We only remember so many of the millions of moments that make up our lives. Certain memories stick like Velcro, and all it takes is a particular angle of wind, a certain tone of voice, or a specific combination of smells, and we’re reliving that moment.

Dr. Ashish Ranpura says we remember “because the connections between our...

Dear D,

I can’t stop thinking about a conversation we had yesterday morning as we ate breakfast on the back patio under a smoky sky. You had just bounded back from the garden where you had been harvesting, filling your skirt with the abundance of the tomato row. When you got back to the table, you held up a tomato and exclaimed,...

I have been contemplating what it means to be “hopeful” the last few days. Where does hope dwell? How does one accumulate more hope? This stems from a wedding I attended last week. Two of my spouse’s former students married each other, and it was a place where hope felt palpable in the air.

During the ceremony, the mother of...

Dear D,

This morning you woke early and came downstairs. I was sitting at the dining room table with my coffee (luckily not full!) and laptop tucked in amongst some partially finished coloring pages and an interrupted game of Genius Square.  

We reached out, like we do every morning, to give each other a hug before heading to the kitchen...

This week Religion for Her is featuring the art of Diane-Blair Goodpasture (www.goodpastureart.com) who has crafted an entire series of works featuring biblical women. This week's social media posts will showcase some of Diane-Blair's pieces from the series. 

As a way to introduce her as an artist to the Religion for Her community,...

Exciting news! I have created a 6 session course entitled “Embodiment is Found in the Stillness.” Five of the sessions are audio recordings and one session is a video of the three Religion for Her co-founders discussing embodiment. There is a detailed workbook with reflective questions included with the course. 

Premise of the...

My husband decided Tuesday night at ten o’clock was the opportune time to passionately relay a familiar epiphany to me. He wanted to volunteer monthly in an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, about forty minutes from our home in San Diego, CA. Over the years he has traveled across the border multiple times (he is Mexican-American and has family...

Reflecting on how biblical literature is trauma-infused, and building our capacity to hold space for the variety of trauma wounding likely present in a room full of people gathering around scripture—these can be rather intense endeavors.

Today I invite you to an interlude for joy; a pause between installments in the “Trauma-informed...

“Trauma is something that touches every human being in one way or another.” This is the statement with which I started my first post in this series, and I want to unpack that statement a bit.

First, let me say a word about what I don’t mean when I say trauma touches every human being in some way. I do not mean to say that...

Dear D,

This weekend I found myself tucked in amidst people from around the world on a narrow bridge, all of us leaning over the concrete rail to catch the best glimpse possible of the world-famous Multnomah Falls. I’ve been stopping here every chance I get for years, breaking up the long drive through the Columbia Gorge to skip up the...

It is my deep conviction that honoring God means approaching the faith traditions of others with a posture of curiosity, learning, and respect. This does not mean that I think all faith traditions are fundamentally the same or that theological distinctives are unimportant. In fact, I think the opposite is true: by exploring the faith traditions...

The memes and headlines, shouting voices and snide remarks making their way across my screen in recent weeks have taken me back to a mantra I recited to myself as a centering practice during the election campaigns of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton: “God is pro-life and pro-choice.” When I was particularly worked up, I would say to...