This may seem like a short review of the book, but it’s hard to describe the book without giving away too much. I can tell you that I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of the book and I read over the course of a weekend. It was captivating from the first chapter. The story is probably accurately described as an allegory, because most of the character names are applicable to either their current or future role in... Read more
I suppose we had romantic thoughts when we bought the hummingbird feeders. Like most things, it was more complicated than we thought including the delicate dance to hang the feeders full of sugar water without dripping it all over the house and our wrap-around porch. Eventually, it happened and we were able to watch the tiny creature drink from our feeder. They truly are amazing birds. We sat in awe and then set about to try to capture subsequent visits... Read more
Early in my Christian experience I was taught about mercy. We even learned the difference between grace and mercy. I used to explain it this way: Grace is getting something we don’t deserve, and mercy is not getting what we deserve. Mercy is generally understood to be the relief from punishment that we deserve because we are all sinners and miss the mark of God’s standard. Even though the Bible never really taught eternal conscious torment, the message has become progressively prevalent... Read more
October 16th – Online – Free – Reserve a Spot History and Purpose: Last year, the Desert Sanctuary initiated the Nomad 2020 online conference during the pandemic. Ever since that day, I have been dreaming of this event. I wanted to lean forward and look toward the future with all the other spiritual nomads and seekers. I wanted to bring together people with differing vantage points to see if we could see what is over the horizon. To be... Read more
Yesterday, I talked about how I started to evolve out of fear-based parenting. Usually my bad decisions were rooted in fear. If you haven’t read it yet, go back and read it now – part 1. But, through all our struggles we managed to discover a few things that we did right. Learning to be Brave My dad never learned to swim. My grandpa is a person I am connected with spiritually in some strange metaphysical way. I can literally... Read more
I was kneeling down over a flower bed when I noticed my daughter standing next to me. She was poised like she wanted to talk, so I just sat back on the grass. Lily was facing me directly with her hands on her hips, and then, she let me have it! For a few years, I had been telling people that I was paddling my man boat through the estrogen sea, because I had two teenage daughters and I had... Read more
Before we even get started, let me just say this. I know that many of you might have had good experiences with your church. It’s better than a fundamentalist, evangelical church that you know of and you are more accepting, affirming and generally more progressive. I get that–there is a church like that across the street. If it didn’t trigger us because of our trauma, we would probably attend there. I hope Pastor Donna is reading. I am not saying... Read more
Spiritual formation means different things to different streams of faith. Some have more stringent programs and processes to confirm learners to their understanding of spirituality while others might call it discipleship or disciple-making. Most belief systems have some process to form their disciples into a more cohesive group that believes and understands the same things about God and how the world works. I come from a tradition that called it discipleship and every Tom, Dick and Harry had an idea how to do that. They incorporated... Read more
by Laura Forehand Being a Mimi is one of the quintessential joys of my life. This season began with me four years ago with the birth of our first grandchild, Hollyn. About the same time, ironically, I began my deconstruction journey from church, religion, evangelicalism, and God. With that deconstruction came hours of focusing sessions with Dr. Paul Fitzgerald and hundreds of hours of real and raw conversations with my husband Karl. Much of my focusing has to do with... Read more
I think I inherited my inner hoarder from my mother and I think she got if from her depression-era ancestors. Something in us tends to be afraid that we will need those things somewhere down the road. I have a few pallets of stuff in the garage that I haven’t looked at or touched since we moved here 5 years ago. I assume, it must be important because we expended the energy to drag it along from our previous address,... Read more
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