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Random
I climbed a tree today. An old silver maple with perfect, low limbs. Why don’t more 44-year-old women climb trees? I don’t feel 44. I feel late 20’s. Maybe it’s because I know I still have so much to learn. Why am I not getting carded anymore? The view from the top of that tree…
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In Need of Jubilee: Reflecting on Mass Incarceration
By 7:30am, my six students and I were on our first of two buses that would take us across town to the southeast neighborhood of Washington, D.C. We were proud of ourselves for catching the right buses and making the hour and fifteen minute commute successfully. No small feat for anyone trying to get to…
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Protecting our Hopefulness
I just returned from a trip to Washington DC where six students and I studied the issue of mass incarceration. I will write more about this trip soon, but for now I just want to highlight the inspiring work of Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson is a lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice…
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The Mindful Life
Last week I taught a class about “The Mindful Life” at my college. Mindfulness is rooted in the Buddhist philosophy that only the present moment exists. The future does not yet exist. The past no longer exists. Therefore, we should focus our energy and attention on that which is real, the present moment. Personally, I…
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A Reason to Live, Even in February
It’s hard to love life in February. All I see on my drive to work is the grey sky mixing into the grey snow that melds with the grey cement of the cracked and salt-stained road beneath my wheels. Black branches poke and scratch the sunless sky as I begin to look for color—any sign…
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You are Alive: An Ash Wednesday Sermon
What follows is my meditation on Psalm 30 for our Monmouth College Ash Wednesday Service. I realize I am slow coming to this, but apparently the zombie apocalypse is a thing. My eight-year-old son came home from school the other day and asked, “Mom, where will you go during the zombie apocalypse?” Hmm….can’t say that…
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Who is setting your intentions?
It is 9:21am and I have yet to check my email. This is new. Please don’t worry, though. I’ll get to my email. I ALWAYS get to my email. But I needed to make a change. Last week I scheduled a call with my writing coach, Christine Hemp (who I realize also serves as my spiritual…
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Holy Listening with Stephen Colbert
I am a fan of Stephen Colbert. I am even more of a fan after watching his interview with DeRay McKesson, a leader in the Black Lives Matter movement and the new Campaign Zero, this past Monday on The Late Show. Colbert introduced himself to McKesson as possibly “the whitest person you’ve ever met.” Then, after a…
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Refusing to let God Vanish
A poet friend posted this quote to Facebook last week. It was the anniversary of a difficult miscarriage and she posted this as a prayer that her grief enlarges instead of diminishes her. This struck me as a beautiful sentiment and so typical of a poet. I keep turning to the poets for the way…
Teri McDowell Ott 