Fourteen years ago, I was pregnant with William Valentine. I had no idea what to expect. I knew only that I was in a body, and it was pregnant. Things happened to me, to my body, that seemed extrinsic to… Read More ›
family
What’s Your Choice? by Karen Leslie Hernandez
Choices. Many times choices are difficult. Some of the time choices are easy. I have had a rough year. Probably one of the most difficult yet in my adult life. I began this year with an offer of a job,… Read More ›
Vayigash: Lessons from Joseph’s Behavior by Ivy Helman
Parshah Vayigash covers Genesis 44:18 to 47:27. It involves the reunification of Joseph with his brothers and his father, the immigration of Jacob’s entire family to Egypt and Joseph successfully leading Egypt through famine. In other words, the parshah provides… Read More ›
A Precious Gift by Natalie Weaver
This has been another hard month. I don’t feel it to be hard. I just know objectively that it is. The typical challenge of balancing my work with the children’s needs and the management of a household has been intensified by the onset… Read More ›
I Was Brainwashed to Believe I Wasn’t Human. Now I’m on a Mission Against that Cult-Part 3
Trigger warning: rape, sexual assault, domestic abuse, graphic sexual content In Part 1 of this story, I introduced a discussion of Johan Galtung’s theory of cultural violence as it relates to my experience as a young woman in an abusive… Read More ›
Remembering Ginny by Esther Nelson
My husband’s stepmother, Ginny, died last week. She lived several months past her 97th birthday. Here is her obituary. Ginny shared her life with three husbands, outliving each one. Three sons were born from her first union. She then married… Read More ›
Time to Stop Talking by Esther Nelson
One of my Facebook friends—someone I’m quite fond of—posted the following remarks given by her pastor, Dr. Jim Somerville, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, to the congregation on July 15, 2018: It was Thanksgiving 2016, and my brothers and I… Read More ›
We Don’t Need Armed Guards, We Need Grandmas by Karen Moon
(Written the day after the Parkland high school, Florida shooting.) Last night, my husband and I went outside to our driveway to sit in the car and have a beer. Those of you with lots of children will understand that… Read More ›
Carrying Our Mothers by Christy Croft
The past few weeks, I’ve been sitting with the many layers held by the concept, and the manifest reality, of mother, mothering, and motherhood. Mother is seen in the divine feminine, in the cosmos, and in the sea and the… Read More ›
Grieving through the Holidays: Painting Holy Women Icons of Grief by Angela Yarber
The holiday season is a particularly difficult time for grief. Whether it is grieving someone who died earlier in the year as you celebrate your first holiday season without them, or the lasting memories of loved ones who are no… Read More ›
In Memory of Joseph R. LaGuardia: The Good and Faithful Servant by Gina Messina
There are so many massive tragedies in the world that need to be addressed at the moment. However, for me, there is only one that I want to write about today and it is the passing of my dear friend,… Read More ›
The Last Time, by Molly Remer
I lie in bed with him, cementing the details in my memory. The way the morning air is heavy and green. The sound of last night’s raindrops continuing to drip from the overfull gutters on the roof. The insistent stab… Read More ›
Family, Interdependence, and Mutual Support by Christy Croft
Over the past few months, a precious person has come closer into my family’s life in such a way that their presence in my home, among my loved ones, has come to feel natural and easy. This is someone I… Read More ›
Breaking Down the Concept of Arranged Marriages by Vibha Shetiya
One of the first things my American friends and family ask me when they learn I used to be married to an Indian man is: was it an arranged marriage? I understand the intrigue, the bewilderment and even horror that… Read More ›
Remembering My Saints by Katie M. Deaver
My mother and I have always been very interested in our personal connection to the spirit realm. This connection, for us, is an important one. We pay attention to the signs and messages that remind us of our continued connection… Read More ›
My Turn: A Femifesto by Marcia Mount Shoop
