Black Lives Matter: Choose Justice
Lovely words, from Emily Dickinson, words I do not believe right now, today, here, in these United States: “Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all – And sweetest – in the Gale – is […]
“Fugue”
I keep meaning to put this poem here, written for the occasion of my ordination, April 2015, by my brother, Peter Dawson Buckland. You may find it in his book, Heartwood. FUGUE Downstream two sandstone pillars, collapsed legs of an argonath who shouldered raucous trains: people, lumber, coal, steel, gas, and oil. Time brought him down. […]
A Body of Initiation
O Mighty Dead, for me from Whom my body and spirit have come to be… O Great God Your Femmeself, for me Goddess of my genderpower, beauty, and strength… O Great God Who is Not Gendered, for me the One Who Knows Forward and Backward… O Inexorable! And, as the Bard wrote, “O, for a […]
No Glitter in My Ashes Part II
Glitter, Ashes, and Repentance First, let me say, given everything I said in part one, I need to write this: I love glitter. (It makes many who love me thoroughly annoyed, and with good reasons. But I love it!) It is the season of Carnival, Mardi Gras is coming on Tuesday, and I am wearing […]
Water’s Many Embraces
The Love of Water When I was a small person, before I reached the wise age of 14 or so, I would go for walks. I would sing as I walked: Songs I knew from the Top 40, songs from church, songs from the alternative mixtapes my best friend made for me, or songs I […]
Sweet Sweet Water
In my tradition of Wicca, when we call ourselves to look to the Directions that go out to the horizon, call ourselves to mindfulness of the Elements within us, we begin in the East. We begin where Sun rises and Day begins, with the Element of breath and breezes and gales, of Air. We begin […]
It’s Not Balance We’re After
During the days coming up to the vernal equinox – a day defined by “balance,” I suggest that we consider how we use the term in our lives. What is appropriately called “balance”, and what is really something else? Something less evocative of the moneychanger card in the Tarot, or of those others in the […]
No Longer Playing Small
I know what it’s like to be seen as a freak. I know what it is to be misunderstood, to have to hide parts of myself, to feel embarrassed or even ashamed in a religious community—like who I am isn’t good enough or doesn’t fit. I also know what it’s like to feel the power […]
Thefts of Childhood
Though I don’t often do this, I need to place a trigger warning at the top of this post. It is about the abuse of children by priests. I am a minister. I have learned a lot about the complexities of relationships with congregants, and I am only at the very beginning of my ministry. […]