Sometimes it’s just time, and the first of the year seems to be optimal timing for a fresh start. This is my last post on soul fabric. I am retiring the domain. For many years I worked in the web development industry but for the last five or more years, I moved away from that field and have focused almost exclusively on writing and marketing. Late last year my website went down and I had to hire GoDaddy to fix it for me. On January first, as I was preparing to export all posts from 2023 to bind into a book, it went down for a short time again and I thought ‘it’s time.’ I am a writer. It is who ..read more

One thing that lights me on fire is reading interpretations of the Bible that bring it into the context of our current lived experience. This story of Jesus’ birth, from Sacred Belonging: A 40-Day Devotional on the Liberating Heart of Scripture, does just that. It’s beautiful, breathtaking and real. Enjoy as you ponder and reflect in this season of Advent: I’ve often said that the Bible is a book written by men, for men. Throughout the centuries most of its interpreters and preachers have been men as well. It’s no surprise then, that the story of the incarnation—and its rendering and interpre ..read more

We live in a world that teaches us to follow the rules. We live in a world that teaches us to trust ‘authority.’ We live in a world of propaganda. We live in a world of capitalism and of greed … I would even go so far to say that we live in an alternate reality, a matrix of sorts. We live more by the rules of the world than of God’s will. And who can blame us? It’s what we’ve been taught. It’s the water we’ve been swimming in since the establishment of this country. It’s embedded in our cells, in our DNA. And if you’re an American like me, you’ve been taught this is the greatest country in the ..read more

I have been in the season of Advent this year … Reading. Writing. Praying. Contemplating. Waiting — expectantly waiting. Yes, we wait patiently, expectantly this time of year. We know the story … The prophets of old tell it. Mary says ‘yes.’ Joseph says ‘yes.’ A child is born. A star guides the wise ones. The child grows up, performs wonders, shakes things up a lot, asks people to follow him, dies in a brutal and unjust way, rises to conquer death, and a movement is established in the years that follow. “What did we just witness?” the first Christians asked. They knew in their bodies that it w ..read more

I went to dinner last night with a group of girls, four who are close friends and three I didn’t know well. I knew before I went that it would be a challenge for me because of my HSP (highly sensitive person) tendencies, but I wanted to go. I wanted to spend time with beautiful friends celebrating the holiday season. Upon arrival, I met two of the women unknown to me and we sat at the bar waiting for the others. I engaged in casual conversation with one of the women I didn’t know; she was lovely, but … But here’s the thing … as the evening went on, I grew more and more tired and angst began to ..read more

“Your children are not your children. They are sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you. And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living a ..read more

All we have is a sense of awe and radical amazement in the face of a mystery that staggers our ability to sense it…. Awe is more than an emotion; it is a way of understanding, insight into a meaning greater than ourselves. The beginning of awe is wonder, and the beginning of wisdom is awe. Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for the … mystery beyond all things. It enables us … to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense ..read more

For the last several years, I’ve chosen a word for myself during a journaling exercise completed close to the end of each calendar year. For 2023, my word was ALIVENESS, and this word showed up for me in a big way. In fact, it showed up in an extreme way I’d never want to invite again … being profoundly sick for a full two months this summer — the biggest lack of aliveness I’ve ever felt in this lifetime. I chose the word because I wanted to feel fully alive, present, completely IN my life. I didn’t (and don’t) want to miss the magic. Interestingly, the Center for Action & Contemplation’s ..read more

I reflect often about life … why I do certain things, why I am drawn to particular actions and repelled by others, and I’ve realized through the years that when I over-question, it stops the flow. Sure, it helps to get at meaning, but excess is just that. In all things. I wonder if our world of excess plays into these tendencies within us … like increases like. These noticings have helped me to lean into embodiment when it happens … letting things be, posturing my body toward ‘just being’ instead of overthinking. And this leads to the journey that God has been taking me on all along … Throwing ..read more

One: And so are we gathered here, uniquely in all of history, we particular people in this singular time and place. All: Accomplish your purposes among us, O God. Tune our hearts to the voice of your Spirit. Wake us to be present to you and to one another in these shared hours we are given. For it is you, O Holy One, who have so gathered us from our various places, and you alone who know our hearts and our needs. Among us are some who arrive anxious, some who are lonely, some who suffer pain or sorrow. May we in our joys find grace to enter the sorrows of others. Among us are some who arrive r ..read more