Spooky Season
I hope you all had a happy Halloween, a blessed All Saints Day, and are enjoying a beautifully sunny All Souls Day. Or perhaps you celebrated Dia de los Muertos. Or maybe you know these holy days as Samhain. Regardless, I hope these days of transition from Fall to Winter…
Trust the Circle
Midweek Blog: Trust the Circle 25 October 2023 “Trust the circle” was a favorite phrase of Rubén Castilla Herrera, best known to our congregation as the organizer behind Edith Espinal’s sanctuary stay in our building. That phrase is also the name of a new book about Rubén’s life: Trust the…
“There’s a thread you follow…”
Here’s a poem I’ve been sharing in a few different circles. It’s fitting for fall, a season when change is somehow felt more deeply in the bone; for this congregation remembering the gift of an elder like Al Bauman; for times of political tumult. The image of the thread gives…
Travel Advisory
Back in June The New Yorker magazine published a weekend essay by Agnes Callard titled “The Case Against Travel,” tagline: “It turns us into the worst version of ourselves while convincing us that we’re at our best.” It’s a well-founded critique. Citing a classic definition of a tourist as “a…
Blessing (of) the Animals
Today is the Feast Day of Saint Francis. Mennonites don’t generally do a lot with traditional saints or feast days, but I know Saint Francis holds a special place in many of our hearts because of his connection with Creation and the natural world. There are many different stories and…
