Blog

Guided Meditation-The Wind Blows Where it Chooses

Taking a few minutes to breathe and feel yourself at home in the world and in your body can enrich every part of you.  Just find a place to sit down and click here.

A Cross Country Parable

There once was *a boy who played a lot of video games. He always got picked last in gym class and he had started to believe he wasn’t ever going to find something he was good at. There once was a girl who had lots of friends but lived in fear they would find out her secret shame. She lived in a household with lots of pain. She wondered if the scars would ever disappear. There once was another boy for whom running came easy. He was good at it, but had never really risked working too hard. It was … Read the full post

Registration Open for Wandering Home 2016

The rhythm of telling and listening, movement and stillness,
song and silence has been very restorative for me
~
It has been grace-filled. The shape of the retreat allowed me to shed layers of hurt and anger and become transparent to joy.
~
I feel like I’m visible again~I found deep unnamed healing
~
It was my first spiritual retreat, but it won’t be my last.
-2014 Wandering Home Participant Testimonials

Wandering Home 2016 will be held at St. Mary’s in Sewanee, TN. Click here for more information and to register.

The Whence of the Isms of (the) U(nited)S(tates)…

I am a contributor to the Feminism and Religion blog.  Here is an excerpt of my most recent post. Thus, when enemies or friends Are seen to act improperly, Be calm and call to mind That everything arises from conditions. -Shantideva, Bodhicharyāvatāra The early Indian teacher, Shantideva, calls humanity to a deeper exploration of the people and situations we encounter. While it may sound simple, his invitation can be very difficult for American mentalities. He is asking us to look at something more complicated than the individual who acts; he is pointing us toward the causes and conditions that give … Read the full post

A Brush with What’s Most Beautiful

Pelicans dive bombing into fish full ocean Sometimes one, sometimes four in tandem Then the dorsal breach of a dolphin startles me My heart leaps You are here Moving, showing yourself, gliding from depths to surface with calm attentiveness More fins, you are never alone. Your pod and the flock linger in this spot where I set up watch First it was just me witnessing you all and the rhythm of these moments Then others stopped and turned and set their sights to catch a glimpse A glimmer of the mystery of a life so fluid, so immediate to itself– filled … Read the full post

Made Well: A Sermon on Healing and White Supremacy

SERMON “MADE WELL” SCRIPTURE: PSALM 30, MARK 5:21-43 BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LAFAYETTE, IN June 28, 2015 The Rev. Dr. Marcia Mount Shoop, Preaching Often the lectionary seems to have providential timing—and this week is a startling example of the mysterious way God’s provisions weave their way through our lives. If there was ever a time when we need to attend to the details and contours of Jesus’ healing touch, it is this week in America. And healing is the main item of business in the passages the lectionary directed us to today. This week in America we’ve gotten to know … Read the full post

The Confederate Flag Is Not the Only Thing That Needs to Come Down

The Confederate Flag flying over the South Carolina capital building was a morally bankrupt phenomenon in our country long before nine great saints of the Christian church were martyred because they were black. What happened in Charleston was white supremacy terrorism. And what’s been happening in the institutions and in the soul of this country for centuries is white supremacy culture. It’s good for the Confederate Flag to come down. But, it’s not good enough. The soul work of the “American experiment” (as America was often called in my high school U.S. history class) is much more difficult, much more … Read the full post

Interview on Modern Day Flappers Podcast

Thanks to Nancy Hawthorn and her “Modern Day Flappers“– “a podcast dedicated to exploring women’s identities beyond traditional scripts,” for the rich discussion about embodiment and redemption (and lots of stuff in between).  Click here to link to the Modern Day Flapper’s website.  Click here to go right to iTunes for the podcast.

A Blessing for Survivors

breathe
that’s the first thing
the healing
muse says

the bitter taste,
the wasting waste,
that is from your brush
with death

the antidote
the anti-venom,
is breath (read more)

March Madness—Can Sports-Fan-Love Translate into Justice for Players?

I am a Kentucky Wildcats basketball fan. I was born and raised in the Bluegrass State not far south of Lexington, so the electricity, the loyalty of being a KY basketball fan goes deep for me. My father got his PhD at Duke and has never faltered in his allegiance to the “other” big blue. Even with a Duke fan in my household, several years at UNC (the “other” hue of blue), and calling many other college towns home, I have stayed true to the UK Big Blue when it comes to basketball! Sometimes people ask me how I can … Read the full post