Julie’s Latest – Page 2 – Julie Henkener – Integrating Toward a Wholly Life

27 Mar

The Mercury 13 – Women Pilots Aiming for the Stars

Book Reviews, feminism, History, NASA, Women No Comments

Since March is Women’s History Month, I thought I would write this blog post about some courageous women pilots who have been largely forgotten by time and are not widely recognized today. I am referring to the history of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees, more commonly known as the Mercury 13. This group of women were secretly evaluated to see if they might be suitable astronaut candidates for America’s first human spaceflight program in the early 1960s. The thirteen women pilots, eager to participate in the space race against the Soviet Union, were subjected to the same rigorous tests that […]

02 Mar

The Figure 8 – Ebb & Flow

Abstract Art, Acrylic Monoprints, Art, balance, Bible verses, psychology, Quotes, Spirituality 2 Comments

Last updated: November 9, 2024 One symbol/model that has been important to me in my personal spiritual development is the Figure 8. When you open your eyes, you can start to see Figure 8 symbols in a few different, critical places. For example, if you have ever been on a sailboat or tried mountain climbing, you may be familiar with the Figure 8 knot. This knot, shown at right, is commonly used as a stopper knot on ships and boats, serving as a temporary knot to tie them off. In addition, the Figure 8 knot is frequently used to attach […]

10 Jan

Hannah’s Vow and Subsequent Song

Abstract Art, Acrylic Monoprints, Bible verses, Old Testament, Quotes, Women 2 Comments

The story of Hannah in the Old Testament can be found in the the first book of Samuel. It is about the vow that she made to Yahweh and her subsequent song/prayer of thanksgiving. It is also about a larger narrative, where she becomes part of God’s greater plan of salvation. In this account of Hannah, we also see the classic biblical movement from barrenness to abundant life, from death to resurrection. At the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Hannah and her husband Elkanah. Similar to other Old Testament women like Sarah, Rachel, and Rebecca, Hannah was […]

06 Jan

Saint Josephine Bakhita

History, Saints, Women No Comments

Last updated: February 5, 2024 Josephine Bakhita (circa 1868-1947,) shown at left, was born into a relatively wealthy family in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region, Sudan in central Africa. At around 7-9 years of age, she was kidnapped by Arab slave traders and was given the Arabic name bakhīta (بخيتة), which means “lucky” or “fortunate.” This was a fairly common name for slaves, and so Josephine Bakhita should not be confused with Sister Fortunata Quasce, the first Sudanese nun, also known as Bakhita Kwashe (1841-1899.) Apparently the image below and to the right is of Sister […]

23 Dec

O Emmanuel – December 23

Art, balance, Bible verses, Music, Prayer, Spirituality No Comments

I wrote a blog post about the O Antiphons in 2019, and I loved picking out the image to illustrate each one. So I have decided to post on the O Antiphons again, in order to highlight additional images and to explore the scriptural roots of the meaningful word images. If you aren’t familiar with the O Antiphons or need a refresher, please check out my 2019 blog post here. Today is the final seventh O Antiphon out of the last seven days before Christmas, in this very late day of Advent intensification. Hopefully by now you are somewhat more […]

22 Dec

O Rex Gentium – December 22

Art, balance, Bible verses, Music, Prayer, Spirituality No Comments

I wrote a blog post about the O Antiphons in 2019, and I loved picking out the image to illustrate each one. So I have decided to post on the O Antiphons again, in order to highlight additional images and to explore the scriptural roots of the meaningful word images. If you aren’t familiar with the O Antiphons or need a refresher, please check out my 2019 blog post here. Today we pray the sixth O Antiphon out of the last seven days before Christmas, in these late days of Advent intensification. We are now just two days away from […]

21 Dec

O Oriens – December 21

Art, balance, Bible verses, Music, NASA, Prayer, Spirituality No Comments

I wrote a blog post about the O Antiphons in 2019, and I loved picking out the image to illustrate each one. So I have decided to post on the O Antiphons again, in order to highlight additional images and to explore the scriptural roots of the meaningful word images. If you aren’t familiar with the O Antiphons or need a refresher, please check out my 2019 blog post here. Today is the fifth O Antiphon out of the seven days before Christmas, in these late days of Advent intensification. With only three days before Christmas Eve, we continue to […]

