Our Space
August 11, 2024Hold my space When I’m here When I’m gone There is no line There is always Us, each other
Hold my space When I’m here When I’m gone There is no line There is always Us, each other
Your love In our memories In your music In each other
This uncertain Spring Warm sun rays Tell of carefree summer days. Clouds, wind and snow Winter is not yet ready to go. Cool mists and pregnant rains Dodging ...
Find the scars Agitate like Mars. Little battles within me Keep flowing towards harmony. Scarred tissue gets stuck Losing mobility, yuck.
Be a person who loves all of yourself. Find a person who loves all of you. Love all of them.
Staring into the abyss I start to fall forward down. Branches I hit, ledges too. Obstacles race toward me I throw my momentum left I miss a ledge, that’s suc...
Let them be. The pile of bags is pressed to the wall. There is a man in there. His jacket is caked with weeks of dirt. He may not want to talk or move. Let h...
Driven to the cliff over the abyss. And thrust into the void like this.
Creating a space where one feels comfortable To open their chest To remove their beating heart To cradle it in their hands Mingled with your hands.
Let go! Let go the tension. Let go the nervous energy. Let go the worry. We are safe. This moment is for peace For rest.
I am a lot, Even for me. My mind runs hot. My body feels pressure, Like a fire hydrant Ready to quench an inferno. Ideas flow through my flesh, rising to a r...
Power summons euphoria: Like a hit of heroin, Actively kissing your crush, Or an audience of thousands Singing your song back to you.
Hello brightness, my old friend, Your presence is sure to mend. After a long dark winter, You glisten on the vestigial snow.
Walking down the sidewalk, Lost in my thoughts, Pondering whether to reach out to check on a friend today. My eye catches a spot in the dirt, Nestled among t...
Like sand crabs, Frantically scrambling across the beach, Moving from hole to hole, Escaping the rolling surf, The soaring birds, Any threat really.
I am grateful to the Buffalo Ecstatic Dance community, and to the dancers who inspired this reflection today, February 12, 2023. The first day of spring. D...
The river flows Whether we notice or not.
A team notices each others’ strengths and becomes aware of an individual’s limitations. A team fosters each player’s growth and feeds each person’s living sp...
Vote Vote for someone you like. Vote for someone you respect. Vote for someone who represents you. Vote for someone who gets you.
Life is a dance With each song, we get a little bit stronger. We make friends. We copy their moves. We keep those we like. We make them our own.
Be. Be in this world but not of it. Be like the cat perched atop the wood pile. Be like the rat living in the holes between labs. Be like the dog who goes am...
This attempt to express the sensations of participating in ecstatic dance was written during an outdoor dance. The playlist was titled “All the colors of lif...
We are sometimes the source of our own troubles. Knowing the “right” thing to say is no replacement for how we say it. Irritation, anger and condescension ha...
An idea encased in a body becomes accessible as ink touches paper or as voice forms words.
Over lunch at Big Big Table, Jesse said, “artists see what is and express it so that others can see it as well.” Writing, like other arts, builds up within t...
What does it mean for most of us to feel overwhelmed much of the time?
We each want to be sustained for being ourselves. We all benefit when we are sustained for being ourselves.
My goal is not to meet or exceed others’ expectations.
We are the meek. The quiet. We are the ones who put our bodies and our spirits out there to meet with those persons whom others would choose to forget. We pe...
What does it mean to be paying attention and seeing the world that is trying to be born?
Boundaries, they help us to color within the lines, to paint delicate visions that approach and even embrace each other, while maintaining distinct edges.
Listening to others’ dreams lights me up. I shine as we explore lighting our way by them living into their dreams.
Stress in the body is toxic. It causes pain and weakness throughout. It steals thoughts and drains one’s strength and motivation. So many dreams have died up...
Around the midpoint of my third-ever ecstatic dance, I leaned back into a couch amidst the dance and began reading from More To This Confession: Relational P...
Peace is not an absence. Peace is a presence: a presence of quiet, Safety, Community, Connection, Love, Shared joy, Shared hope, Shared communication, And sh...
Listen to oneself. Listen to one’s body. Above all, listen to one’s thoughts about peace within one’s mind, spirit and flesh. Peace begins within us. When on...
Live for the beloveds we have lost. Live with the beloveds who are here.
I am a person. I am proud of my accomplishments. I have regrets for actions I’ve taken And for ones I might yet take. I love my friends. I am grateful for th...
Quotes from readings in Women, Poverty and Catholic Social Thought
With the Faithful Fools, we often ask students to ponder this quotation.
A Fool speaking truth at City Hall
The Faithful Fools’ mission statement begins, “We are called to a ministry of presence.” At first, I had little idea what presence even meant. Over time, I f...
Where better to begin than with the letter I sent to friends and family about what compels me to go on retreat?
Sometimes I get so involved The room around me melts The people blur, their mouths mute My thing, my focus, my need.
My muse lives within me, Not in a muse-zeum. My muse is not a distant bird To be called and welcomed as a guest. My muse is with me always In my ...
Peace Peace within me Inspires peace within you. Respect and care – that is all.
There is an inspiring and curiosity-provoking book about our attitudes towards and misunderstandings about homelessness in the United States. In this book, W...
I sit here with my tiny brain Trying to comprehend all of this domain. Who am I to inflict my clumsy understanding on anyone, even myself? The spectre of dou...
I spent my 20’s following passions while trying to please others. I followed a prescribed path that kept my mind stimulated and my financial-future secure.
Three years ago, a person with whom I connected poorly introduced me to the Enneagram. As our relationship warmed, the Enneagram became more interesting. The...
Rules to live by
What is more beautiful than looking up at the green maple leaves emerging from the branches of a single trunk to create a canopy unto itself?
Edgar found herself stuck in the snow. Her wheelchair could climb steps and travel for over an hour at speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour, but it could n...
I feel a pin stuck deep into my back spreading me open like a butterfly on a board, constraining my movement, my thoughts, my feelings. I feel crushed under ...
A vampire, seductively touching fangs to skin, offers either a climax to life and a cessation of wants or an unending life of passion and hunger. A neck roma...
Defenestrate the Sesquipedalians that is, throw the big-word users out the window
Walking with my Grandpa Walter was a joy. He was so kind and friendly, connecting with friends and making new friends well into his nineties. He always made ...
How do we build our home?
Remembering Eric Davis:
Share-the-plate announcement for Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo
Written at WRITE ON! on Feb 21, 2023 What more can I aspire to embody than grace? I love this so so much!
Over the past six months, I have participated in several trainings on Conflict Transformation led by Resetting The Table
I felt honored to be asked to lead a service and offer a sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo on August 18, 2024.