Blog Entries Dress-Down Friday for June 7, 2019 I’ve got some fun links to share today: I read Austin Kleon’s book “Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad” and really enjoyed it. It came at a good time for me where I feel that my creativity has been languishing and as
Uncategorized Discerning Endings New beginnings are hard. Endings may be even harder. It is hard to say goodbye. It is hard to see all the hard work, all the investment evaporate before our very eyes. It is hard to know when to let go. Some endings are not hard. Some endings are more
Featured Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation Revelation speaks to the reality that we are caught in the fray of cosmic conflict. We are guilty. We’ve already been contaminated. But it’s not too late for us to exit empire and enter the kingdom. We are yet both victim and victimizer. We have healing work to
Uncategorized New EBook is Out! Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance Hi Everyone, I’m so excited to announce that my new EBook from Barclay Press on the book of Revelation is now out. It is available through Amazon.com. Check it out!
Quotations An Inward Sea by Howard Thurman There is in every person an inward sea, and in that sea there is an island and on that island there is an altar and standing guard before that altar is the ”angel with the flaming sword.” Nothing can get by that angel to be placed upon that altar unless
Blog Entries New Book on Revelation “Resisting Empire” Coming Soon I’ve been working on a book about Revelation that offers a different perspective then the “Revelation as End-of-the-World” interpretation. This book, Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation, published by Barclay Press, is coming out very soon and I wanted to give you a heads up to start watching out
Featured Four Key Aspects to Understanding Renewal in Faith Communities “Kindness eases change Love quiets fear” ― Octavia E. Butler In a lot of my classes and work at Guilford College, I talk about renewal. I think that much of my work is focused around renewal, not because of a failure in the institution but because change is constant, change is
The Cultural Pedro the Lion Rises from the Ashes With Phoenix With ‘Phoenix’, Pedro the Lion’s David Bazan Emerges from the Mines of His Interiority : NPR: By offering up his own interior narrative, Bazan holds a mirror to the self-mythologizing we all do in retracing our own steps. To write Phoenix, Bazan spent time in the namesake city; the soaring
Featured Becoming Facebook Free I’ve struggled with Facebook for some time. For about the last 2.5 years, I’ve basically wanted to deactivate my account and have even downloaded all my information from it more than once in preparation but then I chickened out or lost my motivation. So I’ve settled
Creativity End of the Year Reflections We had some friends over for New Year’s, which was a lot of fun and just the right way to close out the year. Having a variety of people from across various social groups gather and enjoy one another’s company was a very real way for us to
Featured How to Not Always Be Working by Marlee Grace I got this lovely little book for Christmas from a colleague and read it over break. How to Not Always Be Working: a toolkit for creativity and radical self-care by marlee grace is a gentle but profound book on the connections between, work, creativity, and caring for ourselves in this
Featured Conducting an Annual Review I posted this article last year on a different blog. It’s still pretty useful and worth sharing here for those of you interested in doing an annual review or learning about the process I follow. Some things have adapted or changed for me in the past year but this
Blog Entries Enneagram Journaling Exercises I am a big a big fan of the Enneagram and have been using it more and more lately in my work for my own personal growth and self-awareness, as with my work with students, and staff. As I was taking some time for reflection at the end of the
Blog Entries On Learning How to Lose It occurred to me recently how hard it is for people to lose, to give up, let go, or just admit that maybe they had it wrong. Why do we fight tooth and nail to get our own way? While this may not seem all that new, the part of
Renewing Faith Yoda on Renewing the Tradition I was re-watching The Last Jedi with the family yesterday and the scene with Yoda and Luke at the Sacred Tree with all the old texts hit me like a ton of bricks. Yoda is totally convergent, wanting to see the tradition renewed and remixed, while Luke is seen here
Uncategorized Introducing Fireweed Coffee Co. This past summer I decided to create a little side-project, roasting coffee and selling it at our weekly farmer’s market and online. Some of you are aware of this, but I have never announced “Fireweed Coffee” on Gathering in Light. The purpose was to really make a creative outlet
Travel My Most Memorable Travel Moments The best moment of any trip, for me, is when I first step foot off the train (or boat, or plane, or bus, or tuk-tuk, or horse, or…). The whole of the trip is in front me, ripe with possibility. Now Leontes’ eyes were at last opened to his folly.
Dogs Meet the office dog, Taco Taco is a Corgi who lives with Eva. There was a law in the city of Athens which gave to its citizens the power of compelling their daughters to marry whomsoever they pleased; for upon a daughter’s refusing to marry the man her father had chosen to be her
Renewing Faith Rebuilding Faith Community W hen we think about renewal and “rebuilding” our faith communities, practices, and programs we are a part of, it is important that we focus on the strengths and places of life so that we are building on that which is most alive, rather than spending so much time or
Featured On Traveling in the Ministry Learning How to Travel in the Ministry: The Past Bears Weight on the Present This is a post I’ve been wanting to write about my traveling in the ministry with Lloyd Lee Wilson, a member of Friendship Friends Meeting and North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative) this past June. It
Miscellaneous Welcome to the Gutenberg Editor Of Mountains & Printing Presses The goal of this new editor is to make adding rich content to WordPress simple and enjoyable. This whole post is composed of pieces of content—somewhat similar to LEGO bricks—that you can move around and interact with. Move your cursor around and you’
Blog Entries Upcoming Visit to the Pacific Northwest Dear Friends on the West Coast,Recorded Minister, Lloyd Lee Wilson and I will be traveling to the Pacific Northwest in June. Our goal is to travel in the ministry “in the old style,” no program, no agenda, just show up, share in worship together, and see what God might
Uncategorized On Bogus Religion and Elitism I came across this passage in my reading this morning and it struck me. Like so many things, this connects to some of the things I’ve been working on and thinking about these past few months. Back in January, I went to a great workshop with Soulforce on “Christian
Teaching Leadership Amongst Friends – An New Online Woodbrooke Course I am co-facilitating an online course on Leadership Amongst Friends with Zelie Gross and John Gray, two Quakers from the U.K. The webinar begins on 23rd April and will go until 13th May 2018. How does leadership work in our non-hierarchical Society of Friends, and what does it mean
Uncategorized New Quaker Studies Publications Out For those of you following this blog, I wanted to share with you two recent publications that I’ve worked on this past year in case you have interested in finding out more about them. Quaker Studies: An Overview: The Current State of the Field Authors: C. Wess Daniels, Robynne
