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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Last updated: September 9, 2023 We are certainly living in some difficult and, for some of us, dangerous times – facing weather disasters caused by climate change, racial violence, economic catastrophe, and a mismanaged viral pandemic. The recent protests, in support of Black Lives Matter, against structural racism and anti-African American violence have erupted across the pages of newspapers, television screens, and social media. I didn’t go to any of the protests, but I do stand with the nonviolent protesters who are demanding racial justice. It’s been a little over two months since the protests were sparked by the excruciating […]
Last updated: August 10, 2023 American author and pioneering aviator, Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001) was born in Englewood, New Jersey. Her father, Dwight Morrow, served in public office as US Ambassador to Mexico and later as a US Senator. Anne’s mother, Elizabeth Reeve Cutter Morrow, was active in promoting education for women and served as acting president at Smith College (her alma mater) in 1939-1940. Anne also attended Smith College, graduating in 1928 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. During her college years, Anne met aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, and they were married at her parents’ home on May […]
Last updated: March 14, 2024 As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have been collecting art images of Mary Magdalene for a long time. It all began years ago when I was looking on the internet for a few images to use in my Mary Magdalene feast day celebrations. It was interesting to see how she was almost always clothed in accordance with the upscale fashion of the times and the location of the artist. In the Middle Ages, it was common to simplify the art to appeal to and educate viewers, many of whom did not know […]
It’s remarkable how the coronavirus crisis that first appeared in January has quickly become a worldwide pandemic that has caused much of the world to go into varying amounts of – whatever you want to call it – a shutdown, a quarantine, a shelter-in-place, a lockdown, an isolation? I know that there are different nuances to these terms, but mostly it just means staying at home and going stir crazy. Still, I’m grateful that I have safe shelter, I’m not at risk for losing my job, and I have plenty to eat. For me, it’s been a full three […]
Last updated: August 10, 2023 Every year on New Year’s Eve, most Americans (at least those of us who don’t go to sleep early) sing Auld Lang Syne just after the champagne is popped and the clock strikes midnight. But – go ahead and fess up, do you actually know all the words? Like most everyone, I didn’t, so I decided to find out and let you know too, so that you can impress your sweetie on NYE…. I also checked up on the history of this tune – since the new year is almost upon us and mostly because […]
Last updated: September 2, 2023 Advent is one of my favorite times of year, and it is the beginning of the church liturgical calendar. There is something about the idea of waiting in that sacred, pregnant pause of Advent that helps keep me in balance, during one of the busiest times of year. I love turning out all the lights except for those on my Christmas tree, lighting the advent wreath, and reading the O Antiphons every night before Christmas, beginning on December 17. If you are like me and have been running around like crazy trying to get everything […]
Sally Ride (1951-2012) became the first American woman in space when she flew as a mission specialist on STS-7 in 1983. She flew a second mission on the Space Shuttle Challenger on STS-41G in 1984. Ride also participated on the boards of both the Challenger and Columbia investigations. Throughout her life, she was a shining beacon of accomplishment and possibility to little girls everywhere. Sally Ride grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Stanford University in 1973 with bachelor’s degrees in both Physics and English. She continued her studies in Physics, and graduated from Stanford with a PhD in […]
Today is Pentecost Sunday, which is the day that we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. It coincides with the Jewish Feast of Weeks that commemorates the gift of the ten commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai. The word Pentecost is derived from the Greek word pentekostos, that translates as “fiftieth day.” The Feast of Weeks lines up as 50 days after the Passover for Jews, and Pentecost is 50 days after Easter for Christians. Immediately after Jesus had ascended, the apostles, Mary, and a number of women were again holed up in the upper room in Jerusalem. They […]
Happy Easter!! Ok, ok I know Easter was a number of weeks ago now, but life is busy and good, and it is sometimes hard to find the time to write. And by the way, it’s totally fine to still say “Happy Easter,” since the liturgical calendar has the Easter season lasting right up until the celebration of Pentecost, which is still 2 weeks away. After my Holy Saturday post on despair, I feel like I cannot go forward now to any other topic before I praise life and resurrection! Anything less would be unbalanced and I do believe there […]
As Earth Day approaches on Monday, I find myself battling again with despair about climate change and what feels like a large increase recently in the number of extreme weather events that it is causing. Today we are faced with an increasing number of cyclones, wild fires, hurricanes, extreme rainfall and flooding, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, desertification and probably a few others that don’t come as readily to mind. According to weather.com, there were 39 weather disasters world-wide in 2018 that caused more than 1 billion dollars of damage each, which is crazy high. The idea that global warming is not […]
It’s no secret that I actively search out books that explore the historical and biblical importance of women and particularly those stories that describe their active participation in building the Reign of God. In many cases, women in the Bible have been marginalized, located at a distance from the central actions described in biblical narratives so that you sometimes need to read between the lines. And in the New Testament, women are often hidden from view, relegated to servile, behind-the-scenes roles that supported Jesus and other leaders in early Christianity. On the other hand, we also have stories of significant […]
