatherings that you’ve anticipated with joy; you who know there’s life beyond football games and tailgating and beer pong; you who are holding the losses that none of us really know how to bear; you who are scared, who don’t know where to take your fear, or your wisdom; you who know shit ain’t right, and are laboring for a world where tender togetherness and creativity are valued above Mine and More; you who have been...

Gentle Presence, Patient Listener, Holy Holder of it all, My prayer is this: I am so sad. It’s not an ask. It’s not a confession. It’s an offering. The only one I have today. I’m praying it with hope. I know grief is a lifeline - tethering me to the world that should be. The one worth fighting for. As a practice of faith, I will not deaden these feelings that let me know all is not well. I will not adjust to cruelty or disregard for life, detaching myself from humanity - mine or others. I will not allow once imaginable scenarios to be turned into everyday losses that no longer pierce my...

Now is not a time for rushing past joy. Do not move too quickly from any good thing: not laughter or a sight of beauty, not a taste, a feeling, a companion, or a truth. These are gifts, not to be wasted. Be generous in sharing. Linger and give thanks. Be excessive in awe. Just, do not hurry through them as if they are not precious in this season of grief. When you encounter the harder things, still, move slow. Open to Wisdom’s guidance through pain. Listen patiently to your fear. Pause, so that the voice of your body can speak. You cannot hurry in heartbreak or loss and hope to make it...

blessed are the joy finders, the joy sharers, the joy tenders blessed are the workers, the strikers, the organizers bending toward collective justice, and survival blessed are the mask makers, the mask wearers blessed are those forgoing convenience and excess for someone else’s survival blessed are the governors, and mayors, and legislators laboring for public health and collective life over profit, ego, and the deadly demands of gun-toting, terror-mongering, evil-doers blessed are the essential workers—yes, yes, the healthcare workers, sanitation workers, grocery store workers, mail...