Rev. Catharine Is Currently
On Medical Leave

Shifting Stones of Fat and Love

This is a story of a young woman in her twenties, knowing she was powerful, glorious, radiant, sick and suicidal. She was fat, the fattest among her ceremonial colleagues. But she was powerful, physically and otherwise, and she knew it. And this is a story of a femme woman in her forties, no longer physically […]

We Need Change, not Shame

The following is a collection of thoughts that are in response to an email sent out by Mark Silver, the founder of the Heart of Business, and one of my teachers. The headline was, “The Healthy Role of Shame in Business (and in Life).” If you go to the Heart of Business website, you can […]

The Blessings of Limits

Limits. Speed limits. Weight limits. Human limits. I was talking with a dear friend about the concept of limiting beliefs yesterday. For her, the concept of self-care is not about limits; what I call limits are just needs. For her, considering or dwelling on limits is dangerous, as she believes it can keep one from […]

A Taste of My Monday Love Letter

A taste of Reflections this week because it goes with my other posts. And because it’s really where I was, and where my sense of love began to get me through my grief. I also hope it’s helpful for you. And maybe, if you like it, you’ll sign up for Reflections, my weekly meditation on […]

Guilty Pleasures, Love, and Ritual

So I was talking with my wife about guilty pleasures—I’ve been reading 19th-century period romance novels—and she immediately responded, “I don’t feel guilty about my pleasures.” This is a woman who loves all kinds of books:  Memoir, natural history nonfiction, novels from various eras. She also loves movies, many, though not all, of them of […]

Love and Fear: One without the Other?

blooming pink lotus up close on the flower

Oh, oh, oh… What if this? What if that? What if I can’t? What if I don’t? What if they don’t like me? What if they don’t respect me? What if I’m the fraud I’m afraid I am? I struggle with imposter syndrome. Do you? I struggle with worrying I don’t have anything to offer. […]

The Problems of Forgiveness

From today’s Enneathought: “Forgiveness is part of love. Who do you need to forgive?” Have we talked about forgiveness, you and I? I’m not sure. I think that in the course of daily life, in the relationships we treasure, in the ways we hurt one another through ill-meant words and actions and thoughtlessness, forgiveness can […]

Love’s Power in Weakness

I’m stuck. I’m really stuck about what to write to you. I’ve had a really hard day and I’m sad and frustrated and feeling like a failure. However, many of you have written to me and told me how much you value the honesty and authenticity in my writing. Well, this is what I have […]

The Love of Valentine’s Day

Such an interesting holiday we celebrate this week. A holiday ostensibly about love, and yet one that emphasizes loneliness and bitterness for so many, financial pressure for others, and a weight of obligation for lots more. In Unitarian Universalism, many say that we are “standing on the side of love.” There is a whole related […]