• It’s 2024

    It’s 2024

    I have never waited so eagerly for the mark of a fresh start. To be clear, I didn’t actually finish all the things I wanted to finish and “leave” in 2023… I’ll still be attempting to wrap those up in January, but the thought of newness is appealing still. This year I turn 40. I…

  • Advent Week Four: Love

    Advent Week Four: Love

    (Full disclosure: I am back-dating this post. It’s already 2024 as I write this but I was preoccupied with many things at the end of the year that I did not get to write this. I’m channeling that week in my memory as I write this; it is not realtime.) I’m finishing the year feeling…

  • Advent Week Three: Joy

    Advent Week Three: Joy

    I got to experience joy this week. Weeks of hopping from church to church, while exciting in its own way, can be exhausting for the soul. This past Sunday we visited Minnow’s church in Harlem called Renaissance. It was such a great Sunday to visit. I know every Sunday will not be like this; Minnow…

  • Leaving a church as a kind of immigration

    Leaving a church as a kind of immigration

    I was chatting with a friend recently who likened the idea of leaving a church as a kind of “immigration.” This idea intrigued me. Because one of the first questions I hear people ask when anyone leaves a church, “Are they still Christian?” and similar questions that I believe are very shame inducing. I don’t…

  • Advent Week Two: Peace

    Advent Week Two: Peace

    “What does peace mean to you in this season?” I paused, unsure how to answer this question. Surely I feel the strife and tension in the world; those answers come quickly: wars cease, no more violence, mutual understanding, etc. But what would make everything right in myself? Some of the things I think will make…

  • Advent Week One: Hope

    Advent Week One: Hope

    There are certainly conflicts in the world seeking resolution that overlap with Advent longing. Palestine/Israel. Hamas. Hostages. Genocide. Ceasing ceasefires. It’s tragic. I suspect that, like the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, it’s duration will test and stretch my capacity to hope. Yet while I don’t think I can properly speak to the complexity of the…