In recent years, the struggles of high-profile figures like Simone Biles, Robin Williams, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle have brought the conversation about mental health to the forefront of public discourse.
In recent years, the struggles of high-profile figures like Simone Biles, Robin Williams, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle have brought the conversation about mental health to the forefront of public discourse.
We have all experienced times of crisis, whether we have confronted difficulties, made hard decisions, or gone through significant changes. How we face a crisis varies from person to person; where people turn in times of crisis also varies.
On that Friday afternoon in late August, I had just finished outlining the church’s events for the upcoming program year, color-coding everything with permanent markers in our denominational calendar. I reread my sermon, printed it, and turned off the computer. The phone rang not an hour later.
I try to do one task a day. One day I am painting the paper, finding the right colors, letting it dry. On another day I’m ready to rip it up. Sit and rip, and rip and rip. I rip into similar shapes and sizes, finding a rhythm, making a pile of the pieces.
How does it feel to live amidst climate change? The climate crisis evokes many emotions in people, and it is very natural to feel distressed by it. Terms such as “climate anxiety” and “climate distress” give names for difficult feelings, but more important than the choice of words is the basic fact that people recognize the psychological impacts of climate change.
Sometimes it seems like every day brings a new crisis: another mass shooting, another war, another famine, another statistic on childhood poverty, another political wedge, another divisive Supreme Court decision. Take your pick.
Every good superhero has an origin story. Over the last year and a half, one of my emerging heroes is Doug Kaufman, the executive director of the Anabaptist Climate Collaborative.
The phone rang in my seminary office on a cold March Monday afternoon. The associate pastor of a nearby church spoke in hushed tones, almost whispering. A staff member had failed to appear for a weekly staff meeting, prompting a call to the police for a wellness check.
Cooking is a daily act full of deep connections and significance. Its significance is not as metaphor. Because all the spiritual meanings are inherent in the material parts and process of cooking; in cooking there is already a web of interdependence that connects us to land, people, and our ancestors.