Psalm for Losing a Job

Psalm for Losing a Job

The first time I got laid off, I ran to a bathroom to cry. I am quoted in a trade magazine sniveling something about, “but I really thought we were doing good work, producing something valuable.” (For the record, the image of me crying in the ladies room was exactly...
All Kinds of Healing

All Kinds of Healing

It’s impossible – in the middle of a pandemic – not to notice how often the sacred texts of my religion reference healing. In the stories and psalms of my prayers these past few weeks, I can’t avoid words of healing: One psalm sings of the One who “heals all our...
Holiday Music for the Melancholy Soul

Holiday Music for the Melancholy Soul

Winter Wonderland and Happy Place Late November every year, the hunt is on for that box in garage, basement or attic, that holds the music of the season. (Dating myself here, but most of mine is on CD.) My mother did this, too. In my vivid childhood memory, the...
the Shape of Someone

the Shape of Someone

October and November bring, for a number of our spiritual and cultural traditions, rituals to remember the dead. Not all of our relationships are with the living alone. Our ancestors shape us. Our loved ones live on in us. They shape our present and our future ? for...