20 Dec

O Clavis David – December 20

Art, balance, Bible verses, Music, Prayer, Spirituality No Comments

I wrote a blog post about the O Antiphons in 2019, and I loved picking out the image to illustrate each one. So I have decided to post on the O Antiphons again, in order to highlight additional images and to explore the scriptural roots of the meaningful word images. If you aren’t familiar with the O Antiphons or need a refresher, please check out my 2019 blog post here. So today is the fourth O Antiphon out of the seven days before Christmas, in these late days of Advent intensification – just over half way through the week. Are […]

19 Dec

O Radix Jesse – December 19

Art, balance, Bible verses, Music, Prayer, Spirituality No Comments

I wrote a blog post about the O Antiphons in 2019, and I loved picking out the image to illustrate each one. So I have decided to post on the O Antiphons again, in order to highlight additional images and to explore the scriptural roots of these meaningful word images. If you aren’t familiar with the O Antiphons or need a refresher, please check out my 2019 blog post here. Today is the third O Antiphon out of the seven days before Christmas, in these late days of Advent intensification. As Christmas comes yet closer, it’s a good idea to […]

18 Dec

O Adonai – December 18

Art, balance, Bible verses, Music, Prayer, Spirituality No Comments

I wrote a blog post about the O Antiphons in 2019, and I loved picking out the image to illustrate each one. So I have decided to post on the O Antiphons again, in order to highlight additional images and to explore the scriptural roots of the meaningful word images. If you aren’t familiar with the O Antiphons or need a refresher, please check out my 2019 blog post here. So today is the second O Antiphon out of the seven days before Christmas, in these late days of Advent intensification. Are you finding ways to get into the rhythm […]

17 Dec

O Sapientia – December 17

Art, balance, Bible verses, Music, Prayer, Spirituality 2 Comments

I wrote a blog post about the O Antiphons in 2019, and I loved picking out the image to illustrate each one. So I have decided to post on the O Antiphons again, in order to highlight additional images and to explore the scriptural roots of the meaningful word images. If you aren’t familiar with the O Antiphons or need a refresher, please check out my 2019 blog post here. So now, beginning today with O Sapientia, I will be posting on each O Antiphon for the next seven days before Christmas, in these late days of Advent intensification. Even […]

06 Dec

Saint Nicholas Feast Day – December 6

Art, History, Holidays, Saints No Comments

Last updated: December 5, 2024 I am always so fascinated with learning about the origins of the customs we observe and holidays we celebrate and how they evolved and became secularized, especially as they were romanticized on a large scale in the US, during the 19th-century. You can find my blog post about Saint Valentine’s Day here. And a blog post with a bit of food history related to Halloween here. And another on the origins of the New Year’s Eve tune Auld Lang Syne. But today is the feast day of Saint Nicholas, and I am digging into the […]

22 Oct

Mary Magdalene Rises Again

Mary Magdalene, New Testament, Saints, Women 2 Comments

Last updated: February 27, 2026 I was alerted to the recent buzz about Mary Magdalene by my friend Laurie, who sent me this link to a sermon preached by Dr. Diana Butler Bass on the closing day of the Wild Goose Festival, July 17, 2022. In this sermon, Diana mentions research started in 2017 by Elizabeth (Libbie) Schrader, a PhD student at Duke University. Libbie, based on her examination of various early manuscripts, hypothesizes that the name Martha was added to the original story of the raising of Lazarus in John chapters 11 and 12. If this is correct, she […]

10 Sep

Six Month Threshold Update

Abstract Art, Acrylic Monoprints, Art No Comments

Last updated: August 11, 2023 I posted about this threshold/transition of mine back in December, when everything was still pending and I was impatient to get moving. You can read about it here. One thing I wrote is, “This letting go of the life I have built in Houston for the past 32 years will surely be challenging, but I trust that it will make room for new friends and experiences.” And indeed, this is coming to pass, perhaps a little more slowly than I would like, but still. There are so many things to be grateful for here, and […]

31 Jul

Come Into the Factories – We Can Do It!

