I’m thinking about a class I just taught. It was a reflection and my end point was that to be truly present to another human being, we have to be able to choose it despite all the things going on in our lives – suffering, pain, distraction, obligations – and choose to give ourselves to […]
Author: Lisa
Why I Love Talking to Old White Women
Me: I have red flags with anyone who feel compelled to tell me, ‘Just so you know, I don’t have a bad reputation.’ Sara: Yeah, it’s just like when a man says, ‘Trust me.’
Poem, “Spiritual 9-1-1”
After a while of ignoring the voices inside your head which threaten you to live more daringly, seek more unknown, push the challenge, and feel more than your skin allows the voices get tired and eventually are silenced and then you are left with nothing but wasted energy that was once spent on trying to […]
What Goodness Looks Like: Remembering Michael F. Wood
What do you see when you look outside your front window or every time you open the front door? My view is a beautiful brick home. A meticulously kept, pretty home with life and goodness draped around it. In that home is a family I admire. Their teenage daughter babysat for Isaiah once and their […]
Mary Magdalen as a Sex Positive Therapist: What Catholic Women Can Learn from the Most Misunderstood Figure in the New Testament
One of the mystifying aspects of my studying the US mainstream feminist movement has been the “sex positive” feminists. In my cursory reading of it (I nearly exclusively read authors on women of color feminism and poetry), my general understanding of it comes from the 1980s Sex Pos movement which came as a – somewhat […]
6th Annual State of the Self Address
Six years ago, I began a tradition to write an essay on my birthday about the past year. I deliver the “State of the Self” the evening of my birthday. Sometimes in front of a party crowd of thirty, sometimes just to Nick. This year, just to my lovely hubby, and two good friends over […]
Lent is About Trying…and Trying Again
It’s well past 9pm and I’m on the internet. I have not been able to keep off the internet as I resolved this Lent. In both success and failure there is always a lesson. These are my lessons thus far from going 0-2 in my Lenten vows: 1) How we unwind at night is not […]
Lent: A Time for Filling Our Lives, Not Emptying Them Out
Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras. Or, for Catholics, “Eat Whatever You Want Because I’m Giving It Up Starting Tomorrow.” Fewer days of the year are as confusing as Fat Tuesday. For us Catholics, after we stuff our mouth with Twix bars and swear off sweets for 40 days, it’s a a time of reflection and preparation. […]
Building A Room of One’s Own
I didn’t have my own Room growing up. At any given time, all the way up until my sibs left for college, I shared a room. That wasn’t a curse, even if at the time I would have argued so. I shared a room once with my brother Fran. Bunk beds with rocket mattresses. I […]
Women of Color Feminists: What You Think I Do
I couldn’t resist contributing to the newest meme going around the internet. Happy Weekend.