I’ve written before about how I slept with a bedside lamp on (not just a nightlight) until I was 11 years old. As a child, I was prone to having nightmares about things I had read about or watched on TV. I saw shadowed ghosts in the hallway outside my bedroom. I saw...
When I began planning my crazy Birthday Month of Connections event series, I seriously wondered if anyone would show up. It’s summer, and people want to be outside. People are tired of being on Zoom. “People wouldn’t be interested in hanging out for my birthday,”...
I have a very good friend who I call when I’m having a lot of feelings. They tell me that they treasure these rambling voicemail messages that usually start sometime like, “I’m having two or three feelings at one time, and I’m not quite sure what to do …” So the fact...
***** Upcoming events! ***** The ideas in this blog are indebted to a number of people of color who have been writing, thinking, speaking and teaching about anti-racism much longer than I have. Here are a few links and resources that really influenced me this week:...
I wonder if part of my annoyance with Christmas lights going up earlier and earlier in the season is because they obscure the darkness we actually need to rest and grow. Glaring lights that we put in our porches, trees and balconies may bring temporary holiday cheer,...
Because I love the Christian season of Advent that leads up to Christmas, I will again be writing each week of Advent a piece around the week’s theme and inviting you into a spiritual practice with me. Early morning darkness comforts and relaxes me. In the pre-dawn...
If I've done the Holy Week thing right, I really, really feel relieved and happy on Easter morning. I can hear the birds chirping out my window as if for the first time. I appreciate sunlight, even if it is obscured by clouds, in a way I never thought possible. The...
I find myself in need of a confession: I feel hopeless about the church sometimes.Those nagging, fatalistic thoughts invade my psyche often after yet another phone call in which well-intentioned church folks replay the blow-by-blow of their latest church conflict....
This is part of my Listening in Lent series in which I reflect on my experience of practicing listening during this holy season. This winter I’ve really come to love the kind of darkness only present in the pre-dawn hours. Admittedly, I’ve always been a morning...
The horrific and heroic images at the bomb site on Boylston Street near the finish line at the Boston Marathon will be seared in our collective consciousness for decades to come. Just like the images of the World Trade Center attack on 9/11, school shootings at...
Rev. Nicole Havelka kicks off the Iowa Conference UCC Advent devotional series with a little inside joke here among the Iowa Conference staff. Then, she invites you to answer the question, "What are YOU hoping for?"