Art, feminism, History, Music, Travel, Women No Comments

I intended to post this way back in March, in observance of Women’s History Month this year, but obviously that did not happen – in the midst of moving and other entanglements, I definitely did not reach that goal. However, here is what I wanted to share with you. In this blog post, I highlight the dedication of women who supported the World War II (WW2) war efforts of the Allied Forces. Manufacturing jobs in many countries became available to women, as industries transitioned to war production. In September 2021, Andy and I were finally able to use the credit […]

05 May

A Moving Balance

balance, psychology, Spirituality 6 Comments

When I was in my late twenties or early thirties (hard to keep track now….) in Houston, I was thinking a lot about how to achieve balance in my life. I have always been a well rounded person, interested in multiple areas of study and life experiences. So I was trying to figure out how to align all of my activities and interests into some kind of schedule or routine that would balance and satisfy all of the physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and creative components of my life. One day, I rode my red Diamond Back mountain bike over to […]

21 Apr

Cahokia Indian Mounds

History, Indigenous People 2 Comments

I recently learned that there once was an urban complex of Native Americans in the United States that dates back to the 9th century. I had heard of the Mayans, was somewhat familiar with the Aztec civilization that built pyramids in Mexico, and had even visited Teotihuacan when I was in high school. Over the years, I have visited Anasazi ruins and other Native American sites in the southwest U.S. And of course I learned about the decimation of the native tribes across the continent, due to diseases like smallpox, brought by the explorers and settlers. I am aware of […]

05 Dec

Liminal Threshold Process

Acrylic Monoprints, Book Reviews, Spirituality 12 Comments

Sometimes change is our choice and sometimes it isn’t, but either way, change always comes. You can call it change or transition or a crossing or adjustment or a turning point or relocating or course correction or passage or a shift or movement, and if it’s really big, you can call it conversion or progress or metamorphosis or transformation. However, I am calling what I’m experiencing now a “liminal threshold process.” I suppose “liminal” and “threshold” are somewhat redundant, and “process” might be obvious, but nevertheless, that’s what I am calling it. An interesting and thorough explanation of the etymology […]

25 Jul

Sylvia Earle – Her Deepness

Climate Change, Current Events, feminism, Women 2 Comments

Sylvia Earle is an oceanographer and marine botanist who writes and lectures about our oceans and is sometimes called “Her Deepness.” She has led more than 100 diving expeditions and clocked more than 7,000 hours underwater. She was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and has been a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence since 1998. She belongs to Ocean Elders, a group of scientists that is dedicated to protecting the ocean and and the marine life that live in the oceans. She is also President and Co-Chair of Mission Blue, which is a nonprofit […]

20 May

Sea Turtles on South Padre Island

Climate Change, Current Events 2 Comments

Hey. I’ve been thinking alot about climate change recently, the strange weather patterns we have been seeing, and I really think there is no way to overestimate the magnitude of the problems we face. I am especially concerned about how wildlife have become entangled with these unprecedented, human-initiated changes. Hurricanes now come more frequently, and you may have heard about the big winter freeze in Texas in February. Most of the news coverage of the freeze related to homes losing power and heat, and in some cases water. I have relatives in Austin and San Antonio, and I live in […]

06 Mar

The Thread Project

Art, Current Events, Spirituality, Women 6 Comments

Hi friends! Today I would like to share with you a model that outlines seven steps for taking a glimmer of an idea and developing it in a way that can be seen and make a difference at national and even international levels. I learned about this process at a workshop called The Thread Project: One World, One Cloth, that I attended during the WomenSpeak conference that was held in San Antonio in 2007. This conference to “gather the women” was coordinated and led by Paula D’arcy. Paula, the founder and director of the Red Bird Foundation, is a holy woman and […]

