by Dr. Crystal L. Hall Here’s how you know this article is for you: You’re telling yourself that if you read your emails but don’t respond to them on your day off, you’re not “really working.” You tell yourself that if you take your vacation, you’ll be behind when you return, and it won’t have […]
by Melissa Woeppel I live in Lindsborg, Kan., a small city of just under 4,000 people. The city is affectionately known to many as “Little Sweden, USA.” In the late 1800s, Lindsborg was settled by immigrants from Sweden, a history and heritage that continues today. Each year, the city hosts a Midsummer’s Festival in June, […]
by Sarah Carson It all started as any typical day does in my household. I woke up around 5 a.m. and made myself a pot of coffee. I spent some time in the living room reading and writing (on this day: Thomas Lynch’s wonderful book of new and selected poems, Bone Rosary, which I highly […]
by: Ralen M. Robinson The hymnist sings with a raspy timber, “Oh, freedom, Oh, freedom Oh freedom over me And before I’d be a slave I’d be buried in my grave And go home to my Lord and be free Oh, freedom” These soulful words reverberated throughout the civil rights movement and through generations as […]
by Mary Button Lately I’ve been meditating on 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” This verse comes at the end of one of the […]
by Jeanette Bidne Jeanette June Bidne. That has been my name since birth. Yet, after marriage I was repeatedly asked, “So, what was your maiden name?” I smile and repeat the exact words, Jeanette June Bidne. My name hasn’t changed. Sometimes I wonder if people have assumptions about me when I share those exact words […]
by Collette Broady Grund Over the last year, I have spent a lot of time with groups and individuals who are processing grief. It’s an unfolding vocation as I continue to process and integrate the sudden death of my husband in June 2019. Sharing what I have learned and opening space for others to do […]
by Ralen M. Robinson “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” -Galatians 3:28 The words begin to flow, but before my tongue can caress the vowel and my mouth can shape the word, I am spoken over from […]
by Valora K Starr Everything. That’s what The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have told us today as we honor his life and reflect on his message. Growing up, I witnessed my parents, whose eyes were glued to watching television (black and white then), read newspaper articles and attend community rallies during the […]
by Susan Schneider When my friend Robin was getting divorced she found herself drawn (pun intended) to sketching a Depression-era photograph of a man with a plow. She said there was something about working with that photo by Dorthea Lange that comforted her—something about the farmer’s strength in pushing forward into the future despite bleak […]