Native Viewpoints on the Southern US Border
As I noted last week, I’m focusing on reflections from a recent Border Summit during Advent. This week, I want to focus on the voices of two Native American tribal leaders who spoke to us about the particular realities of life on the US-Mexico border for people whose...
God’s View of Borders: Advent Reflections
The week before Thanksgiving, St. Philip’s Church hosted the second annual Border Ministry Summit. My role was to be available as a spiritual director, and the Holy Spirit bore witness to some interesting and wide-ranging conversations about a variety of borders. I...
Gentrification and Thanksgiving: Pondering a Slice of American Life
Recently we took a pre-Thanksgiving week of vacation in San Diego. On Saturday morning, we went to Barrio Logan, a Hispanic neighborhood we’d learned about online. While we’d read interesting things about the area, we didn’t see much happening, other than a really...
Celebrating Local Desert Artwork
Recently, Henry and I spent a Sunday afternoon in the small town of Tubac, Arizona. Like a number of smaller western towns (such as Silver City, New Mexico, where we used to live), Tubac is surviving, even thriving, by encouraging the development of a tourist-based...
To Rescue Cacti and Fleeing Migrants
Henry and I are members of the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society. We joined this educational organization when we moved to Arizona, wanting to learn more about the various cacti in our new neighborhood. In addition to monthly educational meetings for adults (which...
Celebrating and Supporting Young Souls
This past week we celebrated Halloween. The Christian church followed that with celebrations of All Saints and All Souls. It’s the time of year—at least in the northern hemisphere—when many plants are dying, or appearing to succumb to mortality, although in many...
Accepting Our Mortality
I’m focusing on mortality this week—but not because of Halloween. This coming Saturday, I’m leading a workshop for a rather unusual retreat. St. Philip’s Church is hosting an All Souls’ Day Retreat: “Embracing Mortality: Christian Perspectives on Death and Dying.” The...
Living as Loving Companions in Christian Community
With this post, I’m concluding my series on community. I’ve pondered priorities, society’s challenges, and sharing our gifts. In this post, I’m going to reflect on one process for living as loving companions in communities of all kinds, including Christian. Many of...
Sharing Our Gifts in Christian Community
As I explored last week, American society does not encourage mutual support. The multiple rules and regulations which govern our social fabric make it more difficult for us to live as the first Christians did, distributing our abundance as gifts to the entire...
Receive a complimentary download of Shirin’s latest e-book, Lakeside Lessons when you sign up for her enews!