14 Feb

Saint Valentine’s Day

History, Holidays, Saints 6 Comments

Last updated: January 15, 2026 I’m always fascinated about how certain holidays come into being and what their roots are, before they end up being commercialized and trivialized into oblivion, a shadow of what was intended originally. So what’s up with Valentine’s Day? You might have an idea that it is associated with a Saint Valentine, and you would be right. The feast days of saints are often holy-days that are celebrated annually on the anniversaries of their deaths. So here’s how Saint Valentine’s life and martyrdom led us to associate it with romantic love and how it morphed so […]

05 Feb

Central Park

Art, History, New York, Travel, Women No Comments

:: Guest blog post by Andy Hong :: Central Park may be the most beautiful city park in the world and is most certainly worth anyone’s time to visit. We would recommend getting a walking guide and spend a couple of hours walking through it. The park was revolutionary for its time (a park set aside for the enjoyment of the average citizen) along with Frederick Law Olmstead’s additional efforts repeated in Prospect Park in Brooklyn and the city parks in Buffalo. With its wonderful history, there are many things to see in Central Park – from the USS Maine […]

22 Jan

Votes for Women – Part 4/4

feminism, History, Women 2 Comments

Last updated: March 15, 2024 August 26, 2020 was Women’s Equality Day, a celebration of the centennial anniversary of the 1920 ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees that, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” This is part four of a four-part series, describing the many years of exhaustive effort channelled by American women into the suffrage movement that ultimately secured voting rights for women nationally. In November 1917, there was a referendum held to […]

27 Dec

Votes for Women – Part 3/4

feminism, History, Women No Comments

Last updated: March 15, 2024 August 26, 2020 was Women’s Equality Day, a celebration of the centennial anniversary of the 1920 ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees that, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” This is part 3 of a four-part series, describing the many years of exhaustive effort channelled by American women into the suffrage movement that ultimately secured voting rights for women nationally. The beginnings of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) can […]

13 Dec

Votes for Women – Part 2/4

feminism, History, Women No Comments

Last updated: March 15, 2024 August 26, 2020 was Women’s Equality Day, a celebration of the centennial anniversary of the 1920 ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees that, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” This is part two of a four-part series, describing the many years of exhaustive effort channelled by American women into the suffrage movement that ultimately secured voting rights for women nationally. Going into the turn of the twentieth century, American […]

29 Oct

Vote!!! It’s urgent!

Current Events No Comments

I know alot of you, like me, have already voted. However, if you haven’t voted yet, please make time for going to the polls. Be sure to exercise your Nineteenth Amendment rights. We all need to be participating in our democracy.

17 Oct

Votes for Women – Part 1/4

feminism, History, Women No Comments

Last updated: March 15, 2024 August 26, 2020 was Women’s Equality Day, a celebration of the centennial anniversary of the 1920 ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees that, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” This is part one of a four-part series, describing the many years of exhaustive effort channelled by American women into the suffrage movement that ultimately secured voting rights for women nationally. It is widely agreed that the milestone that best […]

26 Sep

Karankawa Indians in Texas

History, Indigenous People No Comments

Last updated: August 15, 2023 In September 2020, I enrolled in a virtual class – a series of Zoom meetings to discuss the possibilities for gesturing towards de-colonial futures, and when I wrote this, I had just attended the first 2-hour segment. There were 5 additional meetings over the course of the next year – one every two months – in conjunction with a group called Sisters of Earth Emerging. My first “assignment” was to discover more about the indigenous people who once lived where I currently reside. As a kid, I lived in Ohio, California, and finally Texas. Because […]

21 Aug

The Courage to Be Seen

Abstract Art, Acrylic Monoprints, Art, Book Reviews, feminism, Quotes, Spirituality, Women No Comments

On a daily calendar I used four years ago now, on Thursday, March 24, 2016, the quote attributed to Brene Brown reads, “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” This quote arrived just two months before I launched this blog. It’s getting a little easier, but in some ways I am still finding that it does indeed take courage to allow myself to be seen. Creating this blog and including personal stories definitely keeps me on my toes. I operate so much in my secular life, that showing pieces of my spiritual self in public feels intimidating. […]