I did this back in 2021, but it still does a pretty job of expressing different ways that I show care and love to myself. How I express self-care: UPDATE 12/7/2024: I recently found out this idea of a “self-care rainbow” comes from illustrator / artist Decade2Doodle / Steph Ferrell Crigler. Original source.
Category: The Spirit
Bella is Gone But…. Meet My New Motor Scooter!
A week and a half ago, my luck with Bella the motor scooter finally ran out. Bella was stolen from a motorcycle parking lot in SOMA in a brief 20 minute window while I was getting dinner at the new IKEA food hall. It really really sucks to lose her. I had a lot of…
Quakers as a Shared Culture and Epistemology
I have long ruminated about the challenge of living in a digital society where we no longer seem to have a common culture that roots us. It feels like, in generations past, Americans had a more universal experience where we did the same things (e.g. bowling) and consumed the same media (the Bible, the three…
Old Wounds into New Material
Years and years ago, a close friend made me a scarf that I never wore. It was just a too big for me and not really my style. Then they abruptly ended our friendship in an unexpected and painful way that left me feeling deeply hurt and confused for awhile. But out of some weird…
“The world breaks everyone….”
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
“Find Your Light”: The Importance of Being Seen
A Friend brought up at Quaker Meeting a few months ago the theater term “find your light.” Kaily Hansen and Ruthie Fierbird define it this way: This means you are in the dark on stage and need to step into the light. The only light that follows an actor is the spotlight. When a spotlight…
“For this World” by Walter Rauschenbusch
A member of my Quaker Meeting, Stephanie Rauschenbusch, shared this wonderful poem written by her grandfather Stephanie Rauschenbusch in 1957. It very much speaks to my condition. O God, we thank thee for this universe, our great home; for its vastness and its riches, and for the manifoldness of the life which teams upon it…
The Public Universal Friend — a non-binary, Quaker-raised evangelist from the 1700s
I’ve been a Quaker for 26 years and only now learned about the Public Universal Friend. The Public Universal Friend is hard to describe. They are considered by some to be the first transgender evangelist, by others the first American-born woman to lead a religious movement, by others a controversal non-binary preacher during the Revolutionary…
Spiders in the Box of Chocolates
I have this one pretty gross memory as a kid that exemplifies my parents’ attitudes toward possessions. My cousins and I were gathered at our house for some occasion, probably Christmas, which we typically hosted for our extended family. My mom brought out a box of fancy chocolates for us to share. We opened the…
Do Small Things with Great Intention
Jim Morgan, a beloved member of my Quaker Meeting was memorialized today. One of the remembrances was a message Jim gave where he stood up and said simply, “Joy. I am feeling immense joy.” Such a short statement, but so powerful in its brevity and eloquence. This is a reminder to me that whatever expression…