It’s coming up on a year now that pretty much everything changed in my family’s life. My over twenty years of married life, up until last year around this time, our lives had been built around my husband’s job. John’s… Read More ›
Down on the Farm by Carol P. Christ
In the past week I visited Cherry Ridge, Honesdale, Wayne, Pennsylvania in the Pokonos, where I was welcomed by my third cousin Marcia Perry Gager whose family never left the place where our ancestors settled. Marcia and I have been… Read More ›
What If Jesus Had Gone to Daycare? by Katey Zeh
As a maternal health advocate, I cherish the season of Advent as an opportunity to connect a beloved Christian story to the lives of women today who struggle to bring new life into the world under horrific circumstances. Every year… Read More ›
Four Days of Bliss (or How I used The System to beat The System) by Vibha Shetiya
I’m not particularly fond of my periods – they’re painful, full of cramps. But they are a part of who I am, and I’m not going to apologize for them. We women, especially those of us belonging to the sub-continent,… Read More ›
Six Degrees of Separation, Hungarian Royalty Chefs, & A Trip to Lens Crafters by Natalie Weaver
We were playing six-degrees of separation, I think. I don’t know if there are rules to follow. It was after dinner, and we were talking about people we had encountered and their linkages to others. Surprisingly quickly, we found ourselves… Read More ›
Winter Solstice Meditation by Molly
When the wheel of the year turns towards fall, I always feel the call to retreat, to cocoon, to pull away. I also feel the urge for fall de-cluttering—my eyes cast about the house for things to unload, get rid… Read More ›
Family Ties by amina wadud
Some of you may be familiar with the time honored curse: “May you grow up to have a child exactly like you…”? I know, no one is exactly alike, but the point is, some of what we put our parents… Read More ›
A Family Conceived, Lost, and Resurrected by Gina Messina-Dysert
Good Friday marks the second anniversary of one of the most significant dates in my life – the adoption of my daughter, Baby S – who by the way is no longer a baby (she will be turning 5 this… Read More ›
“Inheriting Our Mother’s Gardens”: Trans/lating, Trans/planting and Trans/forming Life by Sara Frykenberg
This Friday, March 7, 2014, the Women’s Caucus (WC) of the American Academy of Religion, Western Region will be hosting its annual “Professional Development Panel and Workshop” in Los Angeles, CA. During the workshop panelists and attendees will consider what… Read More ›
Struggles of a Catholic Feminist Mother by Gina Messina-Dysert
Maintaining a Catholic identity as a feminist has been a challenge. There have certainly been times where I have walked away from my tradition frustrated by teachings that are oppressive to women and LGBTQ, but I have always come back. … Read More ›
Birth Song, Life Song, Death Song by Molly
“A woman can spin a primal umbilical rope within her womb through which she passes life-energy to the future.” –Melissa Raphael “In some indigenous cultures of the Americas there is the practice of finding one’s death song while alive. This… Read More ›
Mindfulness of Putting Ourselves Down by Oxana Poberejnaia
From the Buddhist point of view, all phenomena are conditioned, i.e. they arise, carry on, and come to an end because of other phenomena. Buddhism does not look at anything we experience as “things”, but rather as processes. Confusion arises… Read More ›
Luke 12:51-53: On the Verge of a Paradigm Shift by Lache S.
I remember being quite happy when my values about body, faith, and purpose lined up with those of my parents. With the support of my Protestant evangelistic community as well, I was “bold and fearless,” not caring who might judge… Read More ›
Thinking About Thanksgiving by Carol P. Christ
Thanksgiving evokes deep memory and raises questions about what we are celebrating, now that we know the stories we were told about the Pilgrims and the Indians are not the whole truth about America’s early history. I thought about all of this as I… Read More ›
What Was Your Childhood Religious Tradition And Do You Still Follow It? by Carol P. Christ
Recently, in an interview with the Women’s Living History Project of Claremont Graduate University, I was asked: What religious tradition did you identify with as a child and how did it impact your childhood? and: Is your tradition the same… Read More ›
