Rev. Catharine Is Currently
On Medical Leave

Phoning it in after the Elections

Dear hearts – As they’d say in the nineteenth century, “I fear you have the advantage of me,” but then again, you may not. I write to you from November 4th, when the United States Presidential election remains undecided, runoffs and litigation and recounts abound. Trump supporters yelling outside a polling place, “Stop the vote! […]

A Story of Weight Stigma

(The below was originally a Facebook post from 26 September 2019) So, I learned from Be Nourished’s blog that it is Weight Stigma Awareness Week, begun in 2011 and currently supported by the National Eating Disorder Association. As it is the week for it, I suppose it makes sense for me to share some of […]

Come and Be One

My dear comrades –   Today’s tiny, short video includes a song written by our own comrade, Eldritch, many years ago. It was also sung at the Stones Family Gathering over Labor Day weekend, a festival to raise a 3-ton trilithon gate on the land at Stone Song Center in Flintstone, Maryland. Roles, ropes, sledges, winches, […]

Oppression and The Way of the River

My dears, my heart is heavy today. In various ways, my Unitarian Universalist colleagues of color, trans and non-binary colleagues, colleagues with disabilities, and fat colleagues have spoken up today talk about bias, harm, and ongoing injury in our ministerial association. (UUMA) There is so much harm done in ministerial circles….and these are allegedly circles […]

My Study Window

After a vulnerability hangover from doing some big educational and emotional labor around No Diet Day, today, I give you my joy. Today, I find that I cannot write about what we should be doing, or shocking revelations of how I have survived. Today, I give you my delight, and I recognize that sharing delight and joy is […]

My Beltaine message to you

Beloved, O Beloved!  It is the first of May!  It is Labour Day across much of the planet.   It is (no doubt in response to the above) St. Joseph the Worker Day.  It is the day on which many of us grew up with May Queens and crowning statues of Mary, Queen of Heaven, with […]

Testimony of Chaos Part II

You mean I’m not lazy, stupid, or crazy? — book by Kate Kelly, Peggy Ramundo, and Edward Hollowell Beloved – Last week, I began telling you my money story. So many of us carry so much shame around our money stories that I thought it might be helpful to just “put it out there.” That […]

The False Banality of Trauma

(Not in the mood for more painful things this week? By all means scroll down…) I find it difficult to write to you this week, not because there are not things to write about, but because I am unsure how to write about them. I am unsure how to broach the topic that is the […]

Mad for Poetry

Beloved- This week, I am mad for poetry. Typo: “made for poetry,” and perhaps that too. I met Maya Angelou when we brought her to speak at Penn State in the mid-nineties. I was in the front row, and I had had the chance to talk with her before her appearance. What a giant. I […]

Mad for Poetry

  If you enjoy this blog, why not receive your spiritual boost for the week in your inbox! Click here to join The Way of the River comrades who receive Reflections, my weekly love letter! Beloved- This week, I am mad for poetry. Typo: “made for poetry,” and perhaps that too. I met Maya Angelou when […]