Last updated: November 29, 2023 Happy Epiphany 2019! Epiphany is the January 6th feast day that is held on the twelfth day of Christmas and that marks the end of the Christmas liturgical season. This is the feast day where we celebrate the adoration of Jesus by the Magi, who are also called the Three Wise Men or the Three Kings. These sojourners traveled to Bethlehem from the Far East, following a star and bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, in order to give homage to the baby Jesus, the newborn “King of the Jews.” This is my epiphany […]
Mathilda Taylor Beasley educated slaves prior to the Civil War, although it was not legal to do at the time. She also became a Franciscan nun who founded the first religious community for African-American women in Georgia and she opened an orphanage in Savannah in the late nineteenth century. She was named a Georgia Woman of Achievement in 2004 by Georgia Women of Achievement, a private, non-profit organization headquartered in Atlanta. In 2005, Mathilda Beasley was also named as a Georgia Heritage Celebration Honoree by the Georgia Historical Society. This photograph demonstrates some of the difficulties involved in doing […]
Many religious traditions include beads as a part of their prayers and rituals because they help keep track, in an automatic way, of how many repetitions of prayers have been said. Islamic prayer beads, called misbaha, tasbih, or sibha, usually have 99 beads, corresponding to the number of Names of God in Arabic with 2 smaller beads in between each set of 33. The prayers recited include the Subhan Allah (Glory be to God,) the Al-hamdu lilah (Praise be to God) and the Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest.) Members of the Sikh faith use 108 mala beads when reciting […]
Happy October 1 – Feast Day of Thérèse of Lisieux! Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897) was a French Discalced Carmelite nun, who is sometimes referred to as “the little flower.” She entered the Carmelite monastery in Lisieux at the age of 15 and cultivated a spirituality of littleness. This humility can be seen in her prayers, poems and spiritual writings that together comprise a spiritual approach often called “the little way.” She was beatified in 1923, canonized in 1925 and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1997. Thérèse of Lisieux was born Marie Francoise-Thérèse Martin […]
As I mentioned in my July 22, 2018 blog post on Mary Magdalene’s feast day this year, I have been collecting pins of MM art images on my Pinterest account. It all began many years ago around 2003, when I started looking on the internet for a few images of Mary Magdalene to use in her feast day celebrations. Now of course, there has been an explosion in the availability of art images online, and my board of MM images has already grown to over 500 pins. In any case, in this collection process, I started finding unusual images of […]
Happy July 22 – Feast Day of Mary Magdalene! Unfortunately, the timing was bad this year for hosting the MM feast day ritual at my house. I am heading off to Santa Fe soon for a long weekend with my family to celebrate my sister Lori’s fiftieth birthday. So this feast day I just thought I would offer a few comments regarding some resources related to MM that you may be interested in. Andy and I recently returned from a trip to Spain, and the last place we visited before coming home was the Prado Museum in Madrid. It’s been […]
Julian of Norwich (circa 1342-1416) was an English anchoress, a mystic and theologian. She authored the first book written in English by a woman, based on visions she had received when she was very ill and near death. She lived in a two-room anchorite cell, attached to the Church of St. Julian in Norwich, the second largest city in England at the time. She had a window overlooking the church altar so that she could participate in Mass and receive communion. In addition, she counseled visitors who came to visit her, including Margery Kempe, a contemporary pilgrim laywoman who wrote […]
:: Guest blog post by Andy Hong :: If you don’t know Andy’s favorite thing to do in NYC, you really don’t know Andy. Everybody wants to come to New York, head up to Broadway, and go see some “based on the animated movie” musical. We do love seeing Broadway shows and getting discount tickets at South Street. Still, you can spend $300 per person to see “The Lion King” in its fifteenth casting….or…..you can spend $100 per person to see the greatest musical talent on the planet with inspired performances from performers that are close enough that you can […]
Earth Day was established in 1970 by Gaylord Nelson, US Senator from Wisconsin, who conceived the idea to hold a nationwide teach-in, in order to call attention to the need for environmental protection. This was partly in response to the massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California that occurred in January 1969. Also in 1969, the Cuyahoga River in north-eastern Ohio that feeds into Lake Erie became famous for being so grossly contaminated that it “caught fire.” At that time in history, cars used leaded gasoline, industrial air pollution regulations had not yet been legislated, and the ocean shorelines, lakes, […]
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672,) born in Northampton, England to Thomas Dudley and Dorothy Yorka, was arguably the first writer in colonial America to be published. Anne wrote from the perspective of a Puritan woman who was both educated and devoted to seeking meaning within her religious heritage. In addition to her many household responsibilities, she wrote poetry, much of it focused on the details of a seventeenth century American woman’s life, her struggles in the new land, and her Puritan faith. As a child in England, Anne was very well educated. She received tutoring in history, natural science, literature, and several […]
The celebration of the World Day of Prayer (WDP) originated in the 19th century, as women from the US and Canada began developing various means to support the participation of women in missionary activities, both at home and worldwide. As early as 1861, women began founding women’s boards to encourage the engagement of women in prayer and leadership within their mission organizations. Presbyterian women in the US, led by Mary Ellen Fairchild James in Brooklyn, called for a day of prayer in 1887, and a Baptist day of prayer for foreign missions was initiated in 1891. A committee of delegates […]
I usually love writing the Christmas letter I send out with the holiday cards every year. It gives me a chance to look back on where I moved or didn’t move in the last year and it also affords me the opportunity to look forward to beginning again. Honestly, this past year has been difficult, tumultuous and full of challenges on many levels. Sadly, Andy’s dad passed away, as well as our beautiful dog Sarah. And Andy dislocated his shoulder while we were white water rafting during our trip to Costa Rica, which eventually led to his neck surgery (